Formula E

Da Costa domination continues

After some very nail biting last laps, Antonio Felix Da Costa breezes to his second victory with DS Techeetah.

Before Round 6 ot underway, we saw that Oliver Rowland was starting from the pit lane. This was due to the penalties he recevied for swaping his MCU. All the other cars lined up on the grid but had to sit for an extra long time as the lights out was delayed. Finally, after a few extra minutes, we got going in Berlin and Sebastian Buemi was the first to make a move on Andre Lotterer. Buemi tried to overtake but Lotterer held his own and kept 3rd place.

Nyck De Vries was pushing to grab 4th place but due to a lock up, settled back into 5th. Despite some eager overtaking manoevours, everyone kept it safe and steady on the first lap. James Calado, who started at the back, began climibing up the field. A fight that continued throughout the E-Prix was between Felipe Massa and Mitch Evans. Massa managed to pass Evans on lap 1 for 9th place.

As the race began to flow, penalties for Rowland and Calado were announced including stop and go penalties or time penalties. The Belgian Mercedes driver of Stoffel Vandoorne also began making his way through the pack and moved up to 14th by overtaking Di Grassi. Both DS Techeetah cars flew off the start line and continued to charge ahead of the field.

With 41 minutes and 20 seconds remaining, Attack Mode was opened. This is where the drivers get 35kwh of power to use for 4 minutes. Attack Mode is represented by chevrons next to the drivers name to indicate each minute it is in use. Sergio Sette Camara was the first driver to use Attack Mode in round 6 with 35 minutes to go.

We then saw our first retirement of the race in the shape of Robin Frijns. The Envision Virgin Racing driver knocked into the wall at turn 2 and damaged the front right wheel cover. It was announced over the drivers radio that it was a possible suspension failure but an investigation between Frijns and Maximilian Gunther was undertaken. No penalties were given to either party for the incident. Due to this event the race was Yellow Flagged and shortly after, a Safety Car was deployed.

The battle between Massa and Evans continued further with the Jaguar driver swapping places once more. Evans managed to move into 8th position. The Green Flag was waved with 26 minutes and 30 seconds remaining. Da Costa chose his restart extremely wisely as his teammate, Vergne, was still on the corner meaning he could get away quicker. Another driver who benefited from the restart was Sam Bird who overtook D’Ambrosio for 6th.

Buemi then decided to take Attack Mode to try and overtake but, unfortunately, missed the activation marker. This meant that Bird could pass the Swiss driver to move to 5th, pushing Buemi down to 6th. With 22 minutes and 50 seconds to go, Lotterer was pushing right behind Vergne, eager for a podium position. Much like Buemi, Lotterer missed out on the activation marker for Attack Mode which meant he lost out to De Vries.

Vandoorne continued to pick off the pack one by one and moved up to 12th by overtaking Di Grassi once again. A short while later, he moved to 11th by taking Gunther. Lotterer then decided to redeem his earlier mishap one lap later and, this time, correctly gained Attack Mode but lost 4th place to the Envision driver of Bird. D’Ambrosio then pulled off an impressive move up the inside of Evans to slot himself into 6th.

De Vries, who was running in 3rd, made a costly mistake by locking up which saw Lotterer pounce, securing his podium place. Bird then saw an opportunity and also overtook the Dutchman, pushing him down to his starting position of 5th. Another retirement from the E-Prix was Massa as we saw him in the wall with front wing damage. A replay showed him trying to defend from Vandoorne and, unfortunately, put his car in the barrier. Massa was asked if he could reverse his car but felt unable to do so. This caused a Full Course Yellow with just over 10 minutes remaining. Full Course Yellow means cars must slow to 50mph, line up and maintain a distance to each other.

The Full Course Yellow ended with 8 minutes to go which caused a big train from 4th position onwards. Both DS Techeetah cars were wheel to wheel but Da Costa managed to hold his 1st position. Another wheel to wheel battle saw Vandoorne take Attack Mode, lose a place to Gunther but after their scrap, Vandoorne regained his position.

The race began to take a turn for the worse for Vergne as Bird overtook him for 2nd place and started dropping off from the from of the pack. Lotterer then seized the opportunity to fight his former teammate and stole 3rd with less than 5 minutes left. Vandoorne ticked off another driver in the form of Buemi for 8th position. Then using his Fanboost vote, the Belgian driver jumped Evans for 7th.

Vergne then lost out to De Vries as the Frenchman tried to hold the place but just did not have the power. De Vries teammate continued his battle through the pack by moving from 7th to 5th after passing both D’Ambrosio and Vergne on the same lap. This then gave D’Ambrosio the chance to move up another place as Vergne fell further and further back.

After running in the top 10 for most of the race, Evans had a regrettable finish after he got out of shape, causing Gunther to hit him and send him spinning with around 4 laps to go. Lotterer then snatched 2nd place on the final lap from Bird to move up a podium position. The last lap had us on the edge of our seats as cars began to run out of energy with Nico Muller unable to finish the race. Da Costa almost succumbed to the same fate as his energy became dangerously low but after doing some regen, he was able to cross the line with seconds to spare. 99% of the cars crossed the line when hitting 0% energy.

Vergne’s race went from very bad to even worse as he was hit by Di Grassi causing him to fall all the way down to 21st. Vergne then could not finish the race and entered the pits. From the despair of one DS Techeetah to the elation of another as Da Costa wins his second race for the team. Lotterer finished in 2nd with Bird rounding up the podium places in 3rd. Speaking to commentator Dario Franchitti as he was still in the car, he was thrilled with his win and was informed of the carnage going on behind him, to which he replied “I’m looking forward to watching it on TV”. 

Once out of the car, Da Costa then was interviewed by Nicki Sheilds. The Portuguese driver explained how many people expected him to travel to Berlin and win the championship, not realising their are six round to participate in. “I just want to tell everyone, yes I want to win, but there is a long way to go”. Da Costa is now 41 points ahead in the championship and DS Techeetah is 33 points ahead in the constructors.

Round 7 of Season 6 is held tomorrow (06/08/2020) and then we move to Round 8 on Saturday 8th August. Check back with Overtake Motorsport with the latest news and results for the Berlin E-Prix rounds.

Feature Image Credit: ABB FIA Formula E Official Twitter

 

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