Stoffel Vandoorne claimed victory in the second race that FIA Formula E held in Rome this weekend. The Mercedes driver won after a loss on Saturday with a great strategy to get rid of his rivals.
Unlike the qualifying stage, the asphalt of the Roman track was mostly dry, although with some wet patches. The start, as in the first race, took place behind the safety car.
Pole winner Nick Cassidy counted a relatively quiet first few meters, but on the first hard stop he lost the rear of his car and spun, so he automatically fell to eleventh position.
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The accident left the leadership of the race to Norman Nato, who was behind Pascal Wehrlein, Stoffel Vandoorne and a Maximilian Günther who had trouble with Alexander Sims and Edoardo Mortara.
Fight between Nato and Vandoorne
Norman Nato’s pace was not particularly high, so Pascal Wehrlein decided to go on the attack and, with heavy braking, he was soon at the top of the race; Vandoorne would get a slice of the maneuver and, a few curves later, he would pass Nato as well.
As it was, Pascal Wehrlein was leading the race with just under a second ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne and Norman Nato was in third position, with Max Günther and Alexander Sims on the prowl.
Image: @fiaformulae
It was at that moment that Cassidy, in the midst of a comeback from his initial mistake, headed towards the protections when Oliver Rowland tapped him from behind in full braking. The New Zealander was able to resume his march, but he was last.
Vandoorne’s strategy
With the arrival of the first activations of the Attack Mode, Vandoorne appealed to his intelligence and “stole” Wehrlein’s first place by activating it a lap earlier, allowing the Belgian to take the lead in the race.
In addition, an incident between Sébastien Buemi and Lucas di Grassi caused a ‘full course yellow’ situation right after, so Pascal Wehrlein was barely able to take advantage of the extra power of Attack Mode when Vandoorne had not a big lead.
At the restart, Vandoorne had a comfortable lead – over two seconds – over Alexander Sims who caught Wehrlein by surprise and snatched second place from him.
With such a big advantage, the Mercedes driver decided to use the second Attack Mode right away. While his rivals fought, Stoffel had everything to make up for what happened in Saturday’s race.
With only eight minutes remaining, René Rast collided with the wall and Safety Car had to get in and brought the drivers together again.
The race would be resumed as a final ‘sprint’ of only one lap, and in it Stoffel Vandoorne took advantage of the ‘fan boost’ to give his rivals no options and get a victory that escaped him yesterday due to an incident at the start of the race.
Alexander Sims was in second position and Norman Nato in third, although the Frenchman was disqualified for using too much power than allowed, so that Pascal Wehrlein finished on the podium.
Written by I Jhonattan González
