Written by Teagan Crump, Edited by Vyas Ponnuri
Formula E’s season opener in São Paulo brought it all — drama, excitement, ecstasy, relief and more in perfect measure. It marked the perfect way to kickstart Formula E Season 12. A race victory for Jake Dennis kicked off his Season 12 campaign.
Credit: Pete Phillips – PhotographybyPhillips
Jake Dennis
For Jake Dennis, the São Paulo E-Prix weekend was almost perfect. He qualified in second position, and avoided the chaos of lap one, turn one to take the lead of the E-Prix. When he took Attack Mode, the Briton dropped to ninth position before fighting his way back up to fourth position. He then moved up to second in a stunning double overtake.
Lap 17 saw him re-claim his lead. Dennis had a brilliant weekend, taking his first victory since the Season 10 Diriyah E-Prix.
Nick Cassidy
Nick Cassidy’s opening weekend with Citroën was certainly one to remember. Despite qualifying further down the order in 15th, he moved up an incredible 12 places in the race to take the podium. This podium reflects and continues the success he saw at the end of Season 11, and could show that Citroën has a lot of race pace and potential, despite being new to the space of Formula E.
Porsche
Credit: Pete Phillips (PhotographybyPhillips)
Qualifying has a mix of results for Porsche Formula E- Pascal Wehrlein set the fastest time but was hit with a three-place grid penalty for ‘spinning his wheels in pitlane’, whereas Nico Müller managed 12th, although he started from 11th on the grid.
Previously, Müller has struggled in Formula E, but he managed to make up six positions and finish fifth. Wehrlein, on the other hand, had an uneventful race on paper; despite leading the race midway through, he finished where he had started. Overall, Porsche had a very positive weekend and has once again proven itself to be good and driven towards success.
The driver pairing that the team chose for Season 12 has a lot of experience with Porsche. Müller has tested machinery for the German team previously and drove the Andretti Porsche 99X Electric last season, highlighting his experience with the Porsche powertrain.
Season 12 marks Pascal Wehrlein’s sixth season with Formula E, and his experience shows. His pole position time was 1:09:812, which was over three hundredths faster than Dennis in second.
Joel Eriksson
Whilst it is well-known that Formula E rookies struggle, Joel Eriksson defied the odds and scored points. He was the only rookie driver to score points this weekend and managed to beat Formula E champions and drivers with much more experience, finishing seventh.
This could show that he has the ability to perform and score points, as well as fight for the accolade of Rookie Of The Year.
It is only Eriksson’s first weekend as a full-time driver, but he has shown that he has the skill to fight for points.
Zane Maloney
Credit: Pete Phillips – PhotographybyPhillips
Zane Maloney heads into his second Formula E season and scored his first career points this weekend in São Paulo. The Barbados driver managed to fight his way to tenth and survive the chaos of the race.
Following the race, Maloney said:
“It’s been a very chaotic day. We had a front driveshaft problem with both cars in qualifying, which was very unfortunate, as I think the pace was going to be quite good but we had to start at the back and split the strategies.
“Unfortunately, Lucas didn’t finish the race, and we had some procedural issues on our side, however, the pace of the car was a step forward from last year, and I think we can be optimistic for the future.
“I’m pleased to have scored my first point in Formula E but of course I’m looking for a lot more than that so we will keep pushing and hopefully have more success in Mexico.”
