Mercedes’ Nyck de Vries clinched his maiden Formula E win with a dominant display in the Diriyah E-Prix night race on Friday, leading home Venturi’s Edoardo Mortara and Jaguar Racing’s Mitch Evans.
The small Dutchman left only crumbs for his rivals in Riyadh, topping free practice, his qualifying group, the superpole segment and the 32-lap race.
It all started with a clean getaway and a commanding lead into Turn 1, after which de Vries was able to build a cushion over his rivals, although successive Safety Car periods kept the Mercedes driver on his toes throughout as he carefully managed his energy consumption.
Behind, a spat between Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein and Audi’s René Rast saw the latter gain an upper had over his countryman, but the Team ABT charger was unable thereafter to make any real inroads into de Vries’ advantage.
Meanwhile, Mortara was on a tear, making a productive use of his attack mode to put one over on Evans and Wehrlein thanks to a wicked double-pass maneuver.
After the second Safety Car intervention sparked by a heavy crash by Andretti’s Maximilian Gunther, Mortara again made good use of his attack mode on the restart to pass Rast and ensure his runner-up spot behind de Vries while Evans claimed the final spot on the podium.
Rast and Wehrlein completed the top-5 ahead of DAMS’ Oliver Rowland, Mahindra’s Alexander Sims, Mercedes’ Stoffel Vandoorne, Audi’s Lucas di Grassi and NIO’s Oliver Turvey who rounded off the top-10.
©Mercedes