Stoffel Vandoorne wins second Formula E Rome E-Prix race!

© LAT Images for Daimler AG

Stoffel Vandoorne, who drives for Mercedes’ Formula E Team, has won the second Rome E-Prix race. Here is the full team report.

After a disappointing first race of the weekend, the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team hit back with a win in the second race: Stoffel Vandoorne won the E-Prix in Rome, taking his second ever Formula E win.

  • In a repeat of his strong performance from Saturday, Stoffel progressed through his qualifying group to contest the Super Pole where he was the first out to post a lap time on a drying track. He qualified fourth on the grid for the weekend’s second race.
  • Using Attack Mode for the first of three times, Stoffel took the race lead and remained in front until the chequered flag. This was Stoffel’s second Formula E win and also the team’s second this season.
  • Nyck de Vries was in Group 1 in qualifying and had to go out on a wet track while conditions were at their worst. He secured P18 on the grid.
  • Nyck started the second race of the weekend from P17, after an opponent was handed a grid penalty. He fought his way up to the Top Ten, until contact with Sam Bird’s car on the last lap forced him to retire.
  • Nyck set the fastest lap of the race with a time of 1:40.771 while Stoffel posted the fastest lap of anyone finishing in the Top Ten (1:41.820).
  • After the fourth round of the season, the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team (65 points) is in second place in the teams’ championship.
  • The next race weekend of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship will take place April 24-25 at Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo Circuit.

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Ian James

Team Principal

I said it yesterday already: this team has shown resilience all weekend. The team did an outstanding job working until the late hours to ensure both our cars were repaired for today’s track action. It wasn’t easy, but they delivered an amazing performance and had the massive amount of work turned around in time for FP3. After the tough day yesterday, we pushed the reset button, and approached this day as we always should be doing and have done so far: a new day, with new opportunities for the team. Today brought us that sought-after redemption.

I don’t like calling a performance dominant, as that would undermine the performances of all other teams and drivers today, but I think Stoffel’s performance can be called near perfect. He stayed out of trouble in the opening laps of the race, and then managed to fight his way up to the top. Congratulations to him, and all of the team who made this possible.

Nyck was less lucky again today. He was in the fight for points for a long time, coming all the way from P17, but we saw what happened in the last lap; he had an incident, and was unable to finish the race. It’s unfortunate to see him not having been able to score points this weekend, but he’s once again shown what he is capable of.

Leaving the second race weekend of the season with a second win of the season feels very good. But we also know we didn’t turn every opportunity we got this weekend into a result – whether that was in or out of our control. We’re thrilled to be racing again in two weeks’ time again in Valencia, so we can show the world what we’re made of.

Stoffel Vandoorne

What an amazing victory! It makes up for what happened yesterday to some extent. Winning today’s race sure feels good. Yesterday was a real roller-coaster of emotions. First off, pole position and then our great pace followed by the incident on the first lap and subsequent charge through the field to catch up, and then finally; the accident when I had to avoid Lucas. It was all pretty frustrating, and we probably already should have gotten good results yesterday. To end the weekend on such a high today feels fantastic. I would like to thank everyone in the team and especially my mechanics, who had their work cut out to get the car fixed after the accident. But everything was just perfect today, including the team’s strategy, which helped me get the drop on Sims. I wasn’t sure what to expect during the safety car period just before the end but still had fan boost, so I could defend my position. It didn’t feel exactly great after comfortably being in the lead, but I didn’t put a foot wrong over the final lap and managed to secure the win, which is what counts in the end.

Nyck de Vries

Today was tough. This morning we were very much compromised because of the changing weather conditions during qualifying. Bearing that in mind, we made the best of it. It was a relatively steady race and comeback, but I got into a racing incident on the last lap when we were fighting for P10. With the benefit of hindsight, I would say that I probably wanted the point too badly which was not even necessary, as a number of penalties were set to be awarded after the race. Also, ours would have been the fastest lap of the race. It just wasn’t meant to be today.

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