Dennis: "Difficult" to repeat last year's London Formula E win

Dennis won the opening London E-Prix last year in the first ever race at the ExCeL, capitalising from second on the grid to pass polesitter Alex Lynn's Mahindra for victory in his works BMW machine.

He followed that up with ninth in the second race, won by Lynn, a result which kept Dennis in the title hunt ahead of the Berlin finale.

Dennis says that the New York City E-Prix showed that Andretti - now a privateer team following BMW's withdrawal - is capable of mixing it with the top manufacturer squads in qualifying if the conditions are right, a theme throughout the year as Dennis has made it onto the duels on multiple occasions.

But the team's race pace has let it down, Dennis explaining that lacking a couple of tenths relative to the manufacturer teams can often be the difference in holding down a top-five position.

Andretti has signed a customer powertrain deal with Porsche for Gen3, but has been running the old BMW units this year.

"You've got the likes of the Jags and Mercedes and then the DSes which seemed quite strong in the race, especially," Dennis reflected.

"But I think we can definitely take it to them in qualifying if everything is perfect for us. And we've shown that this year, we had a couple of front rows, generally starting in the top five or six most races.

"Generally my first laps have been quite good this year. So we always move forward, but go just lacking that last little tenth or two in the race, which can just drop you out of that top that top five, basically.

"There'll be no development from our side coming into the next few rounds, because obviously it's not possible. So we just need to try and maximise absolutely everything we can to try and get these podiums."

Jake Dennis, Andretti Motorsport, BMW iFE.21

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

The Brit admits that the team will find it difficult to repeat its heroics from last season without works BMW support, but hopes to put on a show in front of his home crowd.

"I'm buzzing to be here, it's obviously my home race. It's great to be here in London and just doing what I love," Dennis said.

"I have my family, my friends here and a full British crowd. We've got maximum capacity, the grandstands are massive.

"So hopefully we can try and fill them, [it'll be great to] race in front of English supporters and see the British flag, see the Jake Dennis flags and do my thing.

"So hopefully we can try and repeat what we did last year. It's going to be difficult, but very much have every intention to try and get on the podium this weekend."