This Week In Motorsport: Valencia Formula E Double Headers, Closely Contested Rally Croatia And F1’s New Sprint Qualifying Format

The last seven days saw plenty of racing action with some drama at Formula E’s third double header of the season at Valencia as well as WRC’s Croatia Rally. Aside from that, there was also confirmation of a new race weekend format that will be trialed by Formula One for three races. Here’s more about what transpired:

Formula E 

The 2021 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship season hasn’t been short of action, drama and controversies so far, and that continued with the third set of double-header races at Valencia. Race 1 saw quite possibly the craziest finish to a Formula E race yet, as a late safety car meant there was a last minute reduction of usable energy with two laps to go. This saw almost half the field run out of usable energy on the final lap, which resulted in only 10 classified finishers. Amidst all this carnage, it was Mercedes EQ’s Nyck De Vries who won ahead of Dragon Racing’s Nico Muller. De Vries’ teammate Stoffel Vandoorne rounded off the podium in third place.

Race 2 may have been a more calmer affair, but it still had plenty of action, with the field being extremely close. In the end, BMW Andretti’s Jake Dennis, who took his maiden pole position, soaked up all that pressure and pulled off a controlled defensive drive to score his first win in Formula E. Porsche’s Andre Lotterer followed him home in second place, with Mahinda Racing’s Alex Lynn scoring his first podium in third place.  

With neither of the top 5 in the driver’s championship standings scoring any points in Race 2, the Mercedes EQ pair of  Nyck De Vries and Stoffel Vandoorne remained first and second ahead of Jaguar’s Sam Bird.  In the teams standings, Mercedes EQ continues to lead ahead of Jaguar.

WRC

Rally Croatia’s debut at the 2021 FIA World Rally Championship couldn’t have gotten more intense, as  Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier took a last-gasp win over teammate Elfyn Evans by just over 0.6 seconds. Infact Ogier’s win was in dramatic circumstances as he managed to recover from a road traffic accident relatively en route to the opening speed test. Hyundai’s  Thierry Neuville rounded off the podium.  This win puts Ogier back into the lead of the drivers standings, 8 points ahead of Neuville. Toyota Gazoo Racing continues to lead the manufacturers standings over Hyundai Motorsport.

Formula One

After long discussions, it's finally official. Formula One will introduce sprint qualifying for three rounds of the 2021 Formula One World Championship season. This new race format will have qualifying on Friday that will set the grid up for the sprint qualifying. Sprint qualifying will be a 100km race, in which the finishing order will decide the grid order for Sunday’s main race. Points will be awarded for the top three finishers in the order of 3 points (1st), 2 points (2nd) and 1 point (3rd). It is yet to be announced which three races will hold sprint qualifying, but reports suggest that two of them will be at Silverstone and Monza. 

Formula 2

With such a long gap between the season-opener at Bahrain and the second round of the FIA Formula 2 Championship at Monaco on May 22, there was a three-day in season test at Barcelona, Spain. Carlins’s Jehan Daruvala finished 12th, 13th and 16th respectively. Of course, testing times don’t really showcase the true picture of the pecking order, as teams run different programs throughout the test.