Formula E fight heads for Diriyah

● Two rounds in Saudi Arabia

● Andretti triumphs in first race

Alex Ingram Alex Ingram@autovia co uk @AxleIngram

THE early rounds of this year’s Formula E championship come fast, with the first five races – almost one third of the season – complete by the end of February Rounds two and three come on 27 & 28 January at the Diriyah E-Prix in Saudi Arabia

The opening round in Mexico City has already thrown up a variety of stories that will develop throughout the season. The performance of Jake Dennis took the headlines, with the young British driver taking a comfortable win, overpowering series stalwart and polesitter Lucas di Grassi and then having the composure to deal with safety car periods that cancelled out the lead that he’d built repeatedly The Andretti Autosport driver eventually won the race by nearly eight seconds.

“I’m ecstatic,” said Dennis “We came into this weekend with the unknown of where we were going to be, but we came out with the win, a front-row start and the fastest lap of the race A big shout-out to the team and a big shout out to Porsche for giving us such an efficient powertrain ”

Porsche had a great weekend beyond helping to secure Andretti’s win Pascal Wherlein finished second for the factory squad – he passed Mahindra’s di Grassi on lap 29 – and Dennis’s team-mate Andre Lotterer took fourth with a late out-braking move on McLaren’s Jake Hughes With Porsche’s new signing Antonio Felix da Costa in seventh, it was a huge turnaround