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Nyck de Vries (Mercedes-EQ) was officially crowned ABB FIA Formula E World Champion last night at the FIA's annual prize-giving ceremony, amid celebration of world motorsport's highlights from a stand-out season.
Formula E's Nicki Shields was on hand to help front the event which celebrated the best of the action across the FIA's motorsport championships in 2021, as well as their respective title winners.
FIA President Jean Todt invited the winners along on behalf of the Senate and joint World Councils of the governing body to formally crown the title-winners.
Formula E's first World Champion
Nyck de Vries (Mercedes-EQ) sat top of the Drivers' standings heading into the final round of the season but just nine points split the Dutchman and reigning champion Antonio Felix da Costa (DS TECHEETAH) after race one at Tempelhof. Both the Drivers' and Teams' titles were still wide open, with a number of contenders blanketed by just a few points.
Retaining his advantage looked about as far from a sure thing as is possible given just how close things were and the level of competition we'd seen throughout the prior 14 races of an incredibly hard-fought 2020/21 campaign.
As we went green for the final time in Season 7, drama immediately ensued with that start-line incident between the stranded Jaguar of Mitch Evans and an unsighted Edoardo Mortara (ROKiT Venturi Racing). De Vries emerged unscathed and had enough to seal the deal, with Mercedes-EQ teammate Stoffel Vandoorne doing his bit in Berlin after another strong season to hand the German squad Teams' honours.
"It’s was such a tough season with many highs and lows and everyone’s been in that same boat – it was a rollercoaster ride," said de Vries post-Berlin. "Everything came down to the last race and I think we had a little fortune with everything that happened.
"With everyone basically being in contention going into the last race, and with everything so open, I just feel very, very grateful that the fortune has chosen us, I think we drove an incredibly strong race where everything came together for us, and I'm proud of that.
"I still need it to sink in; I don't quite realise it yet. It's 10 years ago that I won a world championship in 2010 and 11 in karting, then the title in 2019 in Formula 2. No one can take this away from me and that's what counts."
Mortara and Dennis celebrated
On the evening, runner-up Edo Mortara and third-placed Jake Dennis were awared their trophies after impressive campaigns. Mortara's unfortunate start-line incident in Berlin proved costly, and a technical issue saw then-rookie Dennis out of the box-seat, just when it looked as if he could pull off an heroic Drivers' victory.
Both were on-hand in Paris, with the efforts duly recognised by the motorsport fraternity.