The Belgian has been one of the most consistent drivers in recent seasons and closed with a flourish Mercedes’ participation in street circuits. It is important to remember that the German company left the series to focus on other projects and competitions.

In addition to taking the individual scepter in 2022, Vandoorne was key to the consecutive team trophies, achieving 15 podiums and three victories. Now the racer takes on another challenge with a title-winning manufacturer like DS. The French brand is among the most successful in the series, with two drivers’ and constructors’ championships.

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A Perfect Couple

“I’m very happy to be joining DS PENSKE from next season,” said Vandoorne. “It’s a big change for me after four years at Mercedes, but I’m very excited to start working with the team. He noted that DS has achieved excellent results in the past, winning the drivers’ and teams’ titles twice, so he is looking forward to improving on those milestones.

“It is also a great pleasure to be associated with the only two-time Formula E champion like Jean-Eric Vergne and I believe we will form one of the strongest lineups for Season 9,” Vandoorne said.

The Frenchman has enjoyed his best moments as part of the DS Automobiles stable. During the 2018-2018 and 2018-2019 campaigns he secured the first and only double title in Formula E, which cemented his continuity.

“I am very happy to continue my adventure with DS,” said the 32-year-old driver. “Our first race together dates back to 2015 and I believe our partnership has had a great impact on the history of Formula E.”

He praised the work of the DS engineers who have accompanied him for several years and helped him conquer 28 podiums, 10 victories and two titles.

“I am also very much looking forward to partnering with PENSKE, which is a big name in world motorsport, and to form a strong driver pairing with Stoffel. Today is the start of a new chapter for the team and we will do everything we can to showcase DS PENSKE at the highest level,” concluded Vergne.

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The Belgian was the most consistent driver, having 14 podiums, a situation that led him to surpass Edoardo Mortara and Mitch Evans, the other candidates for the title.

The Seoul street circuit was dominated by Mortara, who made up for his retirement on Saturday with an excellent driving performance, while Vandoorne, always ahead of Evans, only advanced positions in the last laps, until he crossed the finish line in second place after 34 laps.

The hopes of Evans, winner on Saturday and second overall by 21 points, had been greatly reduced by not going through to the knockout round in qualifying. He had to start from 13th and his progression during the race only took him up to seventh place.

Briton Jake Dennis (Avalanche Andretti FE) completed the final podium of the season, 6.649 behind the winner.

Mercedes Dominance

Vandoorne’s title confirmed Mercedes’ power as he succeeded his teammate, Nick De Vries, on the Formula E championship podium. The party was complete for Mercedes EQ, which also wins the teams’ title, revalidating last season’s double. A golden brooch for the brand of the star that next year will not be in the electric competition.

“Unbelievable the season we’ve had: the consistency and the car have been spectacular, and the team has done an incredible job. I think every single one of us deserves it. What we have achieved is something special,” said Vandoorne after the race.

The Belgian noted that although his rivals for the title had won more races than him, he had a more consistent performance throughout the season. “They have more wins than me, but I think I have the most podiums. It was hard to concentrate because the pace at the end was so high, I knew Jake had a five-second penalty, so I had to stay close enough to him to secure P2. It was an amazing day, a lot of concentration. I’m exhausted after this year, it’s been a great effort,” he stressed.

Vandoorne, 30, continued in Seoul with his conservative strategy to minimize risks and take advantage of the 21-point lead over New Zealander Mitch Evans (Jaguar RCS) with which he faced the final race to become champion.

With the Formula E title, the Mercedes driver adds a new scepter to the GP2 Series championship in 2015. It should be noted that Vandoorne had a stint in Formula 1 in 2017 and 2018.

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The Belgian started Sunday’s race from thirteenth position and needed to make a comeback to minimize the consequences of that bad result as much as possible. Gradually, he made progress as best he could and finished the race in fourth place.

Vandoorne’s lead in the standings is 36 points with the Seoul meeting still to come, also in double format. A difference that has Mitch Evans as his closest pursuer. Behind are Mortara (Venturi) at 41 points and Vergne (DS) at 57. All three have a chance of snatching the title, although it seems that the mission of the contenders is very complicated.

A Historical Driver Revived

On Sunday, Lucas di Grassi took his first win for ROKiT Venturi Racing in the SABIC London E-Prix Round 14, beating Saturday’s Round 13 winner Jake Dennis (Avalanche Andretti) in a tight strategic battle.

Di Grassi emerged from the last of three mandatory ATTACK MODE activations with enough in hand to ensure he would make it through. Home crowd favorite Jake Dennis dominated the Julius Bär Pole Position, but the Brazilian stretched his lead in the closing laps in TAG Heuer Add Time to take the checkered flag.

Nyck de Vries came in third. Evans (Jaguar TCS Racing), meanwhile, had moved up to fourth from 14th at the start of the race, but a late technical problem prematurely ended his run in London, dealing a severe blow to his title chances by retiring without points.

Maximum Authority on the Track

The race was graced by the presence of the President of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), Mohammed Ben Sulayem, who attended the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship for the first time since taking over in December 2021.

He met with executives, team principals and drivers from across the ABB FIA Formula E ABB FIA World Championship before being introduced on the podium to present the winner’s trophy to di Grassi.

Dennis Excelled on Saturday

On Saturday, Dennis delivered a dominant performance from the lights to the flag to win the first race in the double header at the SABIC London E-Prix 2022, repeating his exploits from last season on the exclusive street circuit.

The ABB FIA Formula E ABB World Championship returned to ExCeL London following last season’s debut, but was open to full capacity after last year’s COVID-19 restrictions limited access.

Thousands of fans at the east London venue gave the victorious Dennis a standing ovation after he repelled the early advances of World Drivers’ Championship leader Stoffel Vandoorne to win the race and delight the cheering home crowd.

Mercedes-EQ’s Vandoorne was content with a conservative strategy to come second and claim his 17th Formula E podium, with his closest championship rivals dropped in the pack.

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After the American date, Mercedes-EQ driver Stofel Vandoorne took the lead. After a great performance in Marrakech, Edoardo Mortara came out stronger and had all the credentials to consolidate his position, but a weekend to forget took him out of the first place.

A fourth place in the first race and a second place on Sunday allowed Vandoorne to accumulate 155 points and reach the top of the table with an 11-unit gap over Mortara, who faced many difficulties and only scored three points.

Mitch Evans is next with 139 points after a weekend in which he had to recover several times. The Jaguar driver managed to get on the podium in the second race and is more than ever in the fight for the title.

Off the Podium

Unlike Evans, Jean-Eric Vergne dropped to fourth place in the overall standings after failing to score any points in the Big Apple, and remains on 128 points, 27 points behind the leader.

In the fight for fifth place in the overall Formula E standings, Robin Frijns and António Félix Da Costa started the engines. The Envision Racing driver was third in the first race, while the DS Techetaah driver took the win in the second.

Four points separate the two, the gap being in Frijns’ favor. Already one or two steps behind are Lucas Di Grassi and Nyck de Vries, with the Brazilian taking his second podium of the season on the streets of New York.

Constructors’ Table

Although Di Grassi stood up for Venturi Racing, Mortara’s poor performance caused Venturi to lose the lead. With the consistency shown by Vandoorne, Mercedes EQ is now at the top of the standings with 238 points, ten points more than the Venturi team itself.

DS Techeetah is also on the same points, entering an interesting duel with Jaguar, Envision and Porsche.

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In the German E-Prix, Nick De Vries and Stofel Vandoorne led the podium, with the reigning champion on top of the podium in the Teutonic capital. Mortara, Saturday’s winner, escorted De Vries, while Lucas Di Grassi finished fourth.

De Vries made the best pace of his car count and did not let Mortara take advantage of the two-second advantage with which he left the attack mode phase. The defending world champion took his first win of the year and climbs to sixth overall, although still far behind his teammate, who is almost twice his number of points.

Vergne, who had an outstanding day on Saturday, faded this Sunday to the point of finishing ninth and out of the fight. In fact, this bad result cost him second place overall.

Vandoorne, on the other hand, was always among the front runners, but this time he did not have enough pace to fight for the win. However, the result was enough to progress to the last step of the podium and add another 15 valuable points that give him a cushion of 12 over the now second, Edoardo Mortara.

Different Conditions

This Sunday’s race was markedly different from the opening day. For example, the direction of the track and the Attack Mode, which for the Sunday e-Prix was concentrated in a single eight-minute activation, while on Saturday there were two four-minute activations, significantly changed the strategy, so the race was somewhat less lively, and also less exciting.

Despite the modifications, the trend with respect to the Mercedes powertrains remained. Mortara looked like he would once again be the driver to set the pace on the German track by repeating pole position and strategy of activating the attack mode. However, his strategy did not give the expected result since, first, De Vries overtook him at the start and, then, when his attack mode ended he was second behind the Dutchman, much more plugged in than on Saturday, where he was practically out of the race.

Formula E returns next June 4 in Jakarta, Indonesia, the country that will host the electric single-seater series for the first time.

Written by I Jhonattan González

The post De Vries Wins Second Round in Berlin and Vandoorne Consolidates his Lead appeared first on Green Racing News.

Despite the fact that the second driver of the organization, Stofel Vandoorne, finished ninth, his performance on the last E-Prix held in Berlin was essential for the collective title.  

Although it was not a good year for Vandoorne, who finished second in campaign six, Team Principal Ian James praised the Belgian’s performance. “He really had the worst part of the failures this season, but if I look at what he has achieved during the season, and if I look especially at his qualifying performance in Berlin, he won the Team Championship for us there.”

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He acknowledged Vandoorne’s work because all the spotlight, and rightly so, has been on reigning monarch Nick de Vries. “Stoffel deserves recognition because without those four points, it would have been a very different story. It was an excellent commitment on his part,” James emphasized.

Obstacle Season

Although Mercedes solved many of the operational errors that ruined their 2019-20 season, with De Vries significantly more affected last year, they still endured considerable changes to their competitiveness through the middle half of the campaign that just ended.

De Vries (two) and Vandoorne (one) scored wins at each of the first three double-header races, but failed to return to winning ways, including five non-points results in a six race series.

On the situation, James commented: “We fought to the end. Do I want to repeat that next year? Absolutely, on terms of a double win, but gosh, I want to do it a lot earlier in the season, in a much simpler way.”

“We’ll have that big honesty in terms of going over the things we didn’t do right. We’ve already had those discussions and they started just the day after finishing in Berlin,” the Mercedes boss revealed.

Read also: After excelling as a Rookie, Jake Dennis will continue in Formula E

Speculation lingers that De Vries could move to Williams for the 2022 Formula 1 Season, if starter George Russell replaces Valtteri Bottas at Mercedes.

That would leave Vandoorne at the head of Mercedes’ Formula E driver lineup for what will be the manufacturer’s final season in the all-electric series.

However, James and team CEO Toto Wolff are leading plans to find a buyer so he can continue independently for the Gen3 era.

Written by I Jhonattan González

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