until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
Mercedes EQ emerged from its points trough in London to thrust itself back into title contention with London E-Prix runner-up Nyck de Vries insisting the team “never lost the faith”.
De Vries first points since he finished ninth in the first Puebla E-Prix in June and Stoffel Vandoorne’s seventh position has ensured the team has reduced the gap at the top of the teams’ title chase from 33 to 11 points.
The second place for de Vries was his first significant points score since the infamous Valencia energy-gate race in April.
Despite the dearth of points de Vries told The Race that he and the team “didn’t lose any faith and motivation”.
“Our approach to every weekend is exactly the same,” he said.
“We turn up the best prepared possible and we try to make the most of what we have.”
De Vries refuted suggestions that the team was squandering the performance of the Mercedes EQ Silvers Arrows 02, saying that “I think there was never anything wrong”.
He did acknowledge that there was a drop off in performance in New York earlier this month, but also countered that by stating “we had a bit of bad luck as well”.
“Being in Group 2 (of qualifying) and catching the rain shower is not nice,” he said.
“We didn’t lose faith, and in all honesty, if you look at the championship standings there are literally 12 to 15 drivers who’ve been winning or capable of winning.
“It’s literally a lottery.
“You just need to get the timing a bit right and we certainly did today showing what we can do when we get a fair run to make a strong race.”
Mercedes certainly achieved that, in what was an exhibition of progressive race management worthy of the ExCeL Arena venues reputation which welcomes exhibitions as its stock-in-trade.
Both de Vries and Vandoorne made up seven places in yesterday’s race, with de Vries able to pick off several cars at his favoured overtaking position – Turn 10, to finally maximise the known inherent pace of the Mercedes-EQ Silver Arrow 02.
De Vries’ side of the garage made the right calls at the right time, especially the strategy call of staying out longer for the attack mode.
Andre Lotterer gave de Vries a free pass when he was distracted while defending the position and missed the attack mode transponder loop at Turn 16.
The resulting compression and confusion behind the Porsche allowed the Mercedes to escape and hunt Sebastien Buemi down.
This he did quickly after the Dutch driver confessed that the Porsche roadblock allowed him to “always focus on the car ahead of me.”
The move on Buemi required “commitment and mutual respect between us” according to De Vries, who also told The Race that his swoop for second on Lynn’s tyre-cooked Mahindra was relatively “straightforward”.
“I think Alex at this stage of the race was basically settling for third and didn’t want to lose time fighting and potentially losing a podium,” he said.
He also reaped the benefits of the often-maligned fanboost power prize, saying that it “definitely helped to get me closer.”
Vandoorne took six points for his seventh place finish, which came after Sebastien Buemi’s exclusion and a fightback from his session ending accident in FP2.
The aquaplaning incident could have snowballed into another depressing race for the Belgian but he was in the end left feeling that “he didn’t think any more would have been possible today”.
