Tumultuous rain-soaked race in Valencia: Jake Dennis in the points for the first time.

Valencia. The BMW i Andretti Motorsport Team ended the fifth race of the season in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship in Valencia (ESP) with an eighth place for Jake Dennis (GBR) that came about in curious circumstances. Issues with calculation of the energy amount saw most cars run out of power on a tumultuous final lap. These included the BMW iFE.21 driven by Dennis, who was initially classified in eleventh position but then moved up to eighth after numerous retroactive disqualifications. The result saw him score the first points of his Formula E career. After a great qualifying session, Maximilian Günther (GER) started the race in second place on the front row but retired early on the wet and slippery circuit.

Günther was consistently one of the fastest drivers in dry conditions. He claimed second and first places in the two practice sessions and then finished third in qualifying to reach the Super Pole, where he benefited from penalties incurred by two competitors and secured second spot on the grid. However, the rain set in as the race began and Günther was unable to keep pace with the leaders on the wet surface. He was initially able to defend his second position but then fell back to sixth. Towards the halfway point of the race, he slid out of turn two under braking and finished up in the gravel trap. That triggered one of four full course yellows that saw the FIA Formula E Safety Car, the MINI Electric Pacesetter inspired by JCW, bring the field back together. As had been the case in Rome (ITA), this race also started behind the Safety Car due to the rain.

Starting from 13^th position, Dennis battled for a top ten result throughout the race but in common with most of the other drivers, he discovered that his calculated energy amount was insufficient to allow him to complete the final lap. After the curious closing stage, Dennis was classified in eleventh position. However, further rule infringements related to energy management led to the imposition of disqualifications after the race, which Dennis benefited from.

The second race of the DHL Valencia E-Prix starts on Sunday at 14:00.

Reactions to Race 5 in Valencia.

Roger Griffiths (BMW i Andretti Motorsport Team Principal, team standings: 11^th place):

“We came to Valencia with high hopes after our good results in testing. That really did start to show with strong performances in practice and qualifying. It started to rain heavily between qualifying and race start and unfortunately, Maximilian Günther struggled to find grip under these conditions and lost the rear of his car during braking into turn 2. His race ended there. Jake Dennis had a trouble-free morning and made good progress throughout the sessions. In the race he was competitive in the beginning. After the last safety car period there was a significant energy reduction by race control that caused trouble for a lot of cars including the BMW iFE.21. That was a bewildering closing stage but we did suspect that there could be some retrospective penalties.”

Maximilian Günther (#28 BMW iFE.21, starting position: 2^nd place, race result: DNF, points: 12, driver standings: 16^th place):

“A disappointing race obviously. It’s extremely unfortunate not to finish it. We just didn’t have the pace in the wet today. I struggled a lot with the grip from the first lap. I was able to defend quite well for a few laps, but then I dropped back position by position. At that point the goal was to score some points. Then braking into turn 2 the rear locked completely and I wasn’t able to catch it anymore. That was the end of my race. Generally, our pace was very good today in the dry and I was happy with our performance in practice and qualifying. We must analyse what went wrong in the wet but also focus on tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a dry race then.”

Jake Dennis (#27 BMW iFE.21, starting position: 13^th place, race result: 8^th place, points: 4, driver standings: 22^nd place):

“It was quite a challenging race for everyone in the wet conditions. My biggest problem was that I couldn’t see a lot through my wet visor. Due to the confusion with the energy management at the end a lot of drivers have been penalised. We decided to make sure we are completely legal, which cost us a lot of positions. Luckily, we did move up after the race and I have now finally scored my first points in Formula E.”

The FANBOOST vote.

FANBOOST gives Formula E fans the opportunity to vote for their favourite driver and award them an extra boost of power during the race. The five drivers with the most FANBOOST votes receive an extra 100 kJ of power, which they can make use of during a brief time frame in the second half of the race. Fans can vote for their favourite driver in the four days prior to, and leading up to 15 minutes into, each race. Each fan can vote once per day. There are two ways to vote: Online at https://fanboost.fiaformulae.com/ or via the official Formula E App.

The BMW Group Safety Cars.
The BMW Group has been represented in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship as ‘Official Vehicle Partner’ since the very beginning and will continue to provide the fleet of safety cars for season 7 of the fully-electric racing series. Alongside the BMW i8 Roadster Safety Car (fuel consumption (combined): 2.0 l /100 km; energy use (combined): 14.5 kWh /100 km; combined CO₂ emissions: 46 g/km)*, which has been modified specially for racing use, the MINI Electric Pacesetter inspired by JCW appears as a new safety car since the Rome E-Prix. The development of the car based on the new MINI Cooper SE represents a hitherto unique collaboration between MINI Design, BMW Motorsport, the FIA and Formula E. The fleet also includes the BMW i3s (Power consumption in kWh/100: 14.6-14.0 (NEDC); 16.6-16.3 (WLTP), electric range in km: 278-283 (WLTP))* as ‘Race Director Car’ and the BMW iX3 (Power consumption in kWh/100: 17.8-17.5 (NEDC); 19.0-18.6 (WLTP), electric range in km: 450-458 (WLTP))* in its roles as ‘Medical Car’ and ‘Rescue Car’.