Components E: Dennis wins Sunday’s Rome E-Prix as his championship rivals falter

Avalanche Andretti driver Jake Dennis took an necessary victory on this weekend’s second Rome E-Prix as his essential championship rivals have been hit by numerous troubles on the Circuito Cittadino dell’EUR. F1Technical’s senior author Balázs Szabó experiences on Race 2 of this weekend’s double-header Rome E-Prix from the Rome EUR paddock.

This weekend marked the penultimate spherical of the 2022/2023 FIA Components E World Championship earlier than the sphere assembles in London in two weeks’ time for the season-closing double-header.

Yesterday noticed Jaguar take a dominant one-two in qualifying with Mitch Evans might convert into his third Rome E-Prix win. Nonetheless, his team-mate Sam Hen crashed out in the midst of the 25-lap race with a number of drivers gathering him. The incident introduced out a prolonged security automotive which made the Rome E-Prix the longest race in Components E historical past at 1 hour 37 minutes and a couple of.976 seconds in size.

Qualifying recap

Following his vitality administration issues in yesterday’s Rome E-Prix, Jake Dennis took pole place for the second Italian race, beating his championship rival and present championship chief Nick Cassidy. Nissan driver Norman Nato took a shocking third with yesterday’s qualifying stars Mitch Evans and Sam Hen ending the session fourth and fifth quickest.

Confirming his bettering kind, Maximilian Guenther put his Maserati in P6 on residence turf for his crew. Former championship runaway chief Pascal Wehrlein ended the session down in P15 which left him with lots to do within the second Rome spherical.

McLaren was unable to duplicate their nice qualifying efficiency with Jake Hughes and Rene Rast ending in P11 and P13 respectively. It was a tricky and disappointing session for Sacha Fenestraz in addition to the Frenchman introduced up the rear of the sphere following his eye-catching efficiency in yesterday’s qualifying session.

Race report

Jake Dennis maintained the lead initially of the 24-lap race with Nyck Cassidy, Norman Nato, Mitch Evans, Sam Hen and Maximilian Guenther additionally hanging on to their beginning place.

Nonetheless, on Lap 2, Cassidy was desirous to overtake the race chief on the skin of Flip 7, however because the pair battled it out, Evans misjudged his braking level and bumped into the again of his countryman. With the pair first unable to get their vehicles going once more, Security Automobile was deployed.

The incident precipitated vital injury to the automotive of each Kiwis, that means that they needed to dive into the pits for brand spanking new entrance wings. With the security automotive leaving the observe simply after two laps, yesterday’s winner Evans had no time to shut in on the pack. He accomplished two laps, however he was pressured to retire from the motion as a result of additional injury to his automotive which the crew was unable to restore throughout his pit cease.

When the race restarted, Nato appeared to have nice efficiency and made a number of makes an attempt to grab the lead from Dennis. Nonetheless, the Frenchman touched the rear of Dennis’ automotive on Lap 6, damaging his entrance wing. Regardless of the comparatively vital injury, the Nissan driver didn’t lose any efficiency and stayed out.

Following the incident, Dennis managed to stretch his legs a little bit bit which allowed him to take his first 50kW assault mode and keep the lead. Nato adopted swimsuit, however he misplaced a spot to Hen and dropped again to 3rd.

On Lap 13, Hen determined to take his first energy increase which noticed him slip again behind Nato and Sebastien Buemi in P4. Dennis and Nato then went by means of the activation zone for the second and remaining time whereas Hen reclaimed third place.

Whereas the Jaguar racer appeared to have extra tempo than the 2 main drivers, he was unable to capitalize on them as Nato managed to fend off any assaults Hen made.

Within the meantime, Dennis was in a position to stretch his legs and construct up a small hole from Nato to clinch his second win of the season.

Nato got here residence second, claiming his first podium end of the season with Hen securing the final spot on the rostrum. Maserati continued their upward trajectory with their drivers Edoardo Mortara and Maximilian Guenther ending the 24-lap race in P4 and P6 respectively. After retiring from the motion yesterday, Envision Racing driver Buemi completed in P4 sandwiched within the Maserati pair.

Former championship runaway chief Pascal Wehlein endured a tough qualifying session, however managed to climb up the order to take a seventh-place end forward of DS Penske’s reigning champion Stoffel Vandoorne. Ending within the factors for the fifth time in 2023, Dan Ticktum put his NIO automotive in P9 with Staff Abt’s Nico Mueller rounding out the highest ten.