Lucas di Grassi took his maiden win for ROKiT Venturi Racing in the SABIC London E-Prix Round 14, overcoming yesterday’s Round 13 winner Jake Dennis (Avalanche Andretti) in a hard-fought, strategic 38-lap battle on the 2.14km street circuit at ExCeL London.
Di Grassi emerged from the last of three mandatory ATTACK MODE activations with enough in-hand to ensure he would make it by in-form Jake Dennis when the Brit jumped for his last 30kW boost. Home-crowd favourite Dennis had followed up yesterday’s win with a start from Julius Bär Pole Position but the Brazilian stretched his advantage over the final few laps into TAG Heuer Added Time to take the chequered flag.
Nyck de Vries came home third, while his Mercedes-EQ teammate – standings leader Stoffel Vandoorne – clambered to fourth from 13th on the grid. His closest title rival Mitch Evans (Jaguar TCS Racing) had made his way as high as fourth from 14th at the start of the race but a late technical problem prematurely ended his London race and dealt a hammer blow to his title chances with retirement from proceedings and a non-score.
Edoardo Mortara (ROKiT Venturi Racing) did his utmost to claim points from 17th on the grid but a scrappy, combative performance could only yield 13th position. Jean-Éric Vergne (DS TECHEETAH) retired early on, seemingly in contact, all but ending his Drivers’ World Championship charge.
António Félix da Costa fought to fifth in the sister DS TECHEETAH, with Sebastien Buemi (Nissan e.dams) producing his second-best result of Season 8 in sixth, Robin Frijns (Envision Racing) seventh and Sam Bird in eighth for Jaguar TCS Racing on home soil.
Sérgio Sette Câmara finally earned the first points of the season for his DRAGON / PENSKE AUTOSPORT’s team after yesterday running out of usable energy at the death in Round 13 despite hassling the top four throughout. Pascal Wehrlein rounded out the top 10 for the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team.
FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem attended his first ABB FIA Formula E World Championship race since taking over the presidency in December 2021. He met executives, Team Principals and drivers from across the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship before being welcomed to the podium to present the winning trophy to di Grassi.
It now looks to be a head-to-head between Evans and Vandoorne for the title with 58 points on offer in two weeks at the Hana Bank Seoul E-Prix double-header weekend, the final two races of Season 8 in the 16-race calendar The Belgian now holds a commanding 36-point margin over the Jaguar driver in the points table.
ROKiT Venturi Racing jumped DS TECHEETAH to go second in the Teams’ World Championship, though Mercedes-EQ extended its lead to 35 points.
