The Mercedes driver was concerned in quite a few tight battles all through the 32-lap contest on the Tempelhof circuit and was fortunate to keep away from any severe harm to his automotive after a number of shut calls.
This included a prolonged struggle with the Mahindra of Alexander Sims for the ultimate spot of the rostrum, earlier than he made contact with the Porsche of Porsche Lotterer as they went three-wide alongside Stoffel Vandoorne on the run all the way down to Turn 3.
After a brush with the obstacles afterward within the race, de Vries ultimately crossed the road in eighth to develop into Formula E’s first title winner below its world championship period.
While naturally jubilant after clinching the crown in solely his second season in Formula E, the Dutchman felt a few of his on-track rivals ignored the truth that he was combating for the championship, notably hitting out on the approach Sims was defending his place.
“I felt very disappointed with the driving standards out there,” stated the 26-year-old. “I imply [it was like] they weren’t conscious of the championship state of affairs, so if that is the way you drive with actual championship contenders [it’s a shame].
“Yesterday was the identical and right now it beat itself. Frankly talking, I used to be somewhat bit upset with that and that was my first response after the race as a result of I felt like we might have completed increased up.
“I’m a racer. As you have seen right now, I used to be not enjoying conservative, I needed to race and to struggle.
“You saw coming through the field we were super quick today, but I will no longer hide his name, Sims really needs to back off. Yesterday [Alex Lynn] gave us a puncture and today [Sims] was too aggressive, especially considering we are fighting for the championship.”
Nyck de Vries, Mercedes-Benz EQ, EQ Silver Arrow 02
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Although the drivers’ title for de Vries was successfully secured when three of his title contenders spectacularly retired within the opening laps of the race, Mercedes needed to work laborious to leap from fifth to first within the championship.
De Vries spent the ultimate laps of the race warding off the DS Techeetah of Jean-Eric Vergne, earlier than being pipped to seventh by a speedy Jaguar of Sam Bird.
The Dutchman revealed that it took him some time to understand that Mercedes had clinched the title after a miscommunication between him and his engineers over the crew radio.
“Usually, I’m very calm on the radio however sooner or later with three laps to go they have been informing me that the place [I was running in] was essential forward of JEV.
“So, I used to be like, ‘please guys inform me’ and so they would not reply, so I form of raised my voice and ultimately they gave me the response that it was required for the groups’ championship
“So, I used to be not knowledgeable after which JEV received concerned in the long run, he put his nostril below my backend. So I used to be principally spinning the wheels within the air, not with the ability to come out of the management.
“And then Bird received me and I form of thought we misplaced the groups’ championship, so I used to be nonetheless desperate to struggle again in the remainder of the lap however then I received informed it is high-quality, ‘hold position’. So, I introduced it residence.
“So, I’m a little bit disappointed with that and that’s why my reaction on the radio was ‘did we win the teams’ championship?’ because I felt disappointed – because I’m a racer and I felt we did an extremely strong race and to lose out in an unfair manner [would have been sad].”
