Formula E

Andretti’s Dennis wins Formula E title in wild London decider

by Jack Cozens
11 min read

Jake Dennis clinched the Formula E title with one race to spare in an at times farcical first race of the London E-Prix weekend at the ExCeL that featured two red flags and the implosion of Envision Racing and Nick Cassidy’s title hopes.

Dennis sealed the crown after finishing third on the road, which became second post-race, behind Jaguar’s Mitch Evans – whose victory, from a penalised sixth on the grid having been fastest in qualifying, was not enough to prolong the fight to the final race of the season on Sunday.

Envision got the dream scenario it needed at the start of the race when Sebastien Buemi launched well enough to hang his car around the outside of second-place starter Dennis into Turn 1 and make a move stick, via slight front-left to front-right contact, out of the Turn 2 switchback and slot into second behind Cassidy.

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While the pack remained largely together in the opening laps Buemi then allowed a big enough gap – 2.7 seconds – to build between Cassidy and himself for Cassidy to be able to take attack mode on lap seven of an initially planned 36 laps for the first time and stay in the lead.

Cassidy took attack mode for a second time a lap later and it was in this phase he surrendered the lead, dropping to third behind Buemi and Evans – up to third courtesy of a move on Dan Ticktum at the start, another on Rene Rast on lap four and a bold pass on Dennis’s inside on lap seven.

At this point Envision’s race started to unravel. Still behind Buemi, Cassidy was caught out by Dennis who made enough space for himself to sneak back up into third up the inside into the final corner, though both drivers were passed on the straight by McLaren driver Rast.

Cassidy got the position back again with a well-orchestrated move that started at Turn 1, aided by Buemi – now behind Rast – backing Dennis up, which prompted the Andretti driver to exclaim “I need a wingman….where the f*** is Pascal?” in reference to Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein, in sixth at this point and all but mathematically out of the title fight.

Cassidy then launched an overtake attempt on Buemi but his team-mate did not cede and, having run side-by-side through the opening corners, Buemi then clipped the left side of Cassidy’s front wing with his car as he took the racing line for the Turn 4 right-hander, with Cassidy’s wing collapsing and blocking his front-left corner.

This prompted a series of frustrated messages from Cassidy, who pitted at the end of the lap to have his wing replaced. Though he was offered a reprieve when the safety car was deployed, to allow debris from his front wing to be retrieved, and briefly made progress back to 16th, he soon retired – asking twice for the camera operators in the Envision garage for “some space” upon his return.

But Dennis’s title was not secured at this point and he remained in the thick of the action, with his progress compromised by two missed attempts to activate attack mode. He succeeded at the third attempt and was fifth, having taken attack mode for a second time, by the time a red flag was shown following a Sacha Fenestraz crash at Turn 16.

Fenestraz’s Nissan went over the back of Sergio Sette Camara’s NIO 333 and, front suspension broken, skated on into the Tecpro barrier. Though the safety car was initially deployed, the time needed to repair the barriers led race control to red flag the race.

The race resumed 20 minutes later with Evans bolting through the final two corners ahead of Buemi, Antonio Felix da Costa – up from 17th on the grid – and Dennis, who was fourth after Rast, who’d collided clumsily with Pascal Wehrlein at Turn 1/2 prior to the safety car, was moved back to 16th for the restart as McLaren had worked on his car under the red flag.

Envision had indicated to Buemi that he’d be asked to take his remaining attack mode on the first lap after the restart and he and Evans did just that, with Evans having enough of a gap to retain the lead and Buemi – who immediately began aggressively saving energy – dropping behind da Costa and Dennis.

Buemi’s energy saving was indicative of Envision running to a different lap target – one lap had been added to the total at this point but eventually two were – as he dropped away drastically, and he then had an instrumental role in an incident that blocked the road and required a second red flag to be shown after the leading trio had completed 34 laps.

Norman Nato launched an attack up the inside into Turn 16 but Buemi turned in, with their cars’ wheels interlocking – sending both into the barriers as Buemi tried to turn in again. Sam Bird behind wasn’t able to cut back enough to avoid hitting the rear of Nato’s Nissan and was then caught by Stoffel Vandoorne, which blocked the track completely.

This red flag was shorter, with the order largely unchanged – save for Vandoorne and Mahindra driver Stoffel Vandoorne dropping to the back of the pack on account of repairs – as the Buemi-led pack completed a catch-up lap at safety car speed before returning to the pitlane to join a queue now led by Evans, da Costa and Dennis.

That allowed for three laps of racing before the chequered flag that ran without issue, with Evans holding off da Costa on the final lap to take a brilliant win and Dennis completing the top three on the road to seal the title.

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Evans’s victory was not enough to keep him in mathematical contention as Dennis only needed fourth. He was promoted to second in the final reckoning as da Costa was handed a three-minute penalty on the final lap for what race control described as a “technical infraction”.

Dennis’s simple exclamation of “World champions, baby” over the Andretti team radio was an outburst of relief following a tense race, in which team owner Michael Andretti was also seen visiting the garage of its manufacturer supplier Porsche around the time when Dennis was asking for assistance from Wehrlein.

Da Costa’s penalty meant Buemi’s eventful race ended with a podium, with Nato and Bird also escaping from their contact to take fourth and fifth – only for Nato to receive a five-second penalty post-race for his and Buemi’s coming together.That dropped him to ninth.

Sette Camara was able to continue after Fenestraz’s launch over the back of his NIO and went on to match his best Formula E result of fifth, with Edoardo Mortara (Maserati) and Lucas di Grassi (Mahindra) separating Sette Camara from team-mate Ticktum.

Rast was able to recover to 10th on the road but received a post-race penalty for his clash with Wehrlein, which ironically elevated the Porsche driver into the final points-paying position instead.

Race Results

Pos Name Team Car Laps Laps Led Total Time Fastest Lap Pitstops Pts
1 Mitch Evans Jaguar TCS Racing Jaguar I-TYPE 6 37 29 33m47.3s 1m13.151s 0 28
2 Jake Dennis Avalanche Andretti Porsche 99X Electric 37 0 +1.116s 1m13.286s 0 18
3 Sébastien Buemi Envision Racing Jaguar I-TYPE 6 37 1 +1.668s 1m13.234s 0 15
4 Sam Bird Jaguar TCS Racing Jaguar I-TYPE 6 37 0 +3.054s 1m13.264s 0 12
5 Edoardo Mortara Maserati MSG Racing Maserati Tipo Folgore 37 0 +4.263s 1m12.923s 0 10
6 Lucas Di Grassi Mahindra Racing Mahindra M9Electro 37 0 +4.769s 1m13.168s 0 8
7 Daniel Ticktum NIO 333 Racing NIO 333 ER9 37 0 +5.118s 1m13.008s 0 6
8 Norman Nato Nissan Nissan e-4ORCE 04 37 0 +7.527s 1m13.555s 0 4
9 Pascal Wehrlein TAG Heuer Porsche Porsche 99X Electric 37 0 +8.725s 1m12.764s 0 2
10 Jake Hughes NEOM McLaren Nissan e-4ORCE 04 37 0 +9.128s 1m12.714s 0 2
11 Stoffel Vandoorne DS Penske DS E-Tense FE23 37 0 +10.231s 1m13.28s 0 0
12 Maximilian Günther Maserati MSG Racing Maserati Tipo Folgore 37 0 +10.568s 1m12.904s 0 0
13 André Lotterer Avalanche Andretti Porsche 99X Electric 37 0 +11.094s 1m12.342s 0 0
14 René Rast NEOM McLaren Nissan e-4ORCE 04 37 0 +11.789s 1m12.537s 0 0
15 Roberto Merhi Mahindra Racing Mahindra M9Electro 37 0 +13.472s 1m13.205s 0 0
16 António Félix da Costa TAG Heuer Porsche Porsche 99X Electric 37 0 +3m0.666s 1m13.366s 0 0
Sacha Fenestraz Nissan Nissan e-4ORCE 04 27 0 DNF 1m14.604s 0 0
Nick Cassidy Envision Racing Jaguar I-TYPE 6 22 7 DNF 1m14.14s 0 0
Nico Müller ABT CUPRA Mahindra M9Electro 19 0 DNF 1m15.354s 0 0
Jean-Eric Vergne DS Penske DS E-Tense FE23 9 0 DNF 1m16.268s 0 0
Robin Frijns ABT CUPRA Mahindra M9Electro 6 0 DNF 1m17.889s 0 0
Sérgio Sette Câmara NIO 333 Racing NIO 333 ER9 37 0 DQ 1m12.86s 0 0
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