Nyck de Vries:
“That’s the sort of start to a season that I really like: a strong performance with a substantial haul of points. After my mistake yesterday in the first free practice, this result comes as a huge relief for me. We used FP2 to prepare ourselves optimally and went on to have a good qualifying. It’s a fantastic feeling to win the opening race here in Diriyah yet again – and what’s more with a one-two finish. It’s a great result for the team and I’m really happy for them. We’ve worked hard for this over the winter, but we also know that Formula E is a fiercely competitive championship. Tomorrow, we have to give it everything we’ve got again if we’re going to achieve a good result in the second race of the season.”
Stoffel Vandoorne:
“After qualifying on pole, I’m obviously a bit disappointed with second place, but I think it’s not bad when you have the luxury of feeling dissatisfied with second place. I led the race from the start, had everything under control and the car had strong pace today. Then, unfortunately, I missed one of the loops when activating my second attack mode and that gave the lead to Nyck. After that, we pushed each other and were able to pull away from the rest of the field. A one-two finish is a great result for the team. You can’t be disappointed after such a fantastic team result at the start of the season. And there’s another chance tomorrow. You must never let up in this series. It’s so tight – as soon as you let up just a little, someone else will step in to take advantage. Today’s outcome doesn’t automatically mean that tomorrow will be the same. That’s why we have to do our best on Saturday as well. For my part, I will be trying to go one better in the second race.”
Ian James, Team Principal:
“To say I’m pleased with this being the start to our season is an understatement. We were confident we had a good package going into the weekend but we know that we can take nothing for granted - especially given the pace of our competition. The team have been amazing at extracting the most out of the car and what we saw today is the result of a lot of hard work and dedication from an incredible group of women and men in the factory and trackside.
Both drivers have shown what they are capable of: Stoffel and Nyck both have topped the most important sessions of the day and in doing so, delivered some very valuable points with which to kickstart the season. Stoffel’s last lap in qualifying was magnificent and he was always in the running to win the race - with an unfortunate unsuccessful activation of Attack Mode making it more difficult. Nyck was excellent in executing his strategy and brought the car home in P1 - almost clinically accurate. Congratulations to both.
It’s a great feeling to have this race under the belt - especially with these highlights so early on in the season. Shortly after the podium celebrations, the team started to analyse today’s data and is focusing on the next challenge: tomorrow’s race. Because in the end, this is just the start of our season.”
