Jaguar TCS Racing’s Nick Cassidy claimed victory in the first race of the Berlin E-Prix double-header, after a masterful handling of the peloton race.
The Kiwi, who started in ninth place and slipped further behind in the order, played his strategy perfectly with the help of two Safety Car deployments to pip DS Penske’s Jean-Eric Vergne for the win with Nissan’s Oliver Rowland third, after starting 16th.
Pascal Wehrlein, title leader at the start of the race, was fifth, with pole-sitter Edoardo Mortara unable to maintain his challenge, but still able to score his first points of the season in eighth. Antonio Felix da Costa was sixth, with Stoffel Vandoorne seventh and Sacha Fenestraz ninth.
Taylor Barnard, in only his second FIA Formula E race, finished 10th, with Kelvin van der Linde the highest-placed rookie in 11th.
For Cassidy, the win cements his World Championship bid ahead of the second race tomorrow.
HOW THE RACE UNFOLDED
At the start, Mortara lead commandingly into turn one with much of the pack line astern in a relatively incident free first lap, but it was a nightmare for Paul Aron – one of two stand-ins for Envision Racing – who lost his front wing.
On lap two, Sette Camara took Vergne for third, but the Frenchman quickly gaining the place back. Wehrlein took the lead on lap three with the Penskes maintaining position, but both were released soon after, with Vandoorne overtaking his team-mate for the lead, who then proceeded to take his first Attack Mode, rejoining in sixth position. This promoted da Costa to second and Mortara to third, with Mitch Evans reaching the top six. Team-mate Cassidy went the other direction, tumbling down to 15th.
Da Costa’s lead lasted just half a lap, as Vergne and Vandoorne retook the ascendency, with Mortara fourth behind Wehrlein, despite some front wing damage. Rowland made his now-customary storming drive through, reaching eighth by lap nine. However, Jake Dennis was unable to follow suit, being still stuck at the back in 19th place.
Rowland’s progress was halted after front wing damage at turn nine, but everybody was soon slowing when the full course yellow flag was shown when Joel Eriksson’s Envision stopped out on track, with the Safety Car soon deployed. At this stage, Vergne and Vandoorne held a 1-2 for Penske with Wehrlein third.
The Safety Car proved to be out for much longer than expected, pulling in and racing resume on lap 16, and Wehrlein immediately took second from Vandoorne, who then dropped to fifth behind Mortara and da Costa. Wehrlein took his Attack Mode, dropping to fourth. Da Costa took the lead off Vergne, with Wehrlein and Günther jostling for fifth, the Maserati man coming out on top initially, but the Porsche quickly worked his way back up to third. Behind, Günther bravely made-up two places quickly to fourth, as Evans then took the lead.
The peloton racing, predictable given the 40 laps on offer in the race, was on show, with Evans sixth a lap later, with Wehrlein back in first. Günther attempted Attack Mode but missed the loops at the start of lap 21, with da Costa back in the lead with Mortara not far behind him. Günther tried a lap later, this time successfully activating, Lucas di Grassi, who had impressed so far for ABT Cupra this weekend so far, retired after being tagged by Dan Ticktum and suffered damage.
Dennis, soon after complaining he was unable to make his way through the pack from the tail end, was quickly up to seventh place, with Rowland looking racey too, working his way up to fourth, and then second behind Vergne. Despite the determination of the energy levels appearing, peloton was still in evidence, with less than two seconds separating the top ten on lap 28.
Evans would find himself back in-front with Vergne now down to fifth, but the constant bottlenecking in most of the slowest corners, but then the Safety Car would be back out when Günther would retire on lap 30 after contact with Jake Hughes. In sympathy, the second ABT of Kelvin van der Linde – standing-in for Nico Müller – would suffer damage after tagging Sacha Fenestraz, but the timing of the Safety Car would enable him to stay on the same lap as the pack.
At the start of lap 34, racing would resume with Evans leading, Rowland quickly taking Wehrlein for second, who then
It was quickly four abreast with da Costa coming-out on top, with Rowland second, Vergne third and Evans now fourth. Evans was up to fifth and close to the action, still yet to take Attack Mode. Da Costa dropped to third behind Vergne and Rowland, with Aron now up to eighth in an amazing performance.
Dennis got ahead of da Costa for fourth but skidded after a late brake at the hairpin in search of third and second places, bunching-up some of the pack behind him and gaining a puncture for his troubles, sending him down to the back, along with team-mate Norman Nato, who had also had problems in the early stages of the race.
The two Safety Cars resulted in an additional six laps, with Vergne and Evans battling for first with Rowland, Wehrlein and Daruvala not far behind them. Nick Cassidy, largely out of contention for most of the race, found himself up to fourth ahead of Rowland with Evans back in the lead of the race, with Vergne constantly badgering the Kiwi for position behind him. On lap 41, Evans was swamped by Wehrlein and Rowland, dropping down to fifth in a matter of turns behind his team-mate. Daruvala’s fantastic race came to an abrupt halt after damage.
With three laps now remaining, Cassidy was up to second and quickly in the lead, and with two percent more than Vergne, took off away from the chasing pack, the peloton dissipating quickly. Vandoorne and da Costa’s challenges were to disappear with what was now a battle for second, as Cassidy stormed away. Vergne, Rowland, Evans and Wehrlein was in the box seat to lock-out the podium.
Cassidy, in a drive akin to a magician’s sleight of hand, came from nowhere to take victory by over four-and-a-half seconds to firmly cement his rejuvenated title charge. Vergne and Rowland held-on to complete the podium.
