Formula E London ePrix I
Dennis: FE London race was "caving in against me" in hunt for title
Newly crowned Formula E champion Jake Dennis admits that he felt the London E-Prix was “just caving in against me” in his quest for the title during a chaotic race.
Stefan Mackley
Edited: Aug 23, 2023, 9:40 AM
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The penultimate round of the season proved to be a dramatic affair, with the race red flagged twice in the closing stages for incidents - Dennis’ chances of claiming the title swinging throughout the 37-lap race.
Having been pushed back after initially starting on the front row alongside main championship rival Nick Cassidy, his title chances were boosted after Cassidy collided with Envision Racing team-mate Sebastien Buemi just before half distance.
But even with Cassidy out, Dennis was still required to finish third with Jaguar’s Mitch Evans winning the first of the weekend’s London E-Prix.
Having survived the two rolling restarts, Dennis finished third on-the-road before being promoted to second which was enough for the title.
“I think nobody expected that race, multiple safety cars, red flags, crashes left, right and centre, and I felt like everything was just thrown at me,” said Dennis.
“So many emotions especially after the first red flag, I just felt like the whole race was just caving in against me for multiple reasons and it was just really hard to control my emotions.
“When I was driving it wasn’t so bad in terms of, I do the typical rant to my engineer, he just takes it on the chin.
“It was really after the red flag I was like, man, everyone is out to get me, [but] we managed to turn it around and keep our composure.”
Dennis’ charge was also thwarted by missing his Attack Mode activation on two occasions which left him at risk from cars behind in the pack.
Nick Cassidy, Envision Racing, Jaguar I-TYPE 6 the race as Jake Dennis, Andretti Autosport, Porsche 99 X Electric Gen3, Sebastien Buemi, Envision Racing, Jaguar I-TYPE 6 battle behind
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
This included Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein, with Dennis asking his Andretti Autosport squad – a Porsche customer team – if the German would refrain from attacking him.
And despite knowing that Cassidy had retired, Dennis was surprised to learn that he still needed to finish on the podium to secure the title ahead of the season-finale at the ExCeL London on Sunday.
“I asked where do I need to finish because I knew Nick was out, and they said third and I was really thrown off by that because I thought I just needed six points,” said Dennis.
“So I was like [sigh], I’ve got to go again then. I was fifth at that point so I couldn’t believe when they said that to me, and from that point they just sort of left me to it apart from maybe the last two laps where they said this is enough, don’t do anything stupid this is fine.”
On crossing the line as the champion, Dennis added: “It was just a relief of emotions, something I’ve never experienced ever in my life and to become world champion is something which we all dream of.”
Read Also:
- London E-Prix: Dennis crowned champion, Evans wins disrupted race
- Cassidy "kicked hard in the nuts" by title-ending misfortune
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