Formula E: Max Guenther won the first race in Jeddah

      This weekend, the city circuit in Jeddah, familiar to us from Formula 1, for the first time hosts a Formula E race, and the stage in Saudi Arabia has a dual character. The first race was held in the evening on Friday in the light of the floodlights, but, of course, on a shortened version of the ring with a lap length of 3001 meters. The main and very important innovation of the stage in Jeddah is that for the first time in the history of Formula E in the course of the race was an express recharging of batteries, and each driver must in the course of the distance must necessarily make such a pit stop, called Pit Boost. The weekend started with Max Guenther, this year driving for DS Penske, winning qualifying ahead of reigning world champion Pascal Wehrlein in the final duel. From the second row started Oliver Rowland, a representative of Nissan, and Taylor Barnard - the young racer McLaren continues to surprise, because he managed to beat many more experienced masters. When the lights went out, Gunter kept the lead, confidently moved from the place, but the second position immediately broke through Rowland, but Verlaine was unlucky - in his Porsche in the turmoil of the first turns crashed Jaguar Mitch Evans. The New Zealander started from the fifth position and tried to immediately break through to the front, but failed. Pascal then had to return to the boxes to replace the punctured rear right wheel. But Evans' car was also damaged, and he also had to turn to the pit lane a lap later to replace the nose fairing after a hard contact with Nick de Vries' Mahindra. Consequently, the two traditional favorites had already dropped out of the fight for high results, and the probability that Pascal or Mitch would be able to get to the top ten was reduced to a minimum.

      However, they were not the only casualties: the McLaren of Sam Bird, Barnard's teammate, was turned around, and Nico Muller's car was damaged - the German Andretti racer crashed from behind into the Porsche of Antonio Felix da Costa. On the 7th lap, an electric safety car entered the track - due to the fact that there was debris from da Costa and Muller's cars on the asphalt. The first two positions were held by Gunter and Rowland, followed closely by Barnard and the experienced de Vries. Fifth was Jake Hughes in a Maserati, and Jean-Eric Vergne, the leader's teammate, rounded out the top six. But when there was a safety car on the track, the team asked Max to let Rowland through to save some energy - as further developments showed, it was absolutely the right decision.

      On the 10th lap de Vries went on the attack and easily outpaced Barnard's orange and black McLaren, moving up to third position, but the young Briton also passed Hughes. On the 14th lap the first pit stops began, and on TV screens there was a new infographic that allowed you to track the process of recharging. On the one hand, for Formula E such a practice - a matter of unusual, on the other hand, it even evoked memories of that period in the history of Formula 1, when the practice of refueling during the Grand Prix was a common thing.

      How all this will affect the nature of the struggle on the track, was not quite clear, but so far we can say one thing: Oliver Rowland led before the wave of pit stops, and he also led the peloton after the fact, when all held the mandatory recharging of on-board batteries. After the pit stop Rowland somehow quite quickly created a gap from the pursuers - after 22 laps on the second position was going Nick de Vries, but with a noticeable gap from the leader. However, he was already being pressed by Gunter, followed by Barnard, although also at some distance. When there were only five laps to the finish, Rowland was already ahead of everyone by more than three seconds, and it seemed that his second victory in a row nothing threatened. But in the final laps, Oliver suddenly slowed down, while Gunter, who had already overtaken de Vries by that time, on the contrary, sharply increased his pace. In just a couple of laps, Max had more than halved the gap, and his battery charge was slightly higher than Oliver's, who seemed to be saving energy. Two laps before the finish, Max was already a second behind the leader and continued to rapidly catch up with him. On the 30th, penultimate lap, Gunter has already started to really attack Rowland, but he, using all his experience, tried to stay ahead, for which correctly located the car on the track, not giving the opponent the opportunity to overtake. Meanwhile, they have already caught up with Barnard and was also ready to move to decisive action, but did not have time. On the last lap, literally in the last corners Max Gunther was able to find a gap in the defense of the opponent, went forward and the first to cross the finish line. This is the first victory of the German racer after last year's success in Tokyo, when he was still acting for Maserati, and in general it is the sixth such success Gunther in Formula E. Of course, he was over the moon with happiness, especially since the race he spent really great, earning today the maximum possible points, including 3 bonus points for pole and another for the best lap. Commenting on the course of the race after the finish, the Briton admitted that at the end of the battery charge on his Nissan was really critically low, and if Oliver had not slowed down in the last laps, he would not have been able to reach the end of the distance.

      Taylor Barnard, the 20-year-old McLaren driver, who is having his first full season in Formula E, deserves special praise, but this is his second podium in three races - he also finished third at the first round in Sao Paulo. Now he takes 4th place in the individual standings, and on the third line rose Max Gunter, today's winner, only a couple of points behind Antonio Felix da Costa. On Saturday at the track in Jeddah will be held the second race of the Saudi weekend, and, of course, we should expect that tomorrow will try to get back those who today were unlucky - primarily Pascal Wehrlein, who finished 12th, and Mitch Evans, who was on a distant 20th place.