Simon Evans secured a dominant victory in Diriyah to kick-start the second season of the Jaguar I-PACE eTROPHY.
Lining up in pole position, Evans led from lights to flag to take his second victory in the championship, maintaining his 100% win record at the Riyadh Street Circuit.
At the start of the race, Evans was briefly challenged by reigning champion Sergio Jimenez, however, covered the Brazilian racer into the first corner, opening up a 1.5s lead by the end of the opening lap.
Extending his lead, the Kiwi took the chequered flag ahead of Jimenez by over five seconds, with the Jaguar Brazil Racing driver taking second to commence his championship defense.
While maintaining second place for most of the 25-minute + 1 lap affair, Jimenez faced a constant challenge from both Abbie Eaton and Alice Powell, briefly dropping to third after deploying first use of Attack Mode – a new addition to the series for Season 2.
Powell took third as the chequered flag waved, failing to overtake Jimenez for second after misjudging the deployment of her final use of Attack Mode in the final stages of the race.
With Powell completing the Pro podium, Yaqi Zhang was the victor in the Pro-Am class by taking fourth, overtaking third-placed starter Eaton in the late stages of the race.
Taking fifth place, Eaton equalled the best finishing position for a VIP driver in the championship to date while Fahad Algosaibi finished on the Pro-Am podium by taking sixth overall for Saudi Racing.
Chao Sun followed Algosaibi in the second Team China Racing car to take seventh while Mario Haberfeld, who stands in for Caca Bueno in Diriyah, was eighth.
Mashur Bal Hejaila was ninth while Reema Juffali completed the field, making history as the first Saudi woman to compete in an international motorsport event.
