Jake Dennis (Avalanche Andretti) took full advantage of his rivals’ misfortune to hammer his authority home on the ABB FIA Formula E drivers’ championship with a stunning first “Grand Slam” of the all-electric series’ GEN3 era: pole Position, fastest lap and the race win, leading every lap of Round 14 on the streets of Rome in the process.
Dennis led away from pole and just about kept himself out of the absolute disaster that struck his closest title rivals Nick Cassidy (Envision Racing) and Mitch Evans (Jaguar TCS Racing) behind on just the second lap of the race.
As the former took a look at Dennis for the lead into the braking zone at the infamous Turn 7, Evans lost the rear of his Jaguar in the compression, clipped the leader’s Andretti and spectacularly launched over the top of Cassidy’s Envision Racing Jaguar I-TYPE 6. It was another huge moment in the battle for the drivers’ title and one Dennis took full advantage of. Evans’ damage proved terminal while Cassidy could only recover to 14th by the end of the race.
OH NO!!!!! 🤯
Mitch Evans goes into the back of Nick Cassidy and ends up ON TOP of the Envision Racing driver!
Both drivers escape unhurt – thank goodness for the halo!@Hankook_Sport #RomeEPrix pic.twitter.com/NnvJdmf1l4
— ABB FIA Formula E World Championship (@FIAFormulaE) July 16, 2023
“It hurts — it sucks right now,” Evans said. “It all happened very quickly, I wasn’t expecting them to back up so much as I was approaching the back of Jake Dennis. I tried to avoid it, but then I rode Nick Cassidy’s wheel, and it just got out of control. I feel really bad. It caught me by surprise, I was not expecting them to be that slow at the apex.
“I was in an attacking mindset, I wanted to make progress and position myself into Turn 8 to get Nick, but obviously it didn’t go to plan. Feel sorry for Nick, and the Envision Racing guys. This has obviously really hurt my championship now.”
From that point, Dennis pulled away to the tune of three seconds at the checkered flag, helped by Nissan’s Norman Nato managing to hold off Sam Bird (Jaguar TCS Racing) for the duration despite suffering early damage to his front wing.
“I am honestly lost for words how we have just won that race. It was so tactical inside the cockpit, trying to keep Bird within a certain distance because obviously he is going to try and help Mitch (Evans),” said Dennis. “I really needed Norman as my wingman that race, and we worked together really well. I gave him space to help him defend when Bird went on ATTACK MODE and then when I needed the same he did just that.”
Dennis is one of only three drivers to have sealed a Grand Slam and is the first driver to have achieved the feat twice in Formula E history. More importantly, that result means Dennis takes a 24-point advantage over Cassidy into the season finale doubleheader in London on July 29-30 — home soil and a circuit he’s strong at as a two-time winner. Evans is 44 points back in third, while TAG Heuer Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein retains a slim mathematical hope, 49 points shy of top spot with 58 points available.
Envision Racing heads the way in the teams’ table by 13 points over TAG Heuer Porsche.