Four talking points from Formula E in Rome

Bird shines, then fined

Bird and Evans only qualified 10^th and 12^th respectively for round three on Saturday, then both put in accomplished race performances to rise up the order and finish second and third – Jaguar’s first double-podium in Formula E. Bird’s experience shone through as he pulled off neat passing moves on former team-mate Robin Frijns and Stoffel Vandoorne to lie fourth with 10 minutes of the 45-minute plus one lap race to go. The 34-year-old then made a sweet move on Nyck de Vries, who led the standings coming into Rome, and was perfectly placed to inherit second when leader Lucas di Grassi hit trouble with a broken driveshaft.

But for round four on Sunday, Bird endured the slings and arrows of Formula E’s outrageous fortune. Rain-affected qualifying again left him down the grid, in 11^th, but this time there would be no fairy-tale rise to the podium. Bird’s signature late-braking passing technique proved a tad optimistic as he made contact with Nico Müller’s Dragon/Penske Autosport entry, delaying them both. Then on the last lap de Vries made a mess of a move on Bird and clattered into the Jaguar, which in turn took out Nissan e.dams racer Oliver Rowland. An impact with the barrier left Sam with his tender hand injury, then he copped a fine for exiting his car before he had permission. Double ouch.

Still, that points lead will console him, while Evans completed a strong weekend for Jaguar with a fine sixth place from 12^th on the grid to vault himself up to second, just four points behind Bird. Jaguar has promised before only to fall short – but that was before Bird flew in and joined the team. Right now, the Big Cat is sitting pretty.

Vandoorne’s victory after Saturday shunt

Redemption was the word for Stoffel Vandoorne on Sunday after the Mercedes EQ driver and ex-McLaren Formula 1 ace endured similar misfortune to Bird – but in reverse.

On Saturday, the Belgian had started from pole position, only to be assaulted early on by a wildly optimistic André Lotterer at the favoured overtaking spot at Turn 7. The gap was never really on for the Porsche driver. Vandoorne dropped to 13^th, but got his head down and used a strong Attack Mode strategy to rise back into contention and run fourth in the closing stages. Then disaster struck: di Grassi slowed, Vandoorne moved right to pass the Audi, then was launched into the wall by a manhole cover. To compound his misery, team-mate de Vries couldn’t avoid tagging Vandoorne’s car for a double Mercedes DNF.

The team worked through the night to repair Vandoorne’s car and he repaid them with a decent fourth in the slippery qualifying conditions for Sunday’s round. Ahead of him, Envision Virgin, er, Formula E virgin Nick Cassidy fluffed his pole position advantage by spinning off once the race turned green, after what most felt was an unnecessarily conservative decision to start behind the safety car. Vandoorne passed Venturi’s rookie Norman Nato, then closed in on Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein and took the lead through the Attack Mode cycle, which forces drivers to run off line and pick up 35kW of extra boost. From there, Vandoorne was untouchable and built up a strong lead – which was wiped out in the closing stages when Audi’s René Rast tagged the wall at the final turn, then crashed at the first. The safety car closed up the pack and left Vandoorne with the pressure of one racing lap to complete his victory – aided by a dose of extra Fan Boost power. “This is what we needed yesterday,” he said, “but I guess this makes up for it. It tastes good today.”

The win lifts him directly into title contention. Vandoorne lies fourth in the standings, just 10 points behind Bird and only one behind third-placed Frijns.

Veterans Vergne and di Grassi duke it out

Formula E boasts the most talented grid of drivers outside of Formula 1, and yet despite the steady influx of fast racing drivers that have joined the electric single-seater series, the old hands refuse to be dislodged from the top. Topping even Bird’s star performance, the Saturday race was all about the battle for the win between DS Techeetah’s double champion Jean-Eric Vergne and Audi veteran Lucas di Grassi.

The Vandoorne/Lotterer collision and a power overuse penalty for Oliver Rowland lifted di Grassi and Vergne to the top – and from there it was always going to be tight between these two. Vergne took his first dose of Attack Mode before di Grassi and undercut into the lead, only for the Audi to pull off a smooth move with just six minutes left. Vergne reckoned he’d allowed his rival through in the interests of saving power for a late reply, but we never had the chance to find out how this juicy duel would have been resolved. Out of nowhere, di Grassi slowed with his broken driveshaft, unintentionally triggered the Vandoorne/de Vries accident and a thrilling climax was lost to a race conclusion behind the safety car. Not that Vergne cared. Like all top racing drivers, he’ll take a win however they come.

The Frenchman finished 11^th on Sunday after losing out in the wet qualifying session and starting near the back, while di Grassi was left fuming following a straight-line collision with another veteran, Sebastien Buemi. It capped a disastrous Rome weekend for the Abt-run Audi team, which has slumped to eighth of the 10 teams in the points standings.

Sims flies for Mahindra

Final word goes to bearded Brit Alexander Sims, who was another to experience a dizzying change of fortunes on the streets of Rome. On Saturday, his Mahindra entry let him down in the opening minutes of the race. But the 33-year-old bounced back in style on Sunday, qualifying sixth and rising to a superb second behind Vandoorne in the race. The highlight of Sims’ weekend was his restart from a full course yellow caused by the di Grassi/Buemi collision. Running just behind Wehrlein’s Porsche entry, he reacted quickly to the race going green and darted down the outside of his startled rival to claim his second place. Wehrlein looked set to drop off the podium completely after Nato passed him too, only for the Venturi entry to be penalised for exceeding its energy allowance at the race’s conclusion. Third place was scant consolation for a disappointed Wehrlein, but even behind his Covid-19 mask you couldn’t miss the wide smile on Sims’s face.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.