Jake Dennis launched his season start in spectacular style, winning a wild and incident-packed opening round of Formula E’s twelfth season in São Paulo. It’s his first victory in almost two years and the first time a driver has converted pole position at this circuit.
Under sweltering, dry conditions at 32°C, the field lined up with Dennis on pole ahead of Dan Ticktum and Edoardo Mortara. But the calm of the grid evaporated within seconds. The two Mahindras tangled at Turn 1, both recovering, but chaos soon rippled through the pack: Mortara and Nyck de Vries missed the chicane and rejoined illegally, earning the first penalties of the season.
Ticktum’s promising front-row start evaporated immediately. Contact at Turn 1 left him with a puncture, a pit stop on lap one, and later multiple penalties before the Brit eventually retired.
Strategy Roulette and Early Lead Swaps
With drivers keen to avoid leading too long in the early energy-saving phase, the opening laps saw frenetic position-swapping. Mortara briefly took the lead on lap 4 before surrendering it just as quickly, António Félix da Costa inheriting the front while Attack Mode activations began in earnest.
Jean-Éric Vergne used his early four-minute Attack Mode to surge into the lead—Citroën Racing’s first-ever laps in front—but his pace came at a cost. Within 10 laps, his energy levels were three per cent worse than Oliver Rowland’s, a deficit that soon proved fatal to his hopes. Rowland, meanwhile, produced one of the early drives of the day, vaulting from ninth to the lead with an aggressive Attack Mode sequence. By lap 13, Norman Nato headed the field, followed by Mortara and Pascal Wehrlein. The polesitter Dennis had slipped to ninth but began to claw his way back.
Mid-Race Mayhem: Collisions, Punctures and Penalties
The race erupted again on lap 17. Dennis muscled past Wehrlein into Turn 1 to retake the lead, only for Porsche’s title contender to be demoted again moments later when Nico Müller, who was boosted by Attack Mode, swept into first.
The Nissan duo then collided in dramatic fashion. Rowland forced Nato toward the wall, though the Frenchman had left little space. Nato suffered a puncture and retired shortly afterwards. A yellow flag for Nato’s stranded car bunched the field, and as racing resumed, the pace intensified. Mortara’s race unravelled when he was sent into the Turn 4 wall by Lucas di Grassi, destroying his suspension. Di Grassi retired after this incident.
With several front-runners having just taken their final Attack Modes, the timing of the Safety Car was brutal. Dennis, one of the drivers yet to activate his last allocation suddenly found himself sitting in third with a major strategic advantage. Others, including Drugovich, Barnard, Vergne, Evans and de Vries, also benefited from retained Attack Mode time.
Huge Crash for Martí Brings Red Flag
On lap 28, the race was neutralised again after Sébastien Buemi clipped Mitch Evans, sending the Jaguar into a bollard. But moments later, the afternoon took a frightening turn.
Pepe Martí, caught out by the Full-Course Yellow, slammed into the slowing pack, his car launching over da Costa’s Porsche, flipping multiple times and catching fire upon landing. Miraculously, the young driver climbed out unharmed, but both his car and Evans’ remained on the circuit, prompting a full red flag. Da Costa’s rear wing was torn off in the incident, placing his race and potentially his season start in jeopardy. Martí, da Costa and Müller were placed under investigation for their roles in the chain reaction.
Two-Lap Shootout to the Flag
After a lengthy stoppage, race control confirmed a restart at 15:01 local time: a flat-out, two-lap sprint. Dennis would lead the field ahead of Rowland, Nick Cassidy, Wehrlein and Felipe Drugovich. Barnard and Vergne were pushed into the pits for late repairs, leaving only 13 cars in contention.
At the restart, Dennis executed flawlessly. De Vries immediately started his remaining six minutes of Attack Mode and climbed into the top ten. But out front, Dennis built a decisive one-second gap over Rowland, with Cassidy slotting into third for Citroën’s maiden podium.
After the most chaotic race, São Paulo has delivered, and that’s saying something. Dennis crossed the line to win for Andretti. It was his first victory since Season 10 and a resounding statement at the start of his title defence.
Seven drivers failed to finish: Martí, Vergne, Evans, di Grassi, Mortara, Nato and Ticktum.
Drugovich and Vergne were placed under post-race investigation for speeding under Full-Course Yellow; De Vries and Maloney were cleared of further review.
A Blockbuster Start to Season 12
São Paulo once again delivered a chaotic, unpredictable, heart-stopping spectacle — for the second year in a row featuring a major airborne crash. With Dennis now leading the championship heading into January’s Mexico City E-Prix, Formula E’s twelfth season has begun with emphatic drama. If the opener is any indication, the road to the title will be anything but straightforward.
Authors note:
di Grassi gets a 5-place grid drop for the next race and is awarded 2 penalty points. He now has 6 in total.
Vergne will serve a 3-place grid drop at the next race for speeding under a Full-Course Yellow (FCY).
Drugovich has been awarded a 5-second penalty and 1 penalty point for speeding under FCY. He will therefore serve a 3-place grid drop at the next race for overtaking two cars under FCY.
Martí has to start from the back of the grid at the next race, as the stewards find that he did not reduce his speed under FCY and caused the crash; he got awarded 4 penalty points for the incident.