Taylor Barnard drove a smart race to steer his DS E-Tense FE25 to eighth place in the first of the two Berlin races. His team-mate Max Gunther finished just outside the points in 11th place.
After a six-week break, the teams in the Formula E world championship returned full of enthusiasm for the traditional Berlin E-Prix, the German capital being the only city to have hosted the series since its inception in the 2014–2015 season. On Friday afternoon, the first free practice session took place under bright sunshine, heralding a glorious weekend. During this first outing, the frontrunners took turns at the front and the DS Penske cars looked comfortable. One by one, the drivers returned to the pits to try out various tyre set-ups (with different pressures) in order to prepare the tyres for the following day.
At the end of the 45-minute test, it was Barnard’s DS E-Tense FE25 that set the fastest time (which also represents the circuit’s all-time record), with his team-mate Guenther not far behind in fourth place. This bodes well for the following day. For this first weekend in May, the weather is mild, and the grooved concrete track – one of the toughest on tyres during the season – presents a challenge for the electric single-seaters.
During the second free practice session, the pace is just as high, with the DS Penske cars securing fourth and fifth places. In qualifying, the sun continued to raise the track temperature and tempers flared. In Group A, the margins were very tight and Barnard missed out on the quarter-finals by a hundredth of a second. In Group B, his team-mate Guenther finished sixth in his group, which meant 11th place on the starting grid, just behind Barnard.
A high-tension Saturday
For this first race of the weekend, the drivers had to complete 39 laps of the Berlin circuit, a distance of 92.58km. And as this is a double-header (two races in the same weekend), the regulations stipulate that drivers must return to the pits to perform a Pitboost – essentially a quick recharge that forces them to stop (for at least 34 seconds) not for energy needs but for strategic reasons. For this round, they are also entitled to a single Attack mode, which will give them a power boost for six minutes. In other words, they must of course be fast, but they must also devise the best energy strategy to perform well. This comes at just the right time, as it is precisely in this area that the DS Penske team has often excelled.
After a successful start, Guenther and Barnard settled into the leading pack, running between first and fifth position. Reaching the halfway point of the race, the two drivers for the Franco-American team executed their Pitboost stop strategy with precision. First Barnard, on lap 19, then Guenther a lap later; this staggered strategy offered them a wider window of potential success. After the refuelling stops, it was time to activate the race’s sole Attack mode. Barnard activated his on lap 30, giving him a time advantage over his rivals, most of whom had activated theirs slightly earlier. This manoeuvre saw the British driver improve his starting position by two places, crossing the finish line in eighth position. Fighting hard right up to the final corner, Guenther missed out on a points-scoring 10th place by a few tenths of a second, retaining his original 11th position.
Tomorrow, Sunday, the drivers will return to the Berlin track in the same configuration but with a different challenge: this time over 37 laps instead of 39, without Pitboost but with two Attack modes of four minutes each.
