Diriyah E-Prix, Saudi Arabia 2022 FIA Formula E-World Championship
Diriyah E-Prix, Saudi Arabia 2022 FIA Formula E-World Championship
Race 1
Jaguar Racing scored strong points in Saudi Arabia at the Diriyah E-Prix – the opening round of the FIA Formula E World Championship. The highlight was Sam Bird, fresh from agreeing a multi-year contract with the team, who finished the race in fourth, only narrowly missing out on a podium.
The Brit lined up fifth on the grid after making it through the group stages of the new qualifying format to secure a place in the quarter-finals. In the new ‘Duel’ quarter-final, Sam competed against fellow Englishman Jake Dennis in the Avalanche Andretti before he was eliminated. In Formula E’s third night race, Sam fought with the ROKiT Venturi of Lucas di Grassi and the Porsche of André Lotterer throughout, demonstrating his great defending skills to bring his Jaguar I-TYPE 5 home in fourth.
New Zealander, Mitch Evans, had a strong start in qualifying for Group A but the session ended under a yellow flag when Edoardo Mortara crashed at the first corner. Evans was unable to set a competitive second qualifying lap time and lined up on the grid in 14th. The Kiwi made decisive overtakes throughout the race and showed the speed of the Jaguar I-TYPE 5 by gaining four places and securing the final point-scoring position. Mitch also achieved his first Fanboost of the season which is voted by fans online.
“A solid start to Season eight for the team with a good double-points finish,” said James Barclay, Jaguar Racing’s team principal.
“Fourth position for Sam was a great result and if a few things had worked out slightly differently we could have been in a position to try and fight for the podium as well. Mitch was badly blocked in qualifying today and we hope this will be reviewed and addressed in the new format going forward.
Starting in 14th, Mitch had a big job in the race but he made great progress to secure a point – always important in a long championship. A good foundation to start and we can build from here tomorrow.”
Race 2
For the second race, Mitch Evans lined up on the grid in 16th after a challenging qualifying session where the Kiwi scraped the walls of the tight street circuit which damaged his steering and compromised his final run.
Sam Bird also had an unfortunate qualifying and was unable to complete a competitive lap after hitting the wall and damaging his rear suspension – he lined up 21st on the grid.
Both drivers were carving their way through the field in the race, gaining five places each and showing the speed and efficiency of the I-TYPE 5. However, an aggressive strategy to save energy for the end of the race was thwarted by a crash from Mahindra’s Alexander Sims which brought out the safety car in the last five minutes. The race did not restart and chances of valuable points evaporated into the desert night.
“Not the day two that we wanted today as qualifying really hampered us,” said Bird afterwards. “The good news going forwards is that we have an amazingly quick race car and we secured the fastest lap today. We were efficient and the safety car at the end scuppered our chances otherwise I think we could have scored a few points today. But we’ll keep our heads up, I believe in the team, we’re going to go forwards and I look forward to Mexico.”
Mitch finished the race just outside of the points in 11th, but the result of the late safety car meant the New Zealander was unable to take his second attack mode. He received a 24-second penalty and came home in 21st place while teammate, Bird, finished 15th.
“I compromised qualifying today which meant we were out of position at the start of the race,” said Evans. “I was making good ground, just up to outside of the points before the safety car came out and ended the race. We were making good progress, gaining places but it was unfortunately one of those weekends that didn’t materialise or go our way. We’ll analyse, put this to bed and come back stronger in Mexico.”
Mitch Evans and Sam Bird