One of the first things I did when I arrived in the paddock on Thursday in Rome was go and see the Jaguar TCS Racing team, in essence to apologise for this article that I wrote ahead of the weekend. I wanted to check that they hadn’t been too offended by the piece that suggested their title hopes would hinge on their results in Rome. They magnanimously accepted that it was an important weekend for them, and hoped to go well.
Jaguar roars in Rome
Ninth and 13th in qualifying suggested Rome may not be any different, despite more traffic related mitigations, but then came the races. Both Evans and Bird carved through the pack as if they weren’t there, as Evans took victory.
The next day, I spoke to the team and asked if they could do it again, and was met with scepticism. Yes, the cars had qualified better than the day before, but the team weren’t as happy with their tyres for the second race, and felt that the competition would have learned their lessons from Saturday. As it was, Evans won at a canter again, meaning he and Jaguar are well and truly in the title fight.
Sette Camara and Dennis turn the timesheets purple
Other than Evans, there were three standout moments this weekend, all of them coming on Sunday. First, it was Sergio Sette Camara for DRAGON / PENSKE AUTOSPORT. The Brazilian qualified an astonishing 10th, and looked on course to advance to the duels had he not crashed in the final sector on his last lap. He downplayed the achievement a little, claiming that the DRAGON is more competitive on one lap pace than in race trim, nevertheless in the first four races of the season he had qualified 15th, 19th, 20th and 20th!
Later on in Sunday’s qualifying session we witnessed what was the lap of the weekend. It was Jake Dennis (Avalanche Andretti) against Mitch Evans in the semi-final of the Duels, and Dennis produced the fastest lap of the whole weekend to beat Evans. It was a mighty effort, and one of the laps of the season so far.
IMAGE ID: /2daea0ddcd624ff4bf277c5820088845 Sette Camara flew to 10th with a storming qualifying lap but couldn't convert in the race
NIO's points-double
The other driver that caught the eye on Sunday was Oliver Turvey. The NIO 333 racer started last on the grid, but came through the field to finish a remarkable seventh. Strong energy management early on in the race helped, but he also gained places as others ran in to trouble.
When the final Safety Car was deployed, the team were hopeful they might be able to bag a point for a 10th-placed finish, which would be a huge achievement considering the car currently at their disposal. Ultimately, once all the time penalties had been added, seventh it was, and the team celebrated as though they had taken the win.
Points and seventh for Turvey, with Ticktum 10th, as NIO nails Round 5
German giants stutter
Porsche and Mercedes-EQ are the two manufacturers with a lot to investigate after Rome. Porsche slipped back into their mid-top-10 levels of performance where they spent most of last season, and there was little evidence of the dominance that took them to victory in Mexico City.
Mercedes had a solid weekend with Stoffel Vandoorne, who took a Julius Baer Pole Position a third and a fifth to leave him just four points off the Drivers' World Championship lead, but the rest of the drivers struggled.
Vandoorne’s teammate Nyck de Vries qualified well enough, but in not dissimilar fashion to the second race of the season in Diriyah did not have the race pace to keep up with the fight at the front, and got shuffled back as the race went on. He is now 22 points from the standings lead, where he'd entered Rome second in the standings.
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The Mercedes-EQ powertrains in the back of the ROKiT Venturi Racing Silver Arrow 02s had the opposite problem. Their race pace was reasonable, with both Edoardo Mortara and Lucas di Grassi making some progress through the order, but both failed to make the Duels in qualifying on both days, starting 11th and 12th on the grid for Saturday and Sunday’s races, and an error from Mortara where he hit the wall and retired ultimately dropped him from the championship lead on Sunday morning, to fifth on Sunday night.
The teams have just a couple of weeks until we are in Monaco, on a completely different circuit to Rome, where the battle will resume.