Mercedes had to rebuild Stoffel Vandoorne's car after the accident that ended Saturday's race, and the Belgian acknowledged the team's work after his podium finish in New York and regained the championship lead
Stoffel Vandoorne had the weekend of his dreams in New York during the Formula E season in Brooklyn. While his rivals suffered from several problems during the two races, the Belgian Mercedes driver scored 30 points in the two days and regained the championship lead, recovering from the problems he had in Marrakech - when he only managed to score four points.
After the race, Stoffel stressed the importance of being able to score good points in such an unpredictable weekend, which even had race 1 closed after a widespread accident that could have taken serious contours in the rain.
"Sensational, another podium this season," Vandoorne celebrated. "Yes, it was a good day in New York and a good weekend in general, so I'm happy with the result. This weekend was a rollercoaster, especially after yesterday, with a good qualifying, a tough race and the big crash at the end," he punctuated.
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Vandoorne saw Vergne's title chances all but kissed goodbye, as the Frenchman came away with a zero - for the first time ever - from the weekend. Edoardo Mortara scored only five points after being punished in race 1 and not getting along with the car in qualifying in race 2, while Mitch Evans was the only other driver besides Stoffel to achieve a minimally satisfactory result: he scored zero in the first race, but added 15 points with Sunday's podium.
Vandoorne naturally regained the championship lead he lost to Mortara and opened up an 11-point lead over the Swiss driver, who has a five-point advantage over Evans. After Saturday's scary crash, in which Vandoorne hit the cars of Nick Cassidy and Lucas Di Grassi heavily - who were already on the wall - the Belgian took the opportunity to thank Mercedes for their work, which basically rebuilt the car overnight.
"Then the podium today after rebuilding the whole car overnight," he pointed out. "This result is for the team, who did a great job to give me a good car again today, and I am happy to give them this result," added the championship leader.