Jean-Éric Vergne brought DS Penske its first win of the season in Hyderabad, India on Saturday, reclaiming the top spot for a team that, despite its stellar lineup, had a difficult beginning to 2023.

This was the first time the electric cars of Formula E had raced in India, lining up on a circuit that speeds alongside the Hussain Sagar lake, before looping back around from Lumbini Park.

Not only is it an exciting track, with bends and hairpins, tight corners and chicanes, but it was a scenic one too, racing at the shore past the giant Buddha monolith statue on the water, past green spaces and fairground attractions and through tree-lined streets.

“I like new tracks — I think it’s cool. Especially this one — it’s a lot of fun. When there (are) a lot of little secrets to find on the track, I probably find them quickly enough,” Vergne said.

On Saturday, the Frenchman qualified second, losing out on pole position to Mitch Evans by just 0.021 seconds — the closest margin of the finals this year.

Jean-Eric Vergne in the DS Penske claimed victory in Hyderabad. (Photo: Formula E.)

Come lights out later that day, Evans had a clean getaway and would lead the pack for the first few laps, before Sébastien Buemi in the green Envision car would displace both him and Vergne for the lead when Evans went offline for attack mode.

Buemi and Vergne would tussle for position thereafter, with the drivers swapping places when the Envision went for attack mode on lap 9, and then again when the DS Penske did the same a lap later.

But Vergne would solidify his first place on lap 15, sweeping past Buemi at the hairpin — the Frenchman would have green in his rearview mirrors for the remainder of the race, but he put on a defensive masterclass that kept the pack behind until the chequered flag.

“It was a tough race — I had to defend quite hard at the end but we somehow managed to win it. It was a clean race, no mistakes. Very happy with the win today,” Vergne said post-race.

The victory also put DS Penske on top after a challenging beginning to the 2023 season and may signal a change in the team’s luck going into the next races.

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The team, though racing under a new name, has been a constant in the Formula E paddock, with DS being one of the first manufacturers to enter the series and Penske (under the name Dragon Racing) having been an initial team when the series debuted for the 2014/2015 season.

DS Techeetah achieved two world titles in the 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 seasons, with Vergne winning the 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 driver’s championships, both with the team.

“Obviously, I am very happy with the victory! It’s great for the team to return to the top… Clearly, we made some good improvements, and we have to continue in this vein, but to tell you the truth, I’m quite confident because I think there is a lot of room for improvement going forward. It’s now up to us to work hard and get more results like this one,” Vergne said after his win in Hyderabad.

“The whole team has worked so hard to find this level of performance and our drivers drove a magnificent race too. (Vergne) was very quick all weekend and Stoffel produced an incredible fightback through the field,” Eugenio Franzetti, Director of DS Performance said.

In this new chapter for DS Penske, with the double-champion of Vergne, paired with the reigning champion Stoffel Vandoorne, the pressure is on to see what the team can do, and this victory may signal the start of better things to come.

“P8 in the end, the result could have been a bit better, that’s for sure… (but) overall, it was a fairly good recovery from 17th on the grid,” Vandoorne said.

“That’s definitely still the big point to work on; it’s still quite inconsistent between when we are fast and not so fast, so there is definitely some work to do in qualifying because that will just make our races so much better. We clearly have some good pace in the races and with energy management but when you are so far back and the way the races are this year it’s extremely hard to overtake.

“It was a good day for the team, JEV won the race, especially considering the difficult start of the season we had, it was a well-deserved result. We scored some good points for the team and now we have to keep our head down, keep working and hopefully we continue the upward strength.”

Not everyone’s weekend

While Vergne proved that he and his team have still got it, Hyderabad was a challenging weekend for others, with six cars not finishing the race.

On Lap 23, Jake Hughes collided with the wall, bringing out the safety car. When the race restarted, his Neom McLaren teammate, who was running in fifth, hit the back of Avalanche Andretti driver Jake Dennis, taking them both out.

The Jaguar team also had a woeful weekend ending with a double DNF when Sam Bird collided with teammate and polesitter Mitch Evans. Other non-finishers included Nio 333’s Dan Ticktum and ABT Cupra’s reserve driver South African Kelvin van der Linde.

South Africa’s Kelvin van der Linde, who drove for the ABT Cupra Formula E Team in Hyderabad. (Photo:Formula E)

Pascal Wehrlein, off the back of winning both races of the double-header in Diriyah last time out, still leads the championship fight after finishing fourth behind Porsche teammate António Félix Da Costa in third and Envision’s Nick Cassidy in second place.

Formula E returns for round five on 25 February in Cape Town. DM