Dutch driver Nyck De Vries wins Formula E world championship
Mercedes claim all-electric team title after crash-filled race in Berlin
Dutch driver Nyck de Vries won the Formula E world championship as rivals crashed out of the season’s final race in Berlin on Sunday, with Mercedes also taking the teams’ title.
De Vries finished eighth in a race at the capital’s old Tempelhof airport that was won by Frenchman Norman Nato for Venturi, his first victory in the all-electric series.
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That left Mercedes driver de Vries on 99 points, seven clear of Venturi’s Swiss racer Eduardo Mortara who retired at the start when he smashed into the back of Mitch Evans’s barely moving Jaguar.
Neither driver was hurt and Evans also retired on the spot with the race red-flagged.
Other championship contender Jake Dennis, for BMWi Andretti, also crashed out after the restart.
The series’ seventh season is the first given full world championship status by the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA).
Nissan’s Oliver Rowland finished second in the second of two Berlin races with Mercedes Stoffel Vandoorne third.
Mercedes ended with 181 points to Jaguar’s 177.
“It’s been such a tough season with highs and lows and everyone was kind of in the same boat. Everything came down to the last race,” said de Vries, who started 13th on the grid. “I think we had a lot of fortune on our side today with everything that happened. I’m glad that everyone is OK with the incident at the start.
“I think we drove an incredible race, we had really good pace in the car but at the same time I felt like a target as well. I just wanted to bring it home.”