The FIA ABB Formula E Series continued their virtual racing series Saturday afternoon in support of UNICEF (United Nations Children Fund).
This week the series came to Temelhof Airport, located in Berlin, and was the site for Round No. 5 of 8 for the Driver’s and Challenge Series grid.
Mahindra Racing driver, Pascal Wehrlein has dominated the virtual series the last couple of weeks by winning two consecutive races in a row. When the series arrived virtually at Tempelhof Airport, many thought Wehrlein would once again prevail and strike for a third consecutive win. Though, while Wehrlein was unable to score the victory, a familiar but a different name was on top.
Nissan e.dams driver, Oliver Rowland proved victorious for his second victory in the virtual series after he overtook Mercedes-Benz Stoffel Vandoorne (twice in the race). Vandoorne had a strong outing, as he would qualify on the pole and led for some parts of the race, before falling short and finishing second to Rowland. Despite the domination from Vandoorne and Rowland being class of the field, as well as Daniel Abt (more on that later), they had to survive and avoid another first-turn, first-lap chaos that pursued. Though, they were able to make it through the incident unscathed.
Afterward, Rowland had raced 15-clean laps en route to his second victory of the virtual series. Though, the English native notes that the last few weeks have not gone as he had hoped.
“After the last few weeks, I have been a bit unfortunate, so I was keen to just stay out of trouble,” Rowland said. “When they started fighting in front of me, I took the opportunity when it came! I was a little worried because Stoffel was so fast. I had to be perfect and then in those last few laps, I was so nervous. I was just trying to hold it together.”
Even though Vandoorne finished second in the event, he claimed the fastest lap of the day with a time of 1:09.249.
“A mixed bag with this race, for a couple of reasons. The pace was very good again. Julius Baer pole position number three, so picking up a couple of points for that. I had a fairly good start, getting into the lead but losing it through some aggressive fighting with car number 66. In the closing stages, I managed to catch up to the back of Oliver Rowland with two laps to go but there was not real opportunity to get past him cleanly. So, another P2 and a fastest lap as well makes this an overall good performance. Victory feels around the corner, I need to keep it clean in these races and finish off the job. On to the next one!”
While Rowland was victorious, Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler’s Daniel Abt ran into trouble as he would be disqualified from the race for misconduct. In doing so, the German was stripped of all his points and will make a donation of E10,000 ($10,904 in U.S. dollars) to a charity of Abt’s choice.
“I would like to apologize to Formula E, all of the fans, my team and my fellow drivers for having called in outside help during the race on Saturday,” Abt said. “I did not take it as serious as I should have. I gone into this project on the part of the Formula E organization. I am aware that my offense has a bitter aftertaste, but it was never meant with any bad intention. Of course, I accept the disqualification from the race. In addition, I will donate 10,000 Euros to a charitable project.”
Meanwhile, in the Challenge Series that features some of the top sim racers in the world, also saw chaos during their race as well.
Lorenz Hoering, also saw a disqualification from the event, and was also disqualified for the remaining rounds of the virtual series.
While Hoering’s incident was unfortunate, BMW’s Kevin Siggy completely dominated the event as he would set the fastest lap in qualifying and led all 15-laps to victory.
“The Berlin track was a good addition to the competition, and it was fun to learn,” Siggy said. “I was really happy about my pace in qualifying. In the race, I managed to hold my pace in Turn 1, and I got lucky that I did not get hit or pushed wider than I did. I am a bit gutted that I did not get the TAG Heuer fastest lap as well, but next time I am hoping I do the same.”
While Wehrlein finished third in the event, the Mahindra driver still leads the Championship points standings over Stoffel Vandoorne by eight points, 86 over 78.
Official Driver’s Grid Results
- Oliver Rowland, led 8-laps
- Stoffel Vandoorne, led 2-laps
- Pascal Wehrlein
- Edoardo Mortara
- Nico Mueller
- Maximilian Guenther
- Andre Lotterer
- Antonio Felix da Costa
- Mitch Evans
- Neel Jani
- Sbeastien Buemi
- Robin Frijns
- Felipe Massa
- Alexander Sims
- Oliver Turvey
- James Calado
- Ma Qing Hua
- Jean-Eric Vergne
- Jerome D’Ambrosio
- Sam Bird
- Brendon Hartley
- Lucas di Grassi
- Nyck de Vries- Disqualified for spinning Oliver Turvey intentionally
- Daniel Abt-Disqualified
Challenge Series Grid Results
- Kevin Siggy, led all 15-laps
- Petar Brljak
- Lucas Mueller
- Peyo Peev
- Marius Golombeck
- Niek Jacobs
- Jan von der Heyde
- Jacob Reid
- Markus Keller
- Kush Maini
- Jim Parisis
- Ben Hitz, OUT
- Alisdair Irvine, OUT
- Cem Bolukbasi, OUT
- Nuno Pinto, OUT
- Noah Reuvers, OUT
- Arjan Veltens, OUT
- Chris Shepherd, OUT
- Axel La Flamme, OUT
- Archie Hamilton, OUT
- Lionel O’ Connor, OUT
- Scott Sovik, OUT
- Charlie Martin, OUT
- Lorenz Hoerzing, Disqualified
Championship Points Standings Driver’s Grid
- Pascal Wehrlein, 86 points
- Stoffel Vandoorne, 78 points
- Maximilian Guenther, 73 points
- Robin Frijns, 48 points
- Oliver Rowland, 43 points
- Nico Mueller, 29 points
- Edoardo Mortara, 27 points
- Neel Jani, 25 points
- Oliver Turvey, 20 points
- Nick Cassidy, 19 points
- James Calado, 19 points
- Antonio Felix da Costa, 14 points
- Andre Lotterer, 12 points
- Nyck de Vries, 6 points
- Sebastien Buemi, 5 points
- Felipe Massa, 4 points
- Ma Qing Hua, 2 points
- Mitch Evans, 2 points
- Alexander Sims, 1 point
- Jean-Eric Vergne, 0 points
- Lucas di Grassi, 0 points
- Brendon Hartley, 0 points
- Sam Bird, 0 points
- Daniel Abt, 0 points
Team Standings
- Mahindra Racing, 88 points
- Mercedes-Benz EQ, 84 points
- BMW i Andretti Motorsport, 74 points
- Envision Virgin Racing, 67 points
- Nissan e.dams, 48 points
- TAG Heuer Porsche, 37 points
- ROKiT Venturi Racing, 31 points
- GEOX Dragon, 29 points
- NIO 333, 22 points
- Panasonic Jaguar Racing, 21 points
- DS TECHEETAH, 14 points
- Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler, 0 points
Challenge Grid Championship Points Standings
- Kevin Siggy, 102 points
- Lucas Mueller, 73 points
- Petar Brljak, 70 points
- Peyo Peev, 66 points
- Joshua Rogers, 45 points
- Jan von der Heyde, 32 points
- Jacob Reid, 20 points
- Nuno Pinto, 17 points
- Niek Jacobs, 16 points
- Ben Hitz, 15 points
- Olli Pahkala, 12 points
- Erhan Jajovski, 10 points
- Marius Golombeck, 10 points
- Remco Majoor, 6 points
- Kuba Brzezinski, 6 points
- Jim Parisis, 6 points
- Markus Keller, 6 points
- Noah Reuvers, 1 point
- Alex Lynn, 1 point
- Kush Maini, 1 point
Up Next: The FIA ABB Formula E Series continues their virtual series next Saturday for Round No. 6 of 8.
