Mercedes-EQ driver, Nyck de Vries couldn’t have wished for a better start to his Formula E career, topping the timesheets in every session and then storming to a maiden victory.

As the seventh season of Formula E came to life in Saudi Arabia, the 2021 Diriyah E-Prix provided fans with a typically crazy FE race. Pole-sitter Nyck de Vries led every lap, managed safety car interruptions and held off significant pressure from his rivals to dominate from the front.

Crossing the line four-seconds ahead of his nearest rival, de Vries was joined on the podium by Edoardo Mortara in the Rokit Venturi Racing machine and Mitch Evans with Jaguar Racing.

As the race began, a poor start from Pascal Wehrlein allowed de Vries to build an early 1.2-second lead. However, Wehrlein was still able to fend off fellow German, René Rast, in turn 1. The pressure was mounting from Rast – pressure that was also felt by de Vries as he fought against energy overconsumption concerns.

Meanwhile, Sam Bird was fighting to catch his former team-mate, Alex Lynn, as Mitch Evans, Lynn, Bird and Max Guenther all fought for fifth spot. They were covered by just 1.5-seconds.

However, the battle for sixth boiled over as Bird attempted a move up the inside of Lynn, pushing him into a spin and causing the two to collide with each other and the wall. This ended their races on lap 16 and brought out the first safety car of the day.

At the restart, de Vries quickly picked up another 1.7-second lead over his nearest rival, Rast, who had made it past Wehrlein after a cleve use of the ATTACK MODE.

However, the safety car was back out again just a few laps later thanks to Guenther making a race-ending mistake at turn 2. After a late trip to the ATTACK MODE line to try and claim their second boost, Rast and Evans were swiftly overtaken by Mortara who claimed second place.

De Vries was able to increase his lead as Rast and Mortara began a battle for second place. Rast claimed this spot back from Mortara but couldn’t hold on until the checkered flag. It was on the back straight that Rast fell victim to Mortara for the final time. Seeming to take inspiration from this move, Evans also overtook Rast on the long back straight, claiming the final podium spot.

Wehrlein crossed the line three-seconds later to take fifth, followed by Oliver Rowland, Alex Sims and Stoffle Vandoorne. Lucas Di Grassi and Oliver Turvey rounded out the top 10 to secure final championship points.

Reigning champion, Antonio Felix Da Costa failed to score points, coming home in 11th place ahead of his team-mate, Jean-Eric Vergne in 15th.

Speaking after the race, de Vries said “I’m still quite chilled I don’t know why! I should be over the moon. I’m very pleased with everything so far and it’s so satisfying to translate that into the race because it wasn’t easy with so many Safety Car periods and the pace being unpredictable at the beginning of the race. There was a lot of communication going on and I’m so pleased to get my first win.”

As we head into the second race of the weekend, can de Vries continue his winning ways and leave Saudi Arabia with the championship lead?

Feature Image Credit: Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team twitter