Tag: Jean-Eric Vergne

Jean-Eric Vergne has “absolutely no regrets” about missing out on victory in the first race of the Berlin E-Prix doubleheader, but was less than happy about how the race itself played out.

The DS Penske driver started third on the grid and remained in victory contention throughout, despite an aggressive 46 laps that had multiple drivers forcing their way to the front. But Nick Cassidy saved energy early on and shot from a low of 21st to win in a drive that surprised everyone — and why Vergne said “I feel as if I won.”

“We had a great qualifying, a great race,” he told RACER. “I’m always angry when I don’t win, but tonight I leave the track very happy with the job we’ve done as a team and I have absolutely no regret not to have won the race today.”

Nevertheless, Vergne is unimpressed by the trend toward “peloton races” where drivers conserve energy early on to ensure they have enough to fight at the end, resulting in tight pack races and multiple passes. And he says he’s not the only driver displeased with the style of races that have proven popular among viewers.

“It’s horrible. Honestly, I really don’t like this kind of racing — I hate it,” he said. “And I think every driver hates it but it’s the way we have to race. We’re here to compete, we’re here to win, so if we have to drive in reverse, we will have to learn to drive in reverse.

“That doesn’t mean that I like this kind of racing — it’s truly horrible from a drivers’ point of view. It’s a mess.”

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Despite the success of Cassidy’s strategy, Vergne doesn’t see himself attempting a similar approach in Sunday’s race, insisting that “it’s going to be key again to have a good qualifying and stay more or less at the front.”

“When you’re leading the race like I was, ‘You cannot take the risk. It’s impossible,’” he said when asked if emulating Cassidy would be an option. “Because then if you imagine you have a safety car, the energy target becomes higher and then you cannot overtake any more.

“It was a calculated bet for him because he was last and had nothing to lose anyway. It was smart, I would have done the same, but all the things played in his favor — the second safety car, the target being lower, and everybody struggling on energy because everybody was fighting. It worked well but if you do 10 races it might not happen again like this.”

Cassidy’s charge didn’t just catch out Vergne on track, but his team too, although he knew once Cassidy was behind him he wouldn’t be able to hold the Jaguar TCS Racing man off.

“Even my engineer didn’t see him coming and when he told me he had two-and-a-half percent more energy, I knew the race was over,” Vergne admitted. “It made no sense to fight it.

“That’s why I feel this second place is a little bit like a win because if you remove him, we did actually a very good job considering all the guys that were around and all the fighting. At one point I was P7, so to come back, we showed good strength, good strategy as well.”

Jean-Eric Vergne took a record-equalling 16th career ABB Formula E World Championship pole position for the first race of the Diriyah E-Prix doubleheader in Saudi Arabia, defeating Mitch Evans by a slender 0.072s in the qualifying duels final.

It was the DS Penske team’s first pole position since Sao Paulo last year and Vergne’s first since Jakarta 2022, making it his first top qualifier result of the series’ Gen3 era.

Evans went into the final as the clear favorite, being the first driver to break the 1m12s barrier as he defeated Andretti Global’s Jake Dennis in the semifinals. Before that, he beat Jaguar TCS Racing teammate Nick Cassidy, who was the pacesetter in the earlier group stages.

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Vergne’s route to the final, his first time advancing to the duels since Portland last year, included wins against Norman Nato — who was fast enough to win any other quarterfinal but for Vergne setting the best lap of the day to that point — and Sergio Sette Camara, who impressed to reach the semifinals for ERT.

Ahead of the duels, the first part of group qualifying was an incredibly competitive collective, with reigning champion Dennis, both drivers with most wins from last season (Evans and Cassidy), the most recent Saudi Arabia polesitter Jake Hughes, two other previous winners (Nyck de Vries and Lucas di Grassi), and round one winner Pascal Wehrlein all battling it out.

NEOM McLaren driver Hughes was a late casualty, being pushed out of the top-four transfer spots by Evans in the closing moments of the session. Envision Racing’s Robin Frijns, Nissan’s Oliver Rowland, Abt Cupra’s Nico Mueller, di Grassi, Mahindra driver Eduoardo Mortara and de Vries also didn’t advance.

In the second group, a traffic jam formed in the final seconds of the session as everyone attempted to set their last laps as late as possible to capitalize on the best track conditions. The strategy didn’t pay off for many though, the low speeds before they started their final flying laps causing many to lose tire temperature.

As a result, only Vergne (who topped that second group) and Nato improved into the top five. Sam Bird in the second McLaren, DS Penske’s Stoffel Vandoorne Envision Racing’s Sebastien Buemi — a surprise victim after his podium finish last time out in Mexico — Nissan’s Sacha Fenestraz (who brushed the wall as he exited the final corner on his last lap) Antonio Felix da Costa (TAG Heuer Porsche), Dan Ticktum (ERT), and Jehan Daruvala (Maserati), the last driver to start his final lap, all failed to advance.

Behind Vergne and Evans on the front row, Dennis will start third, with Sette Camara fourth. Nato will start directly behind his Andretti teammate in fifth, alongside Wehrlein in sixth. Cassidy starts seventh, with Guenther eighth, while Bird and Hughes complete the top-10 with an all-McLaren row five.

Vandoorne lines up 11th, ahead of Frijns and Buemi. It’s then Nissan duo Rowland and Fenestraz in 14th and 15th, with Mueller, di Grassi, Ticktum, Mortara, da Costa (who was penalized three grid places for his collision with Mueller in Mexico City earlier this month) Daruvala and de Vries completing the grid.

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