Jake Dennis happy with podium in Japan: "Flight to Tokyo too long to put points in the wall"

Jake Dennis is back on the Formula E podium. In what was a very strategic race for him, the Andretti driver managed to prevail in the battle against his Porsche colleagues Pascal Wehrlein and Antonio Felix da Costa and secure the final podium place.

It was a difficult race for the reigning world champion until around the halfway point though. "I had two Porsche behind me that were working together and there was nothing I could do," he described the situation on TV after the race. "As I still had to use both attack modes and it didn't look good, I thought at one point that I would finish seventh or something today."

Dennis himself was not able to activate his additional power without losing position to the Porsche drivers. However, Wehrlein and Felix da Costa were able to do just that, as they were covering each other. When the Portuguese driver overtook the Andretti with extra power, Dennis cursed loudly on the radio: "That's sh*t!"

Collision with Wehrlein: "What was that from Pascal?"

He was trapped in the Porsche sandwich now and still had no chance of activating attack mode. On top of that, he had to defend himself against Wehrlein.

This duel was not to end without damage to the car, as the two collided when the German attempted to overtake. Wehrlein drove into the side of Dennis and damaged his front wing. "What was that from Pascal?" Dennis grumbled, "Where does he think I'm going?" Unlike the works Porsche, however, he apparently escaped without any damage to the car and was able to continue.

Leaving Tokyo with a smile on our faces ? #TokyoEPrix pic.twitter.com/d1O8bTriky

- Andretti Formula E (@AndrettiFE) March 31, 2024

"You can't always get the maximum"

In the final phase, the defending champion was still behind Felix da Costa in fifth place, who tried to defend against the Briton. The Porsche driver still had more energy in his battery, while at the same time attacking Edo Mortara, who was driving in front of him and was clearly struggling with energy management. This game went on for several laps. "Tell him that I won't attack him if we just overtake Mortara," Dennis suggested in the direction of the Porsche garage. A plan that worked.

With just under two laps to go, however, Dennis benefited from a failed attack by the Portuguese driver on Oliver Rowland, which allowed him to slip through on the inside and secure the final podium place. Even though he had the most energy of all the drivers in the leading group, Dennis decided against tackling Rowland himself.

"I just wanted to finish in third place, because the 14-hour flight to Tokyo was too long to drive the 15 points into the wall on the last lap," he explained jokingly. "The older and wiser I get, the more I learn to accept that you can't always go for the maximum. I couldn't do more in qualifying today and I'm very happy to finish third behind two guys who were much faster than us today."

"We can then score the big points on tracks that suit our car better," said Dennis. Possibly as early as Misano in a fortnight' time.