Tag: Avalanche Andretti

Andretti’s Dennis clinches Formula E crown as Evans wins in London

Jake Dennis dodged the slings and arrows of a typically frenetic Hankook London E-Prix to come home second, enough to secure the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Drivers’ Championship for the Avalanche Andretti driver with one race remaining, while …

Jake Dennis dodged the slings and arrows of a typically frenetic Hankook London E-Prix to come home second, enough to secure the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Drivers’ Championship for the Avalanche Andretti driver with one race remaining, while Mitch Evans took the checkered flag first for Jaguar TCS Racing.

Dennis survived two missed trips through the Attack Mode power boost loop, heavy pressure from his closest rival and polesitter Nick Cassidy (Envision Racing) as well as two red-flag stoppages to become Formula E’s first British champion and the first to take the title on home soil by taking a record 10th podium finish of the season. Dennis’ title is also Andretti’s first in Formula E, the American team having been a part of the series from day one.

Dennis headed into the race 24 points clear of Cassidy, who started from pole after Evans qualified first but was handed a five-place grid penalty for causing an accident last time out in Rome.

Cassidy led the early stages before ceding top spot to eventual winner and countryman Evans on lap 11 and second spot to teammate Sebastien Buemi. Dennis had earlier made it by Cassidy with an opportunistic move at the final corner just a couple of laps before, with Cassidy immediately fighting his way back by the Andretti car — a titanic scrap looked to be brewing.

However, with Cassidy running in formation, close behind the Swiss, the Envision drivers came into contact. The former’s front wing was dislodged, catching beneath his left-front wheel. Repairs were attempted but his race couldn’t be salavaged — one fewer challenger for Dennis to deal with.

Loose bodywork from that clash caused a brief spell under the safety car, bunching the pack up. Dennis, meanwhile was not impressed over the radio with Porsche stablemate Pascal Wehrlein (TAG Heuer Porsche), the German hanging onto fourth at the expense of the standings leader in the customer, Porsche-powered Avalanche Andretti as the teams’ title battle heated up. Team owner Michael Andretti wasn’t pleased either…

Wehrlein’s challenge then also fell by the wayside in a shunt just before a red flag was flown for the recovery of Sacha Fenestraz’s Nissan. He and Jake Hughes tangled into Turn 1, with the damage to the German’s Porsche terminal.

Evans leads Sebastien Buemi. Simon Galloway/Motorsport Images

On the restart Evans led away, with Dennis working his way into third. An over-optimistic move from Norman Nato (Nissan) at the penultimate turn on lap 34 then caused a chain reaction behind with several cars unable to avoid the melee, enforcing another spell under the red flag.

It was a three-lap sprint to the flag at the restart, with Dennis having only to hold fast to ensure he’d take top honors. Duly, he did, in front of jubilant home support — made doubly sure by his promotion to second at the flag, just behind Evans, with a penalty for TAG Heuer Porsche’s Antonio Felix da Costa, dropping him out of the podium positions. Sebastien Buemi (Envision Racing) rounded out the podium.

“Oh my God. That is incredible!” said Dennis. “That race was so hard, everything thrown at us. World champions, baby!

“I felt like everyone was racing against us but Jesus Christ — we have just become world champion and I am so so happy for myself, the team and everyone, we deserved it so much.

“I only joined the championship three years ago and we almost won it in our rookie year, but now to come back and properly have the year that we had, you know break all the podium records and to become world champion, it’s just mind blowing. I really didn’t think it coming into this year and full credit to my boys — I love them so much and they’ve given me an absolute rocketship all year. And this is the least I can do for them.

“I can hear the fans as well and it’s just absolutely incredible to share this with them.”

While the drivers’ crown is secured, there’s still all to play for in the teams’ title race in tomorrow’s season finale in London, with Envision Racing heading the way from the factory Jaguar TCS Racing squad while TAG Heuer Porsche clings to third with a mathematical chance of the top spot.

Andretti’s Dennis stretches Formula E title lead with ‘Grand Slam’ in Rome

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, …

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.

“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.

 

Andretti’s Jake Dennis duels his way to Portland Formula E pole

Avalanche Andretti’s Jake Dennis took Julius Baer Pole Positon and the lead of the ABB Formula E drivers’ world championship ahead of the Southwire Portland E-Prix Round 12, beating Sacha Fenestraz (Nissan) in the final Duel. Dennis went into the …

Avalanche Andretti’s Jake Dennis took Julius Baer Pole Positon and the lead of the ABB Formula E drivers’ world championship ahead of the Southwire Portland E-Prix Round 12, beating Sacha Fenestraz (Nissan) in the final Duel.

Dennis went into the Finals looking for his first pole of the season — on his team’s home soil to boot. Going up against the Nissan of Fenestraz was going to be tough, with the rapid French-Argentine a three-time Formula E record breaker as he once again broke the series’ fastest speed over a lap for the third time this season earlier on. In addition, Dennis had lost all three final appearances this season, with this being his third consecutive Final in a row, however he finally managed to bag the all-important P1 spot in Portland.

Explaining that he was behind in the first sector, Dennis said he went full send in the final part of the lap and managed to make it an Andretti pole in front of the home crowd. His boss, Michael Andretti, was on hand to see the heroics unfold.

The three points for pole also means Dennis now takes the championship lead from the TAG Heuer Porsche of Pascal Wehrlein. It’s the first time he’s been back on the top spot sine leading the standings for the first two races of Season 9.

Semis
First up was the battle of the Nissans, and it was Fenestraz who finished quicker than his teammate Norman Nato. These two are no strangers to a duel against one another, and the last time this happened was in Monaco when Fenestraz won, leaving Nato settling for third on the grid.

For the other place on the front row, Dennis took on Rene Rast. Dennis has been unbeaten in the Semis this year, and now makes it four-nil in the third consecutive race that he has reached at least the Semis. In his final lap, Dennis also set the fastest lap of the weekend so far with a 1m08.919s to beat Rast, who starts fourth in tonight’s race.

Quarters
Despite learning that he would be starting the race from the pit lane, as his DS Penske team was found to have installed RFID scanning equipment at pit entry this morning that was able to collect live data from all cars, Jean-Eric Vergne still took part in his quarters duel with Nato. Even though his result wouldn’t impact the penalty the team got for breaking the regulations, Vergne lost to the Nissan either way.

Next up was Fenestraz, who continued the Nissan dominance from the weekend, and beat the Maserati MSG Racing of Maximilian Guenther. It meant the end of a good run of form for the Maserati driver, who up until today had won six consecutive Duels, but was still in the Duels for the fourth race in a row. Guenther starts fifth.

It was the battle of the Jakes again as Hughes took on Dennis for a spot in the Semi Finals. It was the second consecutive race and fourth time overall these two had battled one another in the Duels. Despite Hughes having the highest win percentage in the history of the Duels at 69%, it was Dennis who impressed in front of the team’s home crowd. Hughes will line up seventh.

Finally, the TAG Heuer Porsche of Antonio Felix da Costa took on Rast. With the Porsche team struggling with qualifying this season and Rast setting the fastest lap in Formula E history yesterday, it was an easy victory for the McLaren driver with da Costa set to start Round 12 from eighth position.

Group A
The first of the two groups was always going to provide some excitement. Three of the five championship contenders were in this group, with TAG Heuer Porsche’s Wehrlein, Envision Racing’s Nick Cassidy and Vergne all looking for a spot in the Duels.

The Nissan of Nato, who went quickest in FP2, had a close call during one of his qualifying laps as he narrowly missed the wall at Turn 1. Plenty of others also found the limits and exceeded them, including Guenther who ran wide on his final lap.

It was a French-dominated top four, with Fenestraz going quickest with a time of 1m09.860s. The Nissan powertrain has topped all sessions of the weekend so far, and looks very strong around this Portland circuit. DS Penske’s Vergne finished in second, although there were reports after the session that there could be an issue for the team which could see him demoted.

FP2’s leading man Nato finished in third and Guenther rounded up the top four despite his trip through the grass at the end of the session. Cassidy finished in sixth, with Wehrlein down in 10th which would provisionally put him on the second-to-last row of the grid.

Group B
It was a shock start to Group B qualifying, as Mitch Evans got out of his car and failed to start. The championship contender had undergone a new gearbox and battery ahead of the inaugural Portland E-Prix.

After topping FP1, Rast seemed right at home around the PIR, and set the fastest time in his group. Behind him, Jake Dennis became the only championship title rival to make it through to the Duels. Rast’s teammate, Jake Hughes, slotted into third, and Porsche’s da Costa secured the last space in the Duels.

UP NEXT: Southwire Portland E-Prix, 8pm ET. Live coverage on CNS Sports Network begins at 7:30pm ET

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