Sublime Jake Dennis Takes Stunning Victory in Opening London E-Prix

Jake Dennis took his second career ABB FIA Formula E World Championship victory on Saturday, with the Briton coming out on top of a close battle with countryman Alex Lynn to win the first race of the London E-Prix weekend.

The BMW i Andretti Motorsport driver followed Lynn for much of the first half of the race but crucially was able to conserve enough energy so to get ahead when the Mahindra Racing driver took his second attack mode.

Dennis then capitalised on a mistake from Lynn to be able to hold on to the lead when he went through the attack mode activation zone for a second time, and then went on to take a dominant victory.

From pole position, Lynn held onto the lead into the first turn one ahead of Dennis, while André Lotterer found a way ahead of Sérgio Sette Câmara into fourth.  A little further back, Alexander Sims found himself pushed into the wall at turn six and out of the race, an incident that necessitated a brief full-course yellow to clear his car from the track. 

Tom Blomqvist was also a first lap visitor to the pits, with the NIO 333 FE Team driver taking damage on lap one and retreating to his garage for repairs.  He returned to the track seven laps down.

Jaguar Racing’s Mitch Evans hit Sims and damaged his front wing, but it was even worse luck for championship leader Sam Bird, who headed for the pit lane with damage at the end of lap one.  Evans pitted at the end of lap three to replace his front wing, with the New Zealander re-joining at the back of the field.

Lynn and Dennis were the first of the leaders to take their first attack modes and when Sébastien Buemi and Lotterer did likewise a few laps later from third and fourth, the two leaders were more than four seconds clear of the rest of the field.

Sette Câmara had a couple of incidents that were investigated by the stewards, firstly a clash with Lucas di Grassi and then another clash with Norman Nato.  Unfortunately, from fourth on the grid, he was quickly swamped by the field, and he was well outside of the points before half distance.

When attempting his second attack mode, Lotterer missed the sensor to activate it, and subsequently lost fourth place to Nyck de Vries.  The Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team driver was quickly able to bridge the gap to Buemi in third as Lotterer was then forced to defend from Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler duo René Rast and di Grassi.

Once he fell behind Dennis, Lynn fell back into the clutches of Buemi and de Vries, but it was de Vries who was on the move as he dived in the inside of Buemi at the first of the hairpins to take third and allow Lynn to get away.

Dennis was in a class of his own as he stormed to victory in his home event, with the win moving him up to second place in the Drivers’ Championship. 

De Vries made a late move using his fanboost to take second away from Lynn, with the Briton holding onto third ahead of Buemi.

Lotterer held off the challenge of the Audi’s to take fifth, with Rast getting the better of di Grassi.  Stoffel Vandoorne took eighth, while António Félix da Costa took ninth for DS Techeetah.  Nato was disqualified from tenth after running out of usable energy on the final lap, promoting Oliver Rowland to the final point. However, both he and his Nissan e.dams team-mate Buemi are under investigation for energy overuse.

It was a difficult day for pre-race Teams’ Championship leaders Envision Virgin Racing, with Nick Cassidy ending fourteenth, while Robin Frijns was even further back in sixteenth, with the Dutchman also taking a five-second time penalty for colliding with Joel Eriksson.

London E-Prix Race 1 Result