Robin Frijns is back in the lead in the Formula E championship, after finishing fifth in the first race in New York. The Dutchman does share the championship lead with Edoardo Mortara. Maximillian Gunther won the race ahead of BMW Andretti.
Mortara came to New York as a solo frontrunner but suffered a disastrous qualifying and was only allowed to start the race in 23rd place. Although he still managed to work his way up to fourteenth place, he remained scoreless. Frijns, in turn, took ten points with a fifth place. This brings the Envision Virgin driver to 72 pieces – the same as Mortara, with whom he now shares the World Cup leadership.
Also read: Formula E presents provisional calendar 2021-2022, Eindhoven is missing
Battle in Brooklyn
The race in Brooklyn – overlooking Manhattan – was won by BMW Andretti driver Günther, ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne and Lucas di Grassi. Fourth place went to pole sitter Nick Cassidy. He was in the lead for a long time, until Vergne made an over-enthusiastic attempt to overtake in the Manhattan hairpin. The Frenchman touched Cassidy, after which he lost three places in one fell swoop and Günther took the lead ahead of Vergne.
(text continues under the podcast player!)
Frijns was therefore fifth behind the top four. The Limburger made a strong catch up by working his way from the eleventh starting spot past Oliver Rowland, Sébastien Buemi and Alex Lynn. A collision between Lynn and Pascal Wehrlein – who was in the back of Lynn – already gave him a spot before that. Nyck de Vries finished thirteenth after a start from eighteenth position.
Controversial qualification system
The much-discussed qualifying set-up in Formula E thus once again had a significant impact on the race. After all, with the top six in the World Cup forming the first qualifying group, the favorites often start from far back in the field. See Mortara’s 23rd starting place, or Stoffel Vandoorne’s 21st – who didn’t make it to the finish, by the way – or De Vries’s eighteenth. Perhaps a very small consolation? De Vries is now seventh in the World Cup and is therefore no longer in qualifying group 1.
Also read: Formula E: De Vries is disappointed with the qualifying system: ‘Is it good for the show?’
The second Formula E race of this weekend in New York can be seen on Ziggo Sport Racing and Eurosport 2 on Sunday from 7 p.m. In FORMULE 1 Magazine no. 08 you can read more about Formula E!
–
