Motorsport Roundup: Formula E London E-Prix, DTM Rd 2, F1 And MotoGP Calendar Announcements

This past week saw a bit of racing action as well as multiple announcements making headlines. Formula E had a dramatic penultimate double-header of the season at London, followed by the second round of the 2021 DTM season at Lausitzring, Germany. In other news, Formula One confirmed a venue for the second sprint race of the 2021 season, with another race being axed from the 2021 MotoGP season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The weekend also witnessed the tragic loss of a FiM CEV Repsol rider. Here’s all about it:

Formula E

The 12th and 13th rounds of the 2021 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship saw a tale of two halves at the streets of London, UK. The first race was relatively straightforward, with the BMW Andretti of Jake Dennis taking his second win of the season ahead of the Mercedes of Nyck De Vries in second place, and Mahindra’s Alex Lynn finishing third.   

However, the second race was chaos personified, with crashes, shock results, and oodles of controversy. The Audi of Lucas di Grassi may have crossed the chequered flag at first, but was disqualified from the E-Prix due to not stopping completely in the pit box under safety car conditions and ignoring the resulting drive-through penalty.  

Amidst all this chaos. It was Mahindra Racing’s Alex Lynn who scored his maiden Formule E victory, with the Mercedes of Nyck De Vries in second place again, and Jaguar’s Mitch Evans rounding off the podium. In the context of the drivers’ standings, De Vries leads by six points over the Envision Virgin Racing of Robin Frijns. In the teams standings, it's  Envision Virgin Racing that lead Mercedes by just seven points heading into the season finale at Berlin.

DTM 

This race weekend also saw Arjun Maini resume racing action at Round 2 of the 2021 DTM season at Lausitzring, Germany. It was looking to be a much stronger weekend from the GetSpeed Mercedes driver, as he qualified sixth for Race 1. But, a first lap incident forced him to retire the car. In the second race, the Indian driver managed a 12th place finish after qualifying ninth on the grid.

Formula One

While there was on-track action for Formula One, it was announced that the second sprint qualifying of the 2021 season will take place at Monza, Italy.  Monza is set to host the 14th round of the 2021 F1 season scheduled to run from September 10-12. Reports suggest that a third sprint qualifying format will be present at the Brazilian Grand Prix, but the race is under threat of cancellation due to the COVID-19 situation in the country.

MotoGP

 

MotoGP saw another race being axed from the 2021 calendar due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This time it's the Thailand Grand Prix  which was scheduled to run from October 15-17. As things stand, MotoGP officials have yet to announce a replacement for the empty slot on the calendar. On the positive side, KTM has announced that Dani Pedrosa, who retired from MotoGP at the end of 2018, and is a test rider for the team will return to the MotoGP grid as a wildcard entry at the Austrian Grand Prix.  

Sadly, this weekend was also one for mourning following the demise of Spanish FIM CEV Repsol series rider Hugo Millan. The 14-year-old succumbed to injuries sustained post a multi-bike crash during a European Talent Cup race at Aragon. We extend our condolences to the Millan family. 

Next week, we will see Formula 1 racing return with the Hungarian Grand Prix at Hungary scheduled to run from July 30 to August 1, 2021.