Mahindra Racing and Nyck de Vries mastered the tactic to win the Tokyo E-Prix on a drying circuit. After the Monaco E-Prix, this is de Vries and the Indian squad’s second victory of the year.
The title picture was also reversed in the tumultuous race, with Jake Dennis of Andretti taking the lead overall following a powerful comeback from P17 to P3.
Nyck de Vries Steals Show
Just before the race began, there was a lot of rain, so Mahindra decided to divide the strategy between its two drivers. Edoardo Mortara, a polesitter, began the race on what seemed to be the ideal wet setup at the moment. In the meantime, De Vries had his tyre pressure adjusted for dry weather.
In the end, de Vries benefited from the drying track. On Lap 28, he took the lead by using his last Attack Mode. De Vries kept his ground to win after a late-race Red Flag made it a one-lap dash to the chequered flag. Mahindra has won two races in a single season for the first time since the 2017-18 campaign.
“We were a little bit lucky today. We opted for a drying track, and in hindsight, that worked out in our favour. We got a poor start, but I think it was very important to save energy at the beginning of the race because once the track dried, you needed it,” de Vries said.
“We had some more luck at the end with the red flag because Jake [Dennis] was coming on strong in Attack Mode. I’m very happy and proud of the team who executed a great race to get our second win of the season.”
Mortara’s Crash
For Mahindra, it was a race of mixed results. For a significant portion of the race, polesitter Mortara was in the running for the podium, but on Lap 32, he crashed with Joel Eriksson, creating a pile-up on the track and setting off the Red Flag.
“It’s a disappointing result on a day when we showed quite a lot of performance. When you start from pole, and everything is fully wet, there’s very little to gamble,” Mortara explained.
“I started with the wet setup, and this wasn’t the right call. But fortunately, we split the strategy, and it worked out very well for Nyck [de Vries], so I’m very happy for the team.”
Following a challenging Tokyo E-Prix weekend for his competitors Mitch Evans and Pascal Wehrlein, Dennis now leads the entire championship. He is ahead of Evans by two points in the standings with just two remaining. Evans is ahead of Wehrlein by three points.
In the drivers’ championship, Mortara is still in fifth place overall, but de Vries’s win has propelled him to ninth.
Porsche won the manufacturers’ title for the second consecutive season during the Tokyo round. Jaguar is presently 14 points ahead of Porsche in the teams’ championship. Mahindra trails third-place Andretti by just one point, placing them fourth overall. The season finale of Formula E will now take place in London on August 15-16.