DS PENSKE continues to show competitive performance and leaves São Paulo with their first pole position of the season and a double points haul. Stoffel Vandoorne started in pole position and finished P6, and Jean-Eric Vergne started P7 and finished P5. At the end of this inaugural Brazilian race, the drivers and team delivered a result to be proud as the DS E TENSE FE23’s strong pace advances the team to fourth in the standings.
Stoffel Vandoorne, the reigning champion, clinched his first pole position of this Season 9. The stage was set for a unique battle on this challenging track and after a strong start, Stoffel led for almost half of the race. With slipstream being so beneficial around this circuit, he became down on energy and had strategically to move backward to secure the best position possible. Crossing the line in P6, his performance also earned him the fan-voted Heineken Keep Cool Award.
Jean Éric-Vergne started this ‘carnival’ e-prix in seventh position and fought hard around the bumpy track’s long straights, heavy braking zones and tight corners to gain two places and cross the finish line in P5.
Today’s 21-point haul advances DS PENSKE to fourth in the team standings. The team looks forward to returning to Berlin for Round 7 and 8 on Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 April, 2023, to continue progressing forward in the championship.
Team results – 2023 Julius Baer São Paulo E-Prix
|
Driver |
FP1 |
FP2 |
Quali |
Race |
|
JEV |
15 |
18 |
7 |
5 |
|
VAN |
4 |
8 |
1 |
6 |
Jay Penske, Team Principal
‘Bringing home a double-points result after our two podiums is brilliant for the team, and a momentum we aim to build on as we move forward in the season. The lap Stoffel put in to secure pole positon was very impressive. We’re on the right track, well done and a big thank you to the team for all their hard work. At this uniquely challenging track, it was a strong drive from Stoffel and a great recovery from JEV to get solid points on both sides of the garage. We’ll keep pushing and aim to add to this strong run of results in Berlin!’
Stoffel Vandoorne, reigning Formula E world champion
‘I‘m obviously a bit disappointed with the end result of P6 having started from pole. We knew before coming here that leading the race is not actually a good thing around this circuit, because it’s so energy sensitive and the drivers following behind benefit so massively from the slipstream. That’s kind of what happened. We spent too many laps leading the race, and at some point our energy deficit compared to the others was just too much, and we had no way to fight with them anymore. Tough one. On another note, the positive thing was that the qualifying was very good. It’s my first pole with the team and my first one in Gen3, so I’m happy with that. We’ll try and carry that forward now and hopefully improve in the races too.’
Jean-Éric Vergne, Formula E Champion in 2018 and 2019
‘It was a difficult day, qualifying wasn’t great and then in the race I struggled a lot with car balance. We need to investigate this. My car was quite undriveable with oversteer everywhere. I couldn’t really get out of the corners. It wasn’t very raceable. It was a struggle and I was just trying to hang in there and bring points back for the team, and that’s what we did. It’s not the result we wanted, but I’ll still gladly take those points and keep pushing forward for the championship. We’re still coming closer and closer to the top, but we’ve got some work to do.’
