Stoffel Vandoorne claims Formula E Season Eight World Championship as Mortara wins Seoul finale

Stoffel Vandoorne is the ABB FIA Formula E World Drivers’ Champion of Season Eight, after finishing in second-place at the Seoul E-Prix season finale. Edoardo Mortara won the final race of the season after a dominant display, with Jake Dennis rounding-off the final podium of the season. Mitch Evans claimed second in the championship, after finishing seventh.

Mortara makes the perfect start

After ten cities and sixteen races it all came down to the final race of the season, Vandoorne against Evans for the Season Eight Drivers’ Championship. Vandoorne qualified fourth, with Evans in thirteenth, leaving the New Zealander with it all to do.

With António Félix Da Costa on pole, the Portuguese driver made an excellent start to the one-hundredth Formula E race; however, contact-madness pursued behind. Virtually all the drivers came to a halt due to an onslaught of contact, somehow they all made it out okay with little damage. Sérgio Sette Câmara was one of the only drivers to suffer quite a lot of damage from the incident. André Lotterer, Dan Ticktum and Oliver Rowland all retired from the race in the opening few minutes.

The race lead quickly changed, as Mortara pulled off a superb move on Da Costa to take the race lead, with Dennis following the Swiss driver through to take second. It quickly became clear that Da Costa didn’t have the pace to win, as the DS Techeetah driver dropped well behind Mortara and Dennis. In the championship fight, Vandoorne remained in fourth, whereas after twelve minutes Evans had made his way to ninth but needed to make his way to first to claim the title.

Pascal Wehrlein and Nyck de Vries became the fourth and fifth retirements of the final race of the season, after the pair collided with one another. With the conditions being completely dry, the complete opposite of Race One, gaps in the field started to rapidly appear. Mortara and Dennis created a healthy gap to those behind, with the opening lap midfield carnage having dropped the majority of the field a good distance behind the top five.

So after the first third of the race, Mortara led from Dennis, with Vandoorne still in fourth and Evans in ninth.

Credit: Sam Bloxham courtesy of FIA Formula E

Safety Car gives Evans lifeline

It was heartbreak for Lucas Di Grassi, after becoming the first driver in Formula E to have scored over a thousand points in Race One, the Brazilian suffered a disappointing puncture dropping him all the way down to fourteenth. It meant that even with Mortara leading the race, the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team were on-track to win the Constructors’ Championship.

Di Grassi’s puncture moved Evans up to eighth; however, the Jaguar TCS Racing driver got exactly what he needed with twenty-three minutes remaining, as a full Safety Car was deployed to rescue a stricken Maximilian Günther, who came to a halt on the circuit. The German became the sixth retirement of the final race with the Gen2 cars. The disappointment for Evans is that he still had an active attack mode when the Safety Car was deployed, meaning it became in-affective.

Dennis and Da Costa collide

With fifteen minutes remaining, the Safety Car peeled back into the pits, allowing Mortara to bunch up the remaining sixteen drivers, in what was becoming a race of survival. Mortara timed the restart well and quickly pulled almost a second on Dennis, allowing him to dive across to activate his attack mode. Whilst Mortara did everything perfectly, Dennis and Da Costa made contact behind. Dennis defended strongly from Da Costa, who had attack mode.

The Portuguese driver went around the outside of the British driver, but a slight tap by Dennis sent Da Costa into the wall; however, Dennis was given no space by the DS Techeetah driver. All this allowed Vandoorne up to third and Evans up to seventh, Da Costa dropped to the back of the grid. Gaps again began to quickly appear throughout the field, with Mortara building a huge gap at the front.

As the season ticked into the final five minutes, everything somewhat calmed down, with Vandoorne looking all but set to become the Season Eight World Champion. With Vandoorne behind Dennis, the Belgian driver just had to remain within five seconds of the Avalanche Andretti FE Team driver, as it was announced that Dennis had been awarded a five-second time penalty for the earlier collision with Da Costa.

Speaking of Da Costa, he made a great move on Norman Nato for thirteenth, with the injured Sam Bird‘s replacement dropping to fifteenth. Da Costa was quickly past Alexander Sims and Di Grassi, elevating him to eleventh.

As the final minutes of added time ticked away, Mortara remained in complete control of the race with Dennis and Vandoorne well behind in the distance. Evans’ title fight yet again looked set to end at the final hurdle, as the Jaguar driver couldn’t find a way past Jean-Éric Vergne for sixth. Elsewhere, Sette Câmara was awarded a five-second penalty for changing direction whilst defending too many times.

Credit: Sam Bloxham courtesy of FIA Formula E

Vandoorne seals championship

As Mortara started the final lap of the season and the final lap of the Gen2 era of Formula E, the Swiss driver cruised round to claim a well deserved victory. However, all eyes were behind Mortara, as Vandoorne crossed the line in third (but inherited second due to Dennis’ penalty) to claim the Drivers’ World Championship with Mercedes-EQ claiming the Constructors’ Championship. Robin Frijns crossed the line in fourth, with Oliver Askew in fifth, Vergne sixth and a gutted Evans in seventh, who claimed second in the championship.

It was the perfect way for Mercedes-EQ to end their Formula E journey, with the side leaving Formula E and being replaced by McLaren for Season Nine. As the cameras rolled to the garages, Mercedes-EQ were jubilant, Jaguar were understandably despondent. Vandoorne celebrated wildly in Parc Férme, with Dennis who remarkably managed to finish third after building a big enough gap at the end.

And that’s your lot, Formula E returns for Season Nine with the brand new Gen3 cars early in 2023, with testing taking place at the end of 2022.

Seoul E-Prix Round 16 Full Results:

POS.	NO.	NAME.	NAT.	TEAM.	TIME/GAP.
1	48	Edoardo Mortara	CHE	ROKIT Venturi Racing	53:31.680
2	5	Stoffel Vandoorne	BEL	Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team	+3.756
3	27	Jake Dennis	GBR	Avalanche Andretti FE Team	+6.649
4	4	Robin Frijns	NED	Envision Racing	+7.021
5	28	Oliver Askew	USA	Avalanche Andretti FE Team	+7.850
6	25	Jean-Éric Vergne	FRA	DS Techeetah	+9.471
7	9	Mitch Evans	NZL	Jaguar TCS Racing	+10.243
8	37	Nick Cassidy	NZL	Envision Racing	+14.208
9	23	Sébastian Buemi	CHE	Nissan E.DAMS	+16.629
10	13	António Félix Da Costa	POR	DS Techeetah	+22.226
11	11	Lucas Di Grassi	BRZ	ROKIT Venturi Racing	+24.546
12	29	Alexander Sims	GBR	Mahindra Racing	+26.513
13	7	Sérgio Sette Câmara	BRZ	Dragon/Penske Autosport	+27.813
14	10	Norman Nato	FRA	Jaguar TCS Racing	+31.526
15	3	Oliver Turvey	GBR	NIO 333 FE Team	+31.565
16	99	Sacha Fenestraz	FRA	Dragon/Penske Autosport	+36.270
17	22	Maximilian Günther	GER	Nissan E.DAMS	DNF
18	17	Nyck de Vries	NED	Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team	DNF
19	94	Pascal Wehrlein	GER	TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team	DNF
20	33	Dan Ticktum	GBR	NIO 333 FE Team	DNF
21	30	Oliver Rowland	GBR	Mahindra Racing	DNF
22	36	André Lotterer	GER	TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team	DNF

Norman Nato replaced an injured Sam Bird and Sacha Fenestraz replaced an injured Antonio Giovinazzi