Stoffel Vandoorne is about to win the title after the double header in London. The Mercedes driver was able to put many points between himself and his pursuers in the metropolis. Jake Dennis and Lucas di Grassi won the two Formula E races.
Match point Stoffel Vandoorne, that's what the Belgian is saying in the fight for the world title. On the penultimate weekend of Formula E in London, the Mercedes man won the advantage for the season finale in Seoul. Vandoorne shook off his competitors in the table.
The 30-year-old laid the foundation stone in qualifying on Saturday when he put his Mercedes on the front row of the grid. Local hero Jake Dennis secured pole position. Third place went to Nyck de Vries in the second Mercedes. The first championship competitor, Vandoornes, was only 9th with Edoardo Mortara. Mitch Evans had to start from 14th place.
Jake Dennis with a start-finish victory
Dennis won the sprint to the first corner in the Andretti BMW. Vandoorne dropped in behind, while Sérgio Sette Câmara, starting from fourth place after a strong qualifying session, overtook de Vries. The first preliminary decision in the fight for the title was made in the turmoil. World Championship runner-up Mortara collided with Jaguar driver Sam Bird. The Swiss's Venturi-Mercedes was so damaged that after a stop for repairs, he hopelessly followed the field.
At the front, Dennis controlled what was happening. After ten minutes, the attack mode was activated for the first time (twice four minutes) in the field. The three leaders followed shortly after and used the boost on the same lap. The beneficiary of this was Nyck de Vries, who had requested the additional 30 kW one lap earlier and thus slipped past Sérgio Sette Câmara.
After around 20 minutes, the second attack mode phase started, but it didn't lead to any shifts at the top. In the end, Dennis won in front of Vandoorne. Third place went to Nick Cassidy after Nyck de Vries received a five second penalty for multiple lane changes while defending. The Dutchman was already noticed in New York with unclean driving.
Vandoorne's Big Points
Jake Dennis secured pole again for Sunday. Next to the Englishman was Lucas di Grassi on row 1. Vandoorne and Evans shared the seventh row. At the start Dennis kept the lead ahead of di Grassi. When Jean-Éric Vergne had to park his DS-Techeetah, there was a safety car phase. In the second race, the drivers had three attack modes of four minutes each. This led to many position changes. Jaguar man Mitch Evans fought for his dwindling championship chances and worked his way up to 5th place. However, Vandoorne was within striking distance of his opponent.
Dennis and di Grassi took turns at the top several times until the Brazilian was able to assert himself decisively. Behind it came drama: Shortly before the end, Evans rolled out in fourth place and was unable to score any points after his Jaguar restarted. Stoffel Vandoorne thanked him and inherited fourth place behind his teammate de Vries. Going into the last two rounds of Formula E's debut in Seoul, Vandoorne now has a reassuring 36-point cushion and more than a hand on the world title. The Belgian will probably use a match point.
