POLE POSITION AND PODIUM FOR DS PENSKE IN DIRIYAH
IN THE ROUND 2 OF THE FIA FORMULA E WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Diriyah, KSA: Round 2 ABB Formula E FIA World Championship
- Pole Position and Podium for DS PENSKE and Jean-Eric Vergne, the 2-time Formula E Champion claiming the second place at Round 2 of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship
- 16th Julius Baer Pole Position – JEV equals all-time Formula E record in Diriyah
- Stoffel Vandoorne, Formula E World Champion started P11 and finished P14 after strong battle in the midpack.
Diriyah, KSA – DS PENSKE celebrates its first podium of Season 10 in style. Indeed the Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne showcased once again an impressive performance and claimed second place around the historic streets of Diriyah. Stoffel Vandoorne crossed the finish line P14.
A great start to a double-header weekend in Saudi with JEV making it through to the Duels and thrilling the Saudi crowd to put the DS E-TENSE FE23 on Pole. Stoffel qualified P11 after being forced to the dirty side of the track on his final push lap.
When the lights went out at the start of the race, both cars had a great start. While Stoffel was engaged in an intense mid-pack battle, the two-time Formula E champion JEV delivered a masterclass in defensive driving and energy management to fend off fierce competition. Team strategy was spot on with JEV taking Attack Mode early which dropped him from P1 to P3 . But in typical JEV fashion he made great overtakes to get back to P2 and hold off a hard charging to finish P2 and earn 21 Points for his efforts.
Stoffel fought it out in the mid-field dropping at one point to P16 with Attack Mode, he clawed his way back up putting in a solid run to finish P14.
With everything to fight for, the team is already at work tonight with the ultimate morale boost and the focus firmly ahead to Round 3 tomorrow on 27th January. The goal remains to continue its ascending journey in the championship.
DS PENSKE team is ranked P3 after Round 2 of the FIA Formula E Word Championship.
Team results – 2024 Diriyah E-Prix Round 2
|
Driver |
FP1 |
FP2 |
Quali |
Race |
|
JEV |
P2 |
12 |
P1 |
P2 |
|
VAN |
P3 |
P6 |
P11 |
P14 |
Jay Penske, Owner and Team Principal of DS PENSKE
‘After a strong qualifying it was great to have JEV setting on pole, and seeing him on the podium confirms our performance. He’s done a fantastic job. Of course, we are here to win, but I can only focus on the positive and all the hard work that has put us way ahead of where we were last year at this time. I’m looking forward to tomorrow and getting both cars in the points. We need to keep that momentum.’
Jean-Eric Vergne, 2018 & 2019 Formula E Champion
“Usually starting on Pole Position, you want to win the race and any other place is a disappointment, but looking at the pace of the Andretti and the Jaguar cars, they were so strong and today I am very happy with the second place, the best I could have done today. Looking back last year, I was out of the points in Riyadh, very happy we made a huge step forward, the hard work is paying off, we are definitely catching up, some good points in the Championship for the team, and I am going to fight for more wins!’
Stoffel Vandoorne, 2022 Formula E World Champion
“Obviously a bit of frustrating day for me, we were quite quick in the practice sessions, got a good feeling with the car, we knew that the qualifying was going to be very important for this race, and the energy management was going to be quite low. Unfortunately we got the timimgs a bit wrong, in qualifying been released a bit too late on the second run, it compromised the whole qualifying and the starting position of the race. Quite frustrating because I feel we had pace to be in the top-5 as well today. In the race we made good calls on the Attack Mode, but passing is very difficult here. We have the pace and we are at work to prepare the race tomorrow.’
