Sao Paulo E-Prix peloton-style win ends Dennis' dry spell and turns a tactical page

Jake Dennis’ win in the Formula E season opener in Sao Paulo didn’t just break a winless streak stretching back almost two years, it also gave him a win in a style of racing he hasn’t succeeded in for ages.

Sao Paulo is often what’s deemed a "peloton-style" race, where energy conservation leads to a pack of saving energy early on before a big push at the end. It’s a style of racing that typically plays into the hands of Nick Cassidy, who started 15th and mastered his strategy to move to the front, having a pass on Dennis for the lead hindered by yellow flags.

“No win last year was a tough one to take,” said Dennis. “But to turn it around at the first race – I normally finish second in these [peloton-style] races, far too many times. It's normally behind this bloke (Cassidy). 

“But yeah, it's nice to finally win this peloton style racing. [It’s] super challenging, getting that Attack Mode in the first time at the right time, and I think we did just that.”

Dennis’ bid for the win was aided by a safety car on lap 23 after a collision between Edoardo Mortara and Lucas di Grassi, which caught out a number of frontrunners who’d just taken their second Attack Modes. Dennis hadn’t, though, and was able to pounce when the race resumed four laps later. 

While he wasn’t able to fully utilize it himself because of a full course yellow and subsequent red flag after Pepe Marti crashed spectacularly, it was enough to get him back to the lead.

“Obviously, the second one played into our hands quite nicely,” he said. “It looked like it was then going to become quite a comfortable win until the red flag. I think ultimately we just had good pace and kept our noses clean and brought home maximum points.

“We didn't go into this race thinking that we want to take it on the last three laps and take it to the finish line. That wasn't really our strategy, but obviously most people were pushing it towards the end. 

“Then when that safety car came out, it was originally quite good, but then it took a long time to clear Mortara's car. I was a little bit worried … but ultimately it worked out fine.”

Dennis’s victory was something of a fortuitous one due to the timing of his Attack Mode, the safety car and the full course yellow and red flag, but he was braced for the unexpected all along.

“I think you go into this race thinking it's going to be chaos,” he said. “There's definitely ones like London and Jakarta and at Tokyo where it's a little bit more [of a] track position race and you can control everything, whereas here it's really just sort of survival and trying to keep the nose clean. 

“So I very much went into that thinking it was going to be exactly how it was. No real surprises, obviously, apart from the red flag. I was glad to see Pepe was all right.”