Decision already at the start: Mercedes driver Nyck de Vries takes his second win of the season in Formula E – Germans can’t shine
Nyck de Vries was unstoppable: In Sunday’s Formula E race in Berlin, the reigning world champion prevailed and took his second win of the 2022 season.The decisive manoeuvre was already set by Mercedes driver de Vries at the start, where he pushed past pole setter Edoardo Mortara (Venturi).
“Honestly, it’s even more emotional than last year [when they became world champions], simply because we’ve had a few bad races now. There was nothing wrong, but it just didn’t go well for us. To win here from P3 and to take the lead already at the start … Just a perfect day for us,” beamed de Vries on ‘ran’.
After the start, de Vries controlled the action from the front. The Dutchman was also the first rider to activate the attack mode. After about ten minutes, de Vries picked up the extra power, but only dropped back to third place. Excellent starting position for the rest of the E-Prix, then.
It wasn’t long before de Vries worked his way back to the front, building up a safety cushion that he just had to manage at the end. Mortara, who had dominated the weekend at will up to that point, had no chance and had to settle for second place.
Robin Frijns has to activate attack mode twice
However, this was just as unthreatening for him as the victory for de Vries. The battle for the last podium position was exciting: Lucas di Grassi (Venturi) versus Stoffel Vandoorne (Mercedes). Both drivers fought hard against each other, but with around three minutes left on the clock, Vandoorne finally prevailed.
AND WE GO GREEN IN BERLIN!
The reigning champion @nyckdevries takes the lead of the race ⚡️
2022 @Shell_Recharge BerlinEPrix pic.twitter.com/FFaJZgtpRY
– ABB FIA Formula E World Championship (@FIAFormulaE) May 15, 2022
Robin Frijns had to fight harder than he would have liked on his way to fifth place: the attack mode was not activated on the Envision driver’s first attempt. Frijns therefore had to drive through the additional loop a second time to secure the extra power. The fact that it was still enough for a top-5 finish despite this deficit speaks well for him.
Sixth went to Antonio Felix da Costa (DS Techeetah) ahead of Oliver Rowland and Andre Lotterer (Porsche). The German kept up with the leaders in the beginning, but after the attack mode was activated, it was all backwards for him. The final points went to Jean-Eric Vergne (DS Techeetah) and Mitch Evans (Jaguar).
Pascal Wehrlein (Porsche) still finished twelfth after a weak qualifying, Maximilian Günther ended up in 16th place. The 2022 Formula E season continues with the E-Prix in Jakarta (Indonesia) in three weeks.
