Mahindra Racing’s Lynn scores first Formula E podium in Valencia E-Prix

Mahindra Racing driver Alex Lynn secured his maiden Formula E podium finish after crossing the line in 3^rd place in the Valencia E-Prix, Round 6 of the 2021 Formula E championship.

·         Alex Lynn finishes 3^rd in Round 6

·         BMW and Mercedes score a win each

·         De Vries leads the championship

Valencia marked the first time this year that the all-electric racing series – which is traditionally known for its street races – visited a permanent race track. And energy management proved to be a major stumbling block, specially during the bizarre Round 5 that saw only nine racers classify. Read on to catch up on all the action from the Valencia E-Prix double header:

Alex Lynn 3^rd for Mahindra Racing

Lynn started Round 6 from the front row and remained in contention for the race win, behind leader Jake Dennis, for several laps. But he was then nudged into the gravel by Venturi’s Norman Nato – an incident for which the latter was handed a 5-sec time penalty.

As a result, Lynn slipped to 9^th, but pulled off a valiant recovery drive to gain a handful of positions. Nato’s time penalty promoted Lynn to 3^rd in the final classification, handing the British driver a long-overdue first podium result in Formula E. He bagged an additional point for setting the fastest lap of the race, too.

BMW’s Jake Dennis clinched his maiden win after expertly leading every single lap of the race from pole position. Porsche’s Andre Lotterer secured 2^nd place, also benefitting from Nato’s penalty.

 “The team and myself have worked really hard and finally got one on the board! We can say we could have, should have won it today but, unfortunately, we got taken out of a nice position and that’s the way it goes sometimes,” Lynn said.

“I could see it was getting a little bit racy and people were getting anxious and that ended by us being pushed into the gravel because someone else made a mistake. It was like a high-speed game of chess really! For now, I really want to enjoy the podium and I must say a big congratulations to Jake [Dennis] – he made today’s race work and that’s big kudos to him. I’ve been close to a podium so many times so today feels super sweet. Big thanks to the whole Mahindra Racing team!”

This is Mahindra Racing’s second podium finish this season; the team had picked up a 2nd place result in the Rome E-Prix, courtesy Alexander Sims. Unfortunately for Sims, he was handed a drive-through penalty for a technical infraction and ended up completing Round 6 down in 23^rd place.

De Vries wins bizarre Round 5

It was the first of the two double-headers in Valencia that had everyone talking, though. Energy management was always going to be critical here, but the combination of rain and five appearances for the Mini Electric Pacesetter Safety Car set the stage for what may have been one of the strangest finishes to a Formula E race ever.

With the race running a lap longer than expected, majority of the teams ended up running out of useable energy and were disqualified. Teams later blamed the energy offset calculation, wherein the FIA automatically reduces available energy after each Safety Car activation. Either way, only nine cars ended up classifying.

Amidst all the chaos, Mercedes EQ driver Nyck de Vries scored a win, ahead of Dragon’s Nico Muller. Stoffel Vandoorne finished 3^rd, making it a double podium for Mercedes.

2021 Formula E championship standings

None of the drivers in the top five of the championship scored any points in Round 6. As a result, De Vries continues to lead the standings, nine points ahead of his teammate Vandoorne. Mercedes also holds on to its advantage in the teams’ standings, with a total of 105 points compared to Jaguar’s 82 points.

Mahindra Racing has gained one place in the overall order and now stands 8th, tied on 45 points with BMW.

2021 Valencia E-Prix results

Valencia E-Prix, Round 5 results
Pos	Driver	Team	Time
1	Nyck de Vries	Mercedes EQ	48:20.547
2	Nico Muller	Dragon	+ 13.128
3	Stoffel Vandoorne	Mercedes EQ	+ 34.886
4	Nick Cassidy	Virgin Racing	+ 36.903
5	Rene Rast	Audi	+ 51.650
6	Robin Frijns	Virgin Racing	+ 52.985
7	Lucas di Grassi	Audi	+ 2:41.946
8	Jake Dennis	BMW i Andretti	+ 3:07.061
9	Jean-Eric Vergne	DS Techeetah	+ 4:19.582

Pos	Driver	Team	Time
1	Jake Dennis	BMW i Andretti	46:32.002
2	Andre Lotterer	Porsche	+ 1.483
3	Alex Lynn	Mahindra Racing	+ 2.428
4	Oliver Rowland	Nissan E.DAMS	+ 2.870
5	Norman Nato	Venturi Racing	+ 5.811
6	Rene Rast	Audi	+ 8.122
7	Jean-Eric Vergne	DS Techeetah	+ 8.782
8	Oliver Turvey	NIO	+ 11.292
9	Edoardo Mortara	Venturi Racing	+ 12.014
10	Lucas di Grassi	Audi	+ 12.405
11	Sebastien Buemi	Nissan E.DAMS	+ 13.295
12	Max Gunther	BMW i Andretti	+ 13.594
13	Nick Cassidy	Virgin Racing	+ 14.329
14	Sam Bird	Jaguar Racing	+ 15.151
15	Mitch Evans	Jaguar Racing	+ 17.213
16	Nyck de Vries	Mercedes EQ	+ 18.444
17	Tom Blomqvist	NIO	+ 18.885
18	Pascal Wehrlein	Porsche	+ 19.274
19	Robin Frijns	Virgin Racing	+ 19.756
20	Nico Muller	Dragon	+ 21.069
21	Sergio Sette Camara	Dragon	+ 32.079
22	Antonio Felix da Costa	DS Techeetah	+ 59.698
23	Alexander Sims	Mahindra Racing	+ 1:04.277
24	Stoffel Vandoorne	Mercedes EQ	DNF

Also see:

New electric GT racing category announced – All you need to know