Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team pulled off a historic double win to be crowned Formula E world champions. Nyck de Vries claimed the driver’s title while Mercedes-EQ Formula E finished ahead of all others in the teams championship.

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Close call

The final two races of the season took place in Berlin this past weekend. It was a home event for many drivers on the grid as well as the German teams (Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Porsche) so there was plenty to play for. No fewer than 18 drivers (of 24 in the field) had a mathematical chance of winning the title Going into the weekend . 

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De Vries (99 points) won the drivers’ championship by a seven-point margin ahead of Edoardo Mortara (Venturi Racing, 92 points) and a further one point ahead of Jake Dennis (BMW, 91 points) in third. Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team completed its second season in the series ahead of runners-up Jaguar Racing and third-placed DS Techeetah.

World champs

Formula E, the world’s only single-seater battery powered race series, has just completed its seventh season. While it did enjoy FIA approval, it was only at the very end of the sixth season that it was granted world championship status. This means that Mercedes-EQ Formula E and Nyck de Vries are the very first Formula E world champions. 

With this title under his belt De Vries also became the world’s first Dutch motorsport champion. This must grate that other single-seater world title contender, Max Verstappen just a little; with salt added to the wound as De Vries’ won in a Mercedes, the chief F1 rival of Verstappen’s Red Bull Racing.

In his own words

De Vries said after the race: “I’m lost for words. It’s been such a tough season with highs and lows. Everything came down to the last race and I think we had a lot of fortune on our side today with everything that happened. 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, it seemed like nobody was really respecting anything. So, at this point I just wanted to bring it home. My team was telling me to fight Jean-Eric Vergne, but I wasn’t sure why it was important, so I was getting frustrated that they didn’t want to tell me. Then the other drivers kept hitting me; left, right, front, rear. I wasn’t really happy with that, so I was a bit grumpy straight after the race. But now it’s starting to sink in.”

Check out the season-finale, which started in dramatic fashion, in the video below.