Jordan's Track Talk

Tag: Sao Paulo

  • RND 4- Sao Paulo E-Prix

    Free Practice 1-
    Mitch Evans started his Sao Paulo weekend in the best way possible, as the Jaguar TCS Racing driver topped the first free practice session of the weekend.

    The Jaguar team come into the weekend as the favourites after dominating the race result here last season. The British manufacturer achieved their first 1-2-3 result here as a powertrain supplier, and will look to replicate it again.

    This 2.93km street circuit is home to the longest straight in Formula E, and will certainly be a prime overtaking spot.
    ERT’s Dan Ticktum was using the session to find the limits, going off at the entry into the first chicane and having to rejoin the track down at Turn 3 where ATTACK MODE is.

    With halfway through the session, Stoffel Vandoorne was fastest on track. However, track evolution meant the times kept tumbling. Edoardo Mortara of Mahindra Racing went second just 0.028s off Mitch Evans. Ticktum slot into third with less that two minutes to go.

    Free Practice 2-
    NEOM McLaren’s Sam Bird topped the timesheets for the second and final free practice in Sao Paulo, as the grid prepare for qualifying. The Brit, who stood on the podium here last year, set a time of 1:12.773s in a session that was impacted by a red flag.

    Jaguar TCS Racing’s Mitch Evans also suffered an unlucky mechanical issue which limited the running time for him. Team Principal, James Barclays confirmed that the problem was with the car’s front driveshaft but the team were quick to try and fix it.

    Maximilian Guenther went quickest 10 minutes into FP2, but despite the German’s rapid pace he will be starting toward the back of the grid as he picked up a 20 place grid penalty for changing his gearbox before FP2.

    Double waved yellows were waved with nine minutes of practice left to go, after Edoardo Mortara received a warning on the steering wheel of his Mahindra Racing telling him to stop the car.
    The six time race winner pulled his car over to the side off the track just after Turn 3, and brought out the red flags as his car needed to be recovered.

    The session did get back to green flag racing for the last minute, but left no time for setting fast laps. Instead, the grid completed some practice starts ahead of the race.

    Qualifying-

    TAG Heuer Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein managed to grab a second Julius Baer Pole Position of the season, beating DS Penske’s Stoffel Vandoorne but just 0.002s – the second closest pole margin in Formula E history.

    It was a dramatic session for the Jaguar powertrain cars, with Evans being the highest placed car in fourth. Nick Cassidy, who leads the championship, failed to make it through to the Duels and will start ninth, with both Envision cars down in 17th and 18th.

    DS Penske had a very strong qualifying, as Vandoorne starts second and Jean-Eric Vergne just behind him in third. A great result for new Deputy Team Principal Phil Charles.

    Nico Muller made a surprise appearance in the Duels, but an earlier incident meant he wasn’t able to make it to the track in the Quarter finals.

    Maserati’s Maximilian Guenther will start from the back of the pack due to the grid-drop penalty mentioned earlier – the German’s penalty also incurring a stop/go penalty on the race.

    The full top 10 are- P1: Wehrelin, P2: Vandoorne, P3: Vergne, P4: Evans, P5: Bird, P6: Mortara, P7: Muller, P8: Da Costa, P9: Cassidy and P10: Dennis.

    Round 4-

    Sam Bird sealed one of the most dramatic victories in Formula E history in the Sao Paulo E-Prix Round 4, with a stunning final lap move on former teammate Mitch Evans to secure NEOM McLaren’s first victory in the World Championship and his first with the team.

    Wehrlein started sharply to lead with Vandoorne following as you were into Turn 1 in second, with Evans jumping Verge for third. Porsche’s da Costa made a demon launch, gaining two spots to sixth off-the-line and defending hard from Mortara’s Mahindra to hold that spot over lap 1.

    The lead group squabbled constantly as each looked to maximise their energy consumption while keeping pace with leader Bird. Evans had briefly took third before losing it at Turn 1 on lap 6 to Wehrlein.

    A Safety Car was required for the recovery of a rogue Andretti front wing as Nato hit Di Grassi as the pack squeezed through the first chicane. The Brazilian also lost his front wing while standings leader Cassidy gave the front of his car a nudge into the same corner at the start of lap 8.

    More lead changes happened once green flag conditions continued, as Da Costa and Evans hit the front then dropped back into the mix with their second attack mode activations- but Jake Dennis had been quietly working his way through from 10th at the start to lead on lap 12.

    Lap 16 saw a huge moment, with Drivers’ World Championship leader Cassidy’s three-race podium streak coming to an end as the Jaguar driver smashed into the wall through Turn 9 as he slid wide at speed – his front wing falling loose beneath his front wheels.

    Through the clamour before the Safety Car, Bird managed to retake the lead and had half a percent of usable energy in hand over Evans, now in second.
    Lap 20, saw the green flag fly again with Bird leading Evans, Wehrlein, Dennis, Da Costa, Vergne, Rowland, Vandoorne, Guenther and Buemi in the top 10.

    As the laps ticked down, Bird and Evans continued to hold the advantage. Despite Dennis in third, keeping 1.5% usable energy in hand, his car was running too hot to capitalise.
    Inside the final seven laps, including three added on for those periods under the Safety Car, Evans appeared to have done enough with a move around the outside of Bird at Turn 3 for P1.

    However, the McLaren driver was not done. He could not resist a last-ditch manoeuvre on his old teammate. Bird went all the way around the outside of Turn 10 is last chance to make something stick and hung on to take the inside line and the lead into Turn 11, steering to the win with Evans just half a second back.

    The full top 10 are- P1: Bird, P2: Evans, P3: Rowland, P4: Wehrlein, P5: Dennis, P6: Da Costa, P7: Vergne, P8: Vandoorne, P9: Guenther and P10: Buemi.

    We don’t have to wait too long till the next race, as it’s less than two weeks away on the 30th March and we head to Japan for the Tokyo E-Prix!

  • Round 6 – Sao Paulo E-Prix

    Round 6 is now complete, lets take a look at what happened during the first ever Sao Paulo E-Prix weekend.

    FP1-

    Envision Racing’s Sebastien Buemi managed to top the timesheets for the first practice session with a 1m 12.341s, as speeds hit more than 266km/h down the Sambadrome straight.

    Behind Buemi, is the Nissan of Sacha Fenestraz, Formula E’s latest polesitter and holder of Formula E’s fastest ever competitive lap. NIO 333’s Dan Ticktum rounded out the top three, just 0.123s off the time of Buemi.

    All 22 drivers, quickly locked in laps on the new 2.933km circuit. A few brief yellow flags were issued as the grid found the limits of the bumpy track surfaces.

    Robin Frijns of ABT CUPRA returned to the track after he fractured his wrist during the first race of the season. The Dutchman was getting in as much practice as possible and trying to stay out of trouble.

    FP2-

    Nine different teams made the top 10 in Free Practice 2, with Antonio Felix da Costa topping the timesheets with a 1m 11.496s.

    Just behind him, was the Maserati MSG Racing of Maximilian Guenther. And Norman Nato rounded out the top three and was just 0.001s slower than Guenther.

    All drivers were on their best behaviour with the bumpy track, as they didn’t want to waste any time. But several had issues with track limits, with many going off at Turn 1 and Turn 6.

    Qualifying-

    DS Penske achieved their first Julius Baer Pole Position since 2016, as reigning champion Stoffel Vandoorne became the ninth different pole sitter in nine races ahead of the inaugural Julius Baer Sao Paulo E-Prix.

    Vandoorne beat the TAG Heuer Porsche of Antonio Felix da Costa to lock in his first pole since Rome in Season 8. The Belgian driver also topped Group A, which continues a crazy coincidence that the fastest driver in the group has gone on to take pole in the last four consecutive races.

    Standings leader, Pascal Wehrlein finds himself down in 18th having failed to make it to the groups. Home heroes Lucas di Grassi and Sergio Sette Camara also struggled and will be starting at the back of the grid – the former hit a wall, pushing a bit too hard and the latter a bump which forced a reboot car.

    Round 6-

    Mitch Evans led home a first one-two-three for the Jaguar powertrain, with Nick Cassidy (Envision Racing) and Sam Bird (Jaguar TCS Racing) crossing the line together – with the trio just half a second apart.

    The New Zealander took the initiative and the race lead from his compatriot Cassidy as the race headed into four TAG Heuer Added Laps. His move on Lap 32 proved to be decisive, with neither Cassidy nor Evans’ teammate Bird able to undo the leader’s defensive driving.

    Polesitter, Stoffel Vandoorne had led the way early on, fending off Porsche’s Antonio Felix da Costa during the first round of Attack Mode activations until the race reached its half-way stage, with the lead impossible to keep track of on Lap 14 0 three or four changes over that tour alone and Cassidy came out on top.

    The full top 10 are: P1: Evans, P2: Cassidy, P3: Bird, P4: Da Costa, P5: Vergne, P6: Vandoorne, P7: Wehrelin, P8: Hughes, P9: Rast and P10: Buemi.

  • Sao Paulo Preview

    The ABB FIA Formula E World Championship is all set to make it a hat-trick of all new events with the series’ “dream” first outing in motorsport crazy Brazil as we head to Sao Paulo for Round 6 of Season 9.

    Hometown hero and former champion Lucas di Grassi hails from the city and will be joined by compatriot Sergio Sette Camara as Formula E sets for its debut in South America.

    With three long straights connected by tricky chicanes, sweeping corners and tight turns, the circuit is expected to be a challenging affair for the pack, with high speeds anticipated.

    Starting on the main straight that’s usually reserved for carnival floats and revelry, there will be a different type of dancing as the drivers put their toe tapping to use on the brake pedals into the series of sharp turns, that feed to a looping hairpin that fires the field down the straight.

    This straight is broken up with another challenging right-left series of corners to another long straight. The final sector sees more passing opportunities in the run to the finish line.

    circuit-map-saopaulo

    The Championship-

    Looking at the drivers standings, Wherlein still leads the championship by 18 points, and Dennis stays in P2 on 62 points, with Jean-Eric Vergne in third on 50 points.

    If we were looking at a closer battle, you’d be looking at, 4th/5th/6th/7th which is between Da Costa, Cassidy, Buemi and Rast who are all seperated by 7 points.

    Now looking at the teams, TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E team leads on a 126 points, Envision are in second on 84 points and Avalanche Andretti are in third on 80 points.

    Looking at 4th and 5th, Neom McLaren are on 66 points, 1 points behind Avalanche Andretti. Now looking at 5th DS Penske are on 61 points, 5 points between them and McLaren.

    Weekend Schedule-

    Friday 24th-

    • Free Practice 1- 19:25pm – 20:15pm (GMT)

    Saturday 25th-

    • Free Practice 2- 10:25am – 11:15am
    • Qualifying- 12:40pm – 13:55pm
    • Round 6- 17:03pm -18:30pm.

  • Sao Paulo set to host first E-Prix

    The ABB FIA Formula E World Championship and the City of Sao Paulo, alongside SPTuris and GL Events, signed a contract at the Monaco E-Prix that will see the all electric series head to Brazil, subject to the FIA’s approval.

    The five year agreement, as well as the option to renew, this means that the city of Sao Paulo could play host to the world’s foremost electric motorsport championship from Season 9- the beginning of Formula E’s new era, Gen3.

    Formula E has already unveiled its round in Cape Town for next season, whilst the postponed Vancouver is also set to make its first appearance on the calendar next year, the Indian city of Hyderabad also has an agreement to host a race.

    This isn’t the first time Sao Paulo potentially will be seen on the calendar, as it has previously been on a provisional calendar and was set to host a race in the 2017-18 season before being dropped for Punta del Este.

    “We are delighted that the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship will be heading to Brazil for the very first time pending approval at the FIA World Motor Sport Council in June. The country has a huge, long-standing passion for motorsport, it’s a big market as one of the largest countries in the world, and São Paulo itself is a historic race location. “We can’t wait to welcome the Brazilian fans, they are like no other and there is sure to be a lively, unique atmosphere as the fans enjoy Formula E racing with the leap forward in technology and performance we are going to see with Gen3.

    Alberto Longo, Formula E Co-Founder and Chief Championship Officer.

    The news of São Paulo hosting the next generation of Formula E is music to my ears. Not only does this milestone signify the return of the pinnacle of electric motorsport to South America but it’s an important step towards the electrification of the Brazilian automotive market. On a personal note, there is nothing like the pride and incredible energy of the Brazilian racing fans so it would be a dream come true for me to race in this game-changing championship in front of a home crowd.

    Lucas di Grassi, ROKiT Venturi Brazilian Driver.