Nyck de Vries best manager amid Valencia chaos

Very smart is anyone who could have predicted such a scenario in Valencia for the first race of the Spanish ePrix. Arrival of the rain, race for energy management... and in the end a success for Nyck de Vries (Mercedes), the second of the year for the Dutchman.

The start is given behind the safety car on a wet track, before the peloton is released after a single lap, led by António Félix da Costa (DS Techeetah).

A first round where André Lotterer (Porsche), in fight with Norman Nato (Venturi), harpoon Sébastien Buemi (Nissan e.dams) at the hairpin, an incident allowing Nato to move up to fifth position, but forcing the implementation of a Full Course Yellow and a safety car to evacuate the car of the Swiss pilot.

Our first Full Course Yellow is brought out by @Sebastien_buemi after @Andre_Lotterer tagged the @Nissanedams drivers…

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- ABB FIA Formula E World Championship (@FIAFormulaE) April 24, 2021

Lotterer was logically penalized with a drive-through for the collision with Buemi, shortly after the restart which saw Félix da Costa retain the lead ahead of Nyck de Vries (Mercedes), back in second position against Alex Lynn (Mahindra ) and Max Günther (BMW i Andretti).

The latter then made a mistake by shooting straight into the gravel trap less than 25′ from the finish, forcing a new intervention by the safety car. On the restart, Félix da Costa remains in front of de Vries and Lynn.

Unlikely scenario

Sergio Sette Camara (Dragon Penske) was then ejected into the gravel trap by Mitch Evans (Jaguar), which caused, in addition to the abandonment of the two drivers, a new entry into action of the Safety Car, at the time when Nyck de Vries had activated his second Attack Mode.

A strategic difference which allows Antonio Félix da Costa to stay in the lead at this moment, both with the activation of his FanBoost and his second Attack Mode, but the race is neutralized one last time after the collision between Lotterer and Edoardo Mortara (Venturi), the Porsche driver in turn remaining stuck in the gravel trap.

If the hierarchy does not change at the time of the restart, the multiple energy reductions due to the different safety cars will offer an incredible end to the race, with almost the entire peloton close to running out of energy, thus questioning a possible calculation error.

In this little game, it is Nyck de Vries who is doing the best, taking the advantage over Antonio Félix da Costa, forced like many competitors to move at a minimum pace on the track. The Dutchman wins and takes the lead in the Drivers' standings.

The final ranking ultimately sees Nico Müller (Dragon Penske) and Stoffel Vandoorne (Mercedes), who started last after his penalty for tire violations in qualifying and penalized by 5″ on his race time for a collision, finish 2nd and 3rd.

The top 5 is completed by Nick Cassidy (Virgin Racing) and René Rast (Audi Abt Schaeffler). The championship leader before Valencia, Sam Bird (Jaguar) finished 9th, Jean-Eric Vergne (DS Techeetah) 12th.

Oliver Rowland (Nissan e.dams) and Alex Sims (Mahindra) are among the drivers disqualified at the end of the event due to energy consumption. Norman Nato (Venturi) was unable to finish in the final minutes after having been fighting for the top 6 for a while.

However, these results remain provisional pending a definitive classification in view of the situation.