"Could have achieved a good result" - Brake defect stops Dennis & causes race interruption in Sao Paulo

Jake Dennis did not have luck on his side in the first race with his old starting number 27: a brake failure forced the Formula E world champion from 2023 to retire shortly after the middle of the race. Until then, the Briton had had a strong weekend and was one of the favourites for a podium finish in Brazil.

Saturday got off to a promising start for Dennis: after setting the fastest time in the 2nd free practice session in the morning, he was also fastest in group qualifying. After an effortless victory against Jean-Eric Vergne in the quarter-final, the semi-final against Oliver Rowland was much closer. In the end, Dennis was a thousandth of a second off his compatriot - at an average speed of 136.1 km/h, that equates to around 3.7 centimetres.

However, his lap time was enough for third place, his best grid position since the Berlin E-Prix in May. Although he lost several positions at the start, Dennis made up eight positions in no time at all: lying in tenth place, he activated four-minutes of attack mode on lap 9 and moved up to second place thanks to the extra power on the following three laps.

At the halfway point of the race, the Briton had saved significantly more energy than his rivals. However, he was unable to capitalise on this energy advantage: on lap 20, Dennis suffered a brake failure at the end of the start-finish straight. It was only with luck and his quick reaction that he was able to avoid the cars in front and avoid an accident. Only Zane Maloney was affected, as the Lola Yamaha ABT driver, like Dennis, had to drive straight ahead in the first corner.

Dennis causes red flag

Dennis came to a halt in the run-off area of the first corner, whereupon the red warning light on his Andretti racing car came on. His race was over. It was Dennis' second retirement in a row, after the Brit had previously seen the chequered flag 25 races in a row.

For safety reasons, the race director even had to red-flag the race shortly afterwards in order to recover the car under increased safety conditions. After all, it could not be ruled out that the Andretti car was live and there was a risk of electric shock.

? RED FLAG ?

Jake Dennis has stopped out on track. There's an isolation issue with his car#SaoPauloEPrix pic.twitter.com/GavGs9vNVy

— Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) December 7, 2024

"A pretty disappointing result"

"A pretty disappointing result after such a promising weekend," admits Jake Dennis after the race. "We really thought we could have a good result. Ultimately, we had a failure in the car which caused me to retire. But I've just taken away the positives from this weekend. It's the first time which we've looked competitive for a while now."

"Whilst we'll all leave Brazil disappointed not to score points, we've taken some good steps forward and turned the pace around," he continues. "We've got some time now to switch off and enjoy the holidays with our family, but I'm confident we'll bounce back very quickly in Mexico City in January and get some points on the board."

The next chance for Dennis and the Andretti team to score their first championship points will be on 11 January, when the second round of the season takes place in Mexico City.