Formula E: Mercedes-EQ’s Vandoorne shines on the streets of Monaco
Mercedes-EQ’s Stoffel Vandoorne raced to victory on the streets of Monaco to secure his first win of Season 8 of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.
Vandoorne managed his energy perfectly throughout a stuttering Monaco E-Prix and emerged on the right side of a full-course yellow to get the better of Jaguar’s Mitch Evans, who was looking for his third win on the bounce following his pole position.
The Belgian, who had come so close to winning a number of races this season, had to wait patiently to lead the race, eventually coming out in front after Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein was forced to retire due to technical issues.
Locked in a tense battle with Evans for a large portion of the race, Vandoorne kept his cool to catapult himself to the top of the Drivers’ World Championship, ahead of DS Techeetah’s Jean-Éric Vergne who finished third.
Envision Racing’s Robin Frijns battled well and came in at fourth, ahead of Antonio Felix da Cosat of DS Techeetah. The rest of the point scorers were made up of ROKiT Venturi’s Lucas Di Grassi, Envision’s Nick Cassidy, Nissan’s Seb Buemi, Avalanche Andretti’s Jake Dennis and Mercedes-EQ’s Stoffel Vandoorne.
Commenting on his victory, Vandoorne told Formula E: “For any driver, it’s such a special race. Everyone wants to tick the box here and to come here after a struggle last year and qualify well is great. I knew I was in the mix and I knew I had a very strong car in the race running – then we executed a perfect race so yeah, I’m very happy.
“We’ve always been fighting at the front this year and I’ve qualified on pole but just couldn’t convert them into victories. But now, from fourth, it was finally my turn.
“I slept in my own bed last night, so it was quite strange waking up this morning and coming into the paddock! I’ve had good races actually at the start of the year and I couldn’t convert them into victory. So, I was just like, look, head down and my turn will come soon. And what a place to do it.
“I slept in my own bed last night, so it was quite strange waking up this morning and coming into the paddock! I’ve had good races actually at the start of the year and I couldn’t convert them into into victory. So, I was just like, look, head down and my turn will come soon. And what a place to do it.
“I felt a little bit unhappy in Free Practice 1 this morning and made a couple of changes to the car and then immediately I knew I’ve got a good car here – now I just need to go and do the job.
“Easier said than done but we managed to do that. And then in the race, it was a case of playing the long game, really. In the first couple of laps, I saw Mitch was pushing quite hard. He was pulling the field along and I was trying to keep my calm. I didn’t have that much pressure from behind, so I could keep my energy a little bit better. That gave me the advantage once I got into the lead.”
