Formula E: Good farewell to Neel Jani 🎥
FINAL RUNS IN BERLIN Sébastien Buemi took another podium place in the final race in Berlin. And Neel Jani, who is leaving Formula E, managed another countable result in the penultimate race with Porsche. The highlights of the fifth race in Berlin-Tempelhof show how Neel Jani in the Porsche stayed in the leading group for laps and helped Oliver Rowland to his first victory [...]
The highlights of the fifth race at Berlin-Tempelhof show how Neel Jani in the Porsche stayed in the leading group for laps and Oliver Rowland drove to his first victory with Nissan.
The last two races of the cross-season Formula E Championship 2019/20 took place on a partially new layout of Berlin-Tempelhof. With Oliver Rowland on Nissan on Wednesday and Stoffel Vandoorne on Mercedes on Thursday evening, there were two new race winners. The Portuguese Antonio Felix da Costa on DS Techeetah had already secured the title earlier.
Neel Jani on podium course with Porsche
The man of the day from a Swiss perspective on Wednesday was Neel Jani. The man from Biel made it into super pole qualifying for the first time in his Porsche 99X Electric, finishing third fastest.
In the race, Jani held third place for 19 laps before losing three positions after 36 laps. At least the Formula E rookie secured his first and ultimately only (eight) championship points.
Neel Jani: "It took a while, but I fought for this moment for a long time. We had made changes to the car set-up that ultimately paid off for me. Unfortunately, I lost a bit of ground when I used Attack Mode. Then it was a matter of getting the car to the finish, staying out of unnecessary duels and taking points. I'm very happy that that worked out."
With Edoardo Mortara (Venturi-Mercedes) in eighth and Sébastien Buemi (Nissan) in tenth, two more Swiss drivers finished in the top ten.
Nissan vs Mercedes
On the last of the six race days in Berlin, Buemi came up trumps once again. As the fastest driver in qualifying and second on the grid, the driver from the canton of Vaud sensed his last chance to end his sixth Formula E season with a victory after all.
Buemi was in the lead for a lap midway through the race, but the Belgian Vandoorne was too strong for him. In the end, the 2015/16 second-season champion had to settle for third place behind Dutchman Nyck de Vries, who ensured a one-two for Mercedes-Benz EQ.
Crowd in the table
Unfortunately, this also cost Buemi second place in the championship, which now goes to Stoffel Vandoorne. Dethroned champion Jean-Eric Vergne (DS Techeetah) still finished third overall ahead of Buemi and his teammate Rowland.
Only four points separate the runner-up from the fifth, while da Costa's lead of no previous champion reached 71 points.
The highlights of the last Berlin race show how Sébastien Buemi in the Nissan fought off the two Mercedes drivers in vain.
Nissan becomes vice champion
On the other hand, Nissan e.dams was no longer in contention for the runner-up spot in the team championship, which brought satisfaction to the Frenchman with the fourth podium in the last eight races.
Sébastien Buemi: "I'm happy for the team. I myself was hoping to at least finish third overall and I'm a little disappointed about that. We changed something on the setup, which didn't quite work. But the runner-up spot in the team standings is a nice reward for the constant work of everyone involved at Nissan e.dams."
After finishing 6th on the grid, Edoardo Mortara had hoped for more than 10th place and the final point. His best result of the season was a fourth place right at the season opener in Saudi Arabia.
Pascal Wehrlein replaces Neel Jani
Neel Jani was again in the top ten, but had to settle for P15. As AutoSprintCH had indicated, he is now vacating his place in the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E team for Pascal Wehrlein.
How Jani will be retained - possibly with a new sports car project - will be announced at a later date.
Fritz Enzinger, Head of Porsche Motorsport: "We would like to thank Neel Jani for his extraordinary commitment. He made a significant contribution to the development work for our Formula E project and thus played a big part in our team's successes in the past season. Neel will continue to be a part of Porsche. We will soon see him in action again for future motorsport projects."
Tick off and look ahead
For Nico Müller, both final races in Berlin again ended clearly outside the points. After his disappointing rookie season in Formula E with the uncompetitive Geox Dragon Racing team from the USA, his focus is now back on the DTM - where he is leading the standings with Audi.
