Despite several hurdles throughout the day, Envision Racing moved up the order in Jeddah.
The first of two races in Saudi Arabia hosted Pit Boost’s inaugural race, with all running cars – including the two Green Machines – successfully completing the mandatory 34-second stop – boosting the energy by 10%.
The duo of Sebastien Buemi and Robin Frijns had it all to do, after starting down the order in P17 and P19 respectively following a tricky qualifying session.
Prior to the lights going green at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, the team worked relentlessly through the heat, making several changes required on both cars to ensure their reliability for the first of two-night races on the calendar.
Ultimately, it was a valiant effort from Buemi and Frijns to work their way through the order, crossing the line in P12 and P13 respectively.
Despite not delivering the points, the team were able to gather plenty of data to go into race two under the lights on Saturday.
QUALIFYING
Both drivers took to the Corniche Circuit in Group A of qualifying. After a troublesome FP2 session for the Dutchman earlier in the day – coming to a halt on track with system errors – Frijns’ side of the garage worked tirelessly to get the No. 4 car ready for the green light.
A challenging 12-minute session subsequently followed, with both Buemi and Frijns struggling to get into the groove – suffering with car imbalances. This ultimately led to a P9 finish for Buemi and P11 for Frijns, and neither progressing through to the dual stages of qualifying.
THE RACE
The 31-lap race began with plenty of drama, after a first corner spin from Sam Bird before contact between Mitch Evans and Nico Muller. Buemi and Frijns kept it clean and took advantage of the chaos, moving up a couple of spots from their P17 and P19 starting positions.
Lap 7 saw the Safety Car deployed to allow for debris from the Porsche of Da Costa to be removed from the circuit. Racing commenced the following lap.
Buemi and Frijns both took Attack Mode in sync on Lap 14, opting for four minutes of the eight available. The extra power boost and other competitors Pit Boost stops allowed them to move up to P6 and P7 by Lap 17.
Buemi was the first Envision Racing car to box, completing the 34-second lap with no issues. Team-mate Frijns followed immediately after the next lap and they emerged in P16 and P17, with Seb leading the way.
The No. 16 side of the garage opted to take the final Attack Mode relatively soon after the Pit Boost stop and used this to work up to P9 by Lap 21.
Several laps later saw the Dutchman take his final four minutes of Attack Mode, passing his teammate and moving up to P11.
A last lap energy race saw the duo swap places and Buemi take P12 at the line, with Frijns just behind in P13.
Ultimately there was frustration at not bringing points home, but lots of promise and resilience was shown from the whole squad to get both cars to finish with no issues. This will be used as motivation heading into the second race at the Corniche circuit tomorrow.
STANDINGS
Driver Standings (after Rd3)
- Oliver Rowland , 43pts
- Antonio Felix Da Costa, 39pts
- Maximilian Gunther, 37pts
- Taylor Barnard, 30pts
- Mitch Evans, 25pts
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14. Sebastien Buemi, 6pts
18. Robin Frijns, 0 pts
Team Standings (after Rd3)
1. TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team, 60pts
2. DS PENSKE, 57pts
3. NEOM McLaren Formula E Team, 46pts
4. Nissan Formula E Team, 43pts
5. Mahindra Racing, 40pts
6. Jaguar TCS Racing, 25pts
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9. Envision Racing, 6pts
