Jake Dennis: “My god the race car we have is just unbelievable”

Jake Dennis was arguably Driver of the Day at round two of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, after the winner of the opening round claimed a sensational second place finish at the Diriyah E-Prix, despite having started eleventh.

Qualifying was not Dennis’ friend at the Riyadh Street Circuit, with the Drivers’ Championship leader having never looked likely to make it into the duels. The Avalanche Andretti Formula E driver would’ve started twelfth, had Sérgio Sette Câmara not been awarded a three-place grid penalty. Dennis made a solid start to the race and managed to avoid the traditional opening lap carnage, unlike several drivers around him.

The British driver settled into the race excellently and began to make his way through the lower-end of the points places nicely. His Porsche powertrain appeared to come to life halfway through the race, with the Andretti driver having suddenly gotten onto the back of the top five after being in the lower points places for the majority of the first half of the race. It wasn’t too long until he was amongst the top five, with the Andretti driver having gone from fifth to third in lightning fashion.

As soon as he found himself in third, he was almost immediately behind Sam Bird for second, a position he made his in the closing stages with an excellent move down the inside at Turn Seventeen. Dennis then got about hunting down race winner Pascal Wehrlein, something which, again, he did relatively quickly. The Andretti driver’s race pace was exceptional; however, there simply wasn’t enough time for him to try and really attack the German driver.

Nevertheless, second place was a remarkable result for Dennis who maintained the championship lead; albeit, by a single point over Wehrlein. Should Dennis qualify better on Saturday, then he will likely be favourite for the second race in Diriyah this weekend.

Reflecting on the race, Dennis admitted that he thought overtaking was going to be “quite difficult”, but that his race car was “just unbelievable”.

“I wasn’t at all [expecting to be on the podium]. I thought it was going to be quite difficult to overtake here with the mountain section being so fast, but my god the race car we have is just unbelievable. For me and Pascal to get another 1-2 from ninth and eleventh is testament to how much effort has gone in. Full credit to Avalanche Andretti for giving me the best race car today.

“We closed in on Pascal at the end, I was pushing to get the move done but when you’re racing a guy with the same car it is difficult to pass. But I am so happy and we deserve this after a difficult qualifying. I had to stop him getting an eight-second lead, but yeah super pleased for everyone and another 1-2. I need to try and beat him tomorrow and beat everyone else, but nonetheless I can sleep well tonight.”