Vandoorne beats Evans to take Monaco EPrix win and championship lead

Formula E

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Stoffel Vandoorne won his first EPrix of the season in Monaco to take the Formula E championship lead by holding off Mitch Evans.

Vandoorne rose from fourth on the grid to take the lead of the race, using his strong clean air pace to his advantage after Pascal Wehrlein retired from the front of the field with a mechanical problem.

The Mercedes pulled away out of the reach of Evans who used Attack Mode to try and chase down Vandoorne in the final laps. Jean-Eric Vergne claimed third place for Techeetah.

At the start, polesitter Mitch Evans led away ahead of Pascal Wherlein in second, with Jean-Eric Vergne behind them in third as the field made their way around the Monte Carlo streets for the first time. Sam Bird lost seven places at the start, while Jake Dennis managed to gain three.

The field ran in an relatively orderly fashion over the opening ten minutes, with only Nick Cassidy stepping out of the large queue to be the first driver to take attack mode from near the back of the field.

Antonio Felix da Costa took his first attack mode from 11th place, using it to pass Oliver Rowland and Jake Dennis once they took attack mode the following lap. Further back, Bird retired from the race after reporting wishbone damage on his Jaguar.

Back out front, Evans was still leading, but Wehrlein starting pressuring the leader, trying a half-hearted look to the outside into the harbour chicane. Evans was able to fend him off and retain the lead.

Vergne was the first of the leaders to take attack mode, dropping from third to sixth behind Lucas di Grassi and Robin Frijns. Vergne charged past Frijns into fifth up the hill after Sainte Devote, before passing Di Grassi for fourth at the chicane half a lap later.

Evans eventually took his first attack mode just before half distance, gifting the lead to Wehrlein dropping behind Vergne in third, as Stoffel Vandoorne and Di Grassi did the same. A lap later, Wehrlein took his first attack mode, only just falling behind Evans in third and allowing Vergne into the lead.

Despite both Evans and Wehrlein having the benefit of attack mode, the Porsche passed the Jaguar to move up into second place and immediately began pressuring Vergne for the lead. Coming out of the tunnel, Wehrlein used his extra speed to drive around Vergne into the lead of the race, while Vandoorne demoted Evans down to fourth.

Suddenly, Wehrlein began slowing approaching the Fairmont Hotel Hairpin, pulling to the side of the track as Vergne took the lead of the race. Vergne took his second attack mode on the following lap, allowing Vandoorne into first position. But Wehrlein had come to a stop at the exit of the tunnel, causing a brief Full Course Yellow while the Porsche was recovered.

After the session restarted, Oliver Rowland and Andre Lotterer collided while fighting into Sainte Devote, with both cars clattering into the barriers, putting Lotterer out on the sport and forcing Rowland to pull off the circuit further around the lap. The Safety Car was deployed, but Vandoorne took his second attack mode and managed to retain the lead of the race, his attack mode time draining away as he sat behind the Safety Car.

The race restarted with under ten minutes of regulation race time remaining, with Vandoorne leading Evans and Vergne. Evans was the only driver in the top four positions yet to take his second attack mode. He eventually did with just over five minutes of standard race time remaining, dropping to fourth behind Frijns.

Evans used his greater power to first drive around Frijns into fourth, before doing the same to Vergne for second a lap later. The Jaguar driver had only a minute of attack mode remaining to try and catch Vandoorne in the lead, but was unable to bridge the gap to the Mercedes out front.

Vandoorne managed to hold his advantage and use up the additional race time to cross the line with less than one percent of energy remaining and take the chequered flag, a handful of seconds ahead of Mitch Evans. The Mercedes driver also secured the championship lead with his victory.

Jean-Eric Vergne took the final place on the famous Monaco podium in third, ahead of Robin Frijns in fourth. Da Costa took fifth for Techeetah, with Di Grassi in sixth for local team Venturi. Nick Cassidy took seventh for Envision, with Sebastian Buemi moving up from the rear of the grid to finish in eighth.

Jake Dennis and Nyck de Vries rounded out the points positions in ninth and tenth, respectively.

2022 Monaco EPrix race results

PositionCarDriver
1Stoffel VandoorneMercedes
2Mitch EvansJaguar
3Jean-Eric VergneDS Techeetah
4Robin FrijnsEnvision
5Antonio Felix da CostaDS Techeetah
6Lucas di GrassiVenturi
7Nick CassidyEnvision
8Sebastien BuemiNissan EDAMS
9Jake DennisAndretti
10Nyck de VriesMercedes
11Alexander SimsMahindra
12Dan TicktumNio
13Sergio Sette CamaraDragon Penske
14Antonio GiovinazziDragon Penske
15Oliver TurveyNio
16Oliver AskewAndretti
17Max GuentherNissan EDAMS
DNFEdoardo MortaraVenturi
DNFOliver RowlandMahindra
DNFAndre LottererPorsche
DNFPascal WehrleinPorsche
DNFSam BirdJaguar

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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14 comments on “Vandoorne beats Evans to take Monaco EPrix win and championship lead”

  1. 0 comments. Formula E just doesn’t seem to have any following on this site whatsoever.

    1. It was a great race though. Went to a race a few years ago, great spectacle – shame not more appreciate it, though it’s on its way. Get rid of fanboost, so the proper motorfanatics can appreciate it as well.

      1. @chrispeetz I agree, it was an enjoyable race. I think the Attack Modes is especially a good idea as it simulates a pitstop in a shorter race.

      2. Harry (@harrydymond)
        1st May 2022, 11:48

        @chrispeetz @wsrgo The race was great but the direction/coverage was the worst I have ever seen, in any racing category. There was one point where there were three cars abreast in the midfield (how often does that happen in Monaco?!) and the camera cut back to the front. So many overtaking manoeuvres were missed; it was shockingly bad and I hope someone in charge noticed so hopefully it doesn’t happen again.

        1. @harrydymond Well this is Monaco we’re talking about. The F1 race direction there is bad too (remember Strolled?). I don’t know if FE has a TV direction arrangement in Monaco similar to F1, but if they do they should look at changing that. So should F1 honestly.

    2. Another brilliant race in Full-Monaco for Formula E, that’s a 2 out of 2!
      Championship battle is much more fair with the new quali format, and the racing is generally cleaner this season.

    3. It’s not easy to follow, very often behind paywall

      1. @jehannes Is there any racing series that isn’t?

        1. Depends on the country.
          It’s on eurosport 2 instead of eurosport 1, which is often part of the general tv-package.
          Not a smart deal by them.

      2. @jehannes agreed. I tried to follow and it was just too hard to find anywhere to watch. Hard to follow and support a sport that you can’t see.

    4. It’s still stuck in early adopter mode. And while in that mode the fan base moves from being enthusiastic to defensive, and that’s a worrisome place to be.

      Electric racing has no cultural underpinnings like petrol racing either, so the fan base is probably not as rock solid as alternative race series. It’s a top down promotion though so it’s always going to be hard. Normal people (once upon a time) could in theory start an F1 team. That kind of thing is in the DNA and consciousness of F1 and its old hardcore fanbase. These things just add layers and layers of cultural strength … and importantly meaning.

      Electric cars are a realm of people talking about environmentalism and range, not one of hot rodding, mad sounds, mad smells and going fast (even tho electrics are fast, it’s a party trick rather than a product of ‘Jimmy fitting new carbs’ or whatever). Sound/smell really is way more important than people appreciate.

      If you want to build electric racing you really need to take a look at the bigger landscape of electric car culture and develop that. It’s a very tricky task.

      You also have F1, and F1 consumes everything in its path. There’s not much room for alternative single-seater championships. In that sense Formula E has actually done very well. I know people bemoan its current position, but I think it’s doing far better than some might have imagined. It’s not for me, but I am getting on, but if it was tweaked, maybe it could work better.

    5. The Formula e has been absolutely fantastic this season, considerably more exciting and less artificial than last year. I’m sure that many more F1 fans would watch if they tuned in to some of the races this year, but the one thing that Formula e really needs to change to get more fans is (ironically) to scrap fanboost, which is such a stupid gimmick and automatically puts people off before even watching, although in the actual races fanboost very rarely makes a difference.

    6. @wsrgo sorry, I was in the edge of my seat…asleep.

  2. Tabac entry somehow looks wider than before. Only an optical illusion, but still.

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