Pascal Wehrlein scores a double blow in Diriyah!

Week-end parfait pour Pascal Wehrlein ! Vainqueur de la Course 1 vendredi, l’Allemand s’est de nouveau imposé lors de la Course 2 de l’E-Prix de Diriyah (Arabie saoudite). La Porsche a de nouveau ébloui la course par sa vitesse, et le constructeur de Stuttgart réalise un nouveau double puisque Jake Dennis (Andretti) est arrivé deuxième… comme la veille ! René Rast a résisté au retour de Sam Bird pour signer le premier podium de sa carrière en Formula E and the first for McLaren. Thanks to this second victory in two days, Pascal Wehrlein takes control of the championship.  

DOUBLE DELIGHT FOR @PWEHRLEIN IN DIRIYAH!!!#DiriyahEPrice pic.twitter.com/HXDLQh1jen

— Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) January 28, 2023

Very calm start, Evans struggling with the McLarens

For this second meeting in Saudi Arabia, the drivers calmed down: caution was the watchword at the first corner, with no collisions to note, except for a small touch between Edoardo Mortara and Sam Bird . A very clean start, perhaps too clean for Jake Hughes. Starting from pole position for the first time in Formula E, the Briton gave up his position at the first corner to Mitch Evans, who took off better when the lights went out. The Jaguar completed the first lap ahead of the two McLarens, Pascal Wehrlein and  Edoardo Mortara, who gained two positions in the chicane.

After a boring first quarter of the race, where an observation race took place, Mitch Evans was the first among the leaders to launch his Attack Mode on the 10th lap, imitated by Jake Hughes the following lap. In the 12th loop, René Rast took his first Attack Mode in turn… but managed to keep control of the E-Prix ahead of Evans! The McLaren, in the open air and with the extra boost, managed to escape at the front.

The Wehrlein – Porsche show crushes everything

Behind, like the day before, the Pascal Wehrlein show is launched. Without Attack Mode, the Porsche got the better of Jake Hughes on lap 12, then Mitch Evans the next lap! The German, winner of Race 1, moved into 2nd behind René Rast before catching up with him by tenths per sector. It won't take long to finally see Wehrlein get the better of the three-time champion of DTM, while the latter chose to trigger his Attack Mode for the 2nd and last time. But the Porsche is fast, too fast: the ex-driver of F1 manages to widen the gap and when entering the detection zone for Attack Mode, Pascal Wehrlein remained in the lead of the E-Prix!

The other strong man at the start of the season and leader of the championship, Jake Dennis, did not wait to imitate Pascal Wehrlein. At mid-race, the Briton pushed hard and successively overtook Jake Hughes, Mitch Evans and René Rast in less than 3 laps! The McLarens, as in the first two rounds, were in difficulty with their energy management, which benefited the Jaguars but especially… Sam Bird, who quickly moved up to 3rd place with 12 laps to go. Wehrlein 1st, Dennis 2nd, Bird 3rd: a perfect copy and paste of Friday's E-Prix...

On the 28th lap and as the pace of the race began to stabilize, Nico Müller directly reshuffled the cards due to an error of judgment. While attempting to overtake, the Swiss completely missed his braking at the chicane and crashed into the wall. Blocked in the Tec-Pro, the Abt Cupra requires the intervention of the marshals and therefore the safety car. The pack is relaunched after three laps of Safety Car, under the leadership of Pascal Wehrlein.

SAFETY CAR!@Nico_Mueller goes off at Turn 16 and closes the pack right back up!

Pascal Wehrlein currently leads Jake Dennis and Sam Bird.#DiriyahEPrice

— Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) January 28, 2023

Wehrlein leads the championship

With an Attack Mode that is more tricky than advantageous, pilots with jokers remaining found themselves in an uncomfortable position. Jake Dennis and Sam Bird both went into attack mode at the same time, but only the Jaguar driver was overtaken by René Rast. Despite several attempts and a frantic race pace, Bird was unable to gain the upper hand on the McLaren and had to settle for 4th place, far, far from the first two. 

Building on his two successes in the last two races, Pascal Wehrlein logically takes the lead in the championship with 68 points ahead of Jake Dennis (62 points) and Sébastien Buemi (31 points). On the French side, Sacha Fenestraz scored his first points in Formula E with his 8th place in this Diriyah E-Prix. No points, however, for Norman Nato (15th) nor for Jean-Éric Vergne (17th). DS-Penske leaves Diriyah with zero points in this 3rd event of the season, as Stoffel Vandoorne failed to score points.

The ranking of the Diriyah 2 E-Prix: 

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