FACTS AND STATS: One-twos in Diriyah, three centurions, Mexico specialists or more?

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FACTS AND STATS: One-twos in Diriyah, three centurions, Mexico specialists or more?

Formula E heads to Saudi Arabia and Diriyah for the first double-header of the season and a pair of night races. Who's got this track down? Which drivers are hitting big milestones? And will form matter?

Venturi Diriyah

- Jake Dennis ensured Andretti won the first race of the Gen3 era in Mexico, just as the team won the first GEN2 race in Diriyah back in 2018. Winning the opening event is no guarantee of success, as the first driver ever to win the championship after being victorious in the first race was Sebastien Buemi in 2015/16 (Season 2). Only Nyck de Vries (Season 7, with Mercedes-EQ) has managed it since, and he won in Diriyah at Formula E's first night race.
- Dennis cruised to victory by 7.816s, the 7th-largest winning margin in Formula E history, and the largest since Nyck de Vries’ win in the freak circumstances of Valencia 2021 as most of the field miscalculated the race length, leaving de Vries to win by 13.128s
- 38-year-old Lucas di Grassi became the 3rd-oldest polesitter in Formula E history in Mexico, trailing only the 39-year-old Stephane Sarrazin at Battersea Park 2015 and 40-year-old Jarno Trulli at Tempelhof 2015
- Thanks to the five added laps at the end of the race, Mexico City 2023 set a record for longest distance completed in a Formula E race at 107.748 km (66.952 miles). It beat the previous record – set at Tempelhof in 2018 – by less than 0.9km (0.6 miles)

READ MORE: The full 2023 CORE Diriyah E-Prix preview

- Last year’s Diriyah race one saw Mercedes driver Nyck de Vries lead home Stoffel Vandoorne to score one of only eight one-two finishes ever achieved in Formula E history. ABT have achieved it on three occasions, the absent Techeetah and Mercedes (now McLaren) have achieved it twice, and Porsche once (theirs being the most recent, at Mexico 2022)

- Showing how quickly the Formula E formbook can change, the podium in Mexico City comprised of the teams that finished sixth, seventh and eighth in last year’s Teams’ World Championship: Avalanche Andretti, TAG Heuer Porsche and Mahindra Racing. The latter two teams only finished on the podium in one race each during 2022, while Andretti have matched their single race win from last season. Porsche powertrains finished in three of the top-four positions (and four of the top seven) in Mexico. Given that the Porsche team finished one-two in Mexico in 2022 but didn’t score a podium in any other race, it remains to be seen if they have the best powertrain of if they are just Mexico specialists

WATCH: How to watch every minute of Season 9 where you are

- On the subject of powertrains that work well at certain tracks, there will definitely be a new powertrain on pole position in Diriyah this weekend. All seven previous poles have been shared between BMW, Audi and Mercedes, none of whom are in Formula E this season. The Mercedes powertrain took both poles, both wins and led every lap of both Diriyah races in 2022
- Three drivers are all due to make their 100th Formula E starts this weekend. Sam Bird, Sebastien Buemi and Jean-Eric Vergne all reach a century, two races after Lucas di Grassi (the only driver to start every Formula E race in history). Bird was ruled out of the season-ending double-header in Seoul last season due to injury, while Sebastien Buemi missed the New York 2017 double-header due to a clash with the Nurburgring round of the FIA World Endurance Championship. Buemi only finished 24 points behind di Grassi that season, meaning skipping those races may have cost him a second Formula E title. Jean-Eric Vergne has been ever present since taking pole position on his series debut in the 3rd Formula E race in Punta Del Este in 2014

- For the first time since joining the calendar in Season 5, Diriyah is not hosting the opening race of the season
- Diriyah has previously hosted a Formula E double header in Season 6, Season 7 and Season 8
- During the last visit to Diriyah, Venturi, now Maserati MSG Racing, picked up the record for the most points in a single weekend in the Saudi Arabian city, with 58 points (with first, third, fifth and sixth place finishes across the two races). During the same weekend, Mercedes-EQ fell one point short of the record by picking up 57 points. With neither of the two teams competing in Season 9, can any current team better this tally?
- Across the seven races in Diriyah, only three teams have claimed a Julius Baer Pole Position. Both Avalanche Andretti and Mercedes-EQ have three pole positions and Envision Racing have one pole position (courtesy of the injured and absent Robin Frijns in Season 7)
- Sam Bird and Nyck de Vries are the only drivers to have claimed multiple wins in Diriyah, with Brits taking the chequered flag more times than any other nationality (three, the other being Alexander Sims in Season 6)
- Edoardo Mortara and Nyck de Vries are tied for the most points scored in Diriyah (69). However, reigning Formula E champion Stoffel Vandoorne is the only driver to have claimed three podium finishes in Diriyah

- After the last three visits to Diriyah, the gap at the top of both the Drivers’ and Teams’ World Championship has never been more than seven points
- In the second race of the Season 6 Diriyah E-Prix, Jean-Eric Vergne finished eighth after starting 24th on the grid, which is the most positions gained by a driver in any race around Diriyah
- Kelvin van der Linde will make his Formula E debut in Diriyah, replacing the injured Robin Frijns. van der Linde will be the first South African and African driver to race in Formula E
- Oliver Turvey out-qualified his teammate in all seven races in Diriyah. Of the current grid, both Sergio Sette Camara and Max Guenther have out qualified their teammates in the last four races in Diriyah
- In each of the last 12 Formula E races, Sergio Sette Camara has had to qualify in Group A. However, after finishing in 16th in Mexico City, the Brazilian will qualify in Group B for the first race in Diriyah
- In six of the seven races in Diriyah, the race winner has started in the top three positions on the grid. The only instances where a driver starting outside of the top three won was the first race of the Season 6 Diriyah E-Prix, in which Sam Bird won after starting fifth on the grid
- All seven races in Diriyah have seen a Safety Car appearances (with two races finishing behind the Safety Car)

Dennis wins in Mexico

- After scoring in the last nine races, Mexico City winner Jake Dennis is just one race away from scoring in ten consecutive races
- Diriyah is known to produce close racing, and close battles for the lead with six of the seven races in Diriyah having been won by less than three seconds. Both races in Season 8 were won by less than one second
- Both Lucas di Grassi and Oliver Rowland have scored in six races in Diriyah. No driver has managed to score in all seven races
- Seven different drivers have claimed a fastest lap in Diriyah, coming from six different nations. Only German drivers have taken two fastest laps in Saudi Arabia (Andre Lotterer and Daniel Abt)