Antonio Felix da Costa took victory in the Portland E-Prix, his third win in four FIA Formula E races, capitalising on Nick Cassidy’s late spin from the lead, completing what turned-out to be a dismal race for Jaguar TCS Racing.
Cassidy, who made his customary late charge into the lead in the craziness of the expected peloton style race, slid off the circuit in the lead with just over one lap to go, with polesitter Mitch Evans, taking victory on the track, already the recipient of a five second penalty for an early-race collision with Jake Hughes’ NEOM McLaren, dropping him to eighth.
Robin Frijns, whose future with Envision Racing is under scrutiny, finished a brilliant second after a calm and controlled performance, with Jean-Eric Vergne third for DS Penske. Edoardo Mortara was third for Mahindra Racing, with Nico Müller a superb fifth for ABT Cupra.
Jake Dennis was sixth, with Sam Bird seventh. Stoffel Vandoorne took ninth in the second Penske, with Pascal Wehrlein only able to take one point for 10th place, a reprieve of sorts for Cassidy, who will feel incredulous that a huge opportunity to extend his championship lead slipped away in such dramatic fashion.
HOW THE RACE UNFOLDED
At the start, Evans got away well, closely followed by Hughes and da Costa, who jumped Frijns. Despite the cars making the most of the circuit’s space, with two abreast in the early corners, the start was clean and without incident. Onto the back straight, Hughes took the lead from Evans, with the Porsches of da Costa and Wehrlein running a close third and fourth respectively. On lap two, Frijns worked his way back to third, with da Costa dropping five places. Norman Nato quickly jumped team-mate Dennis and was up to third by the end of the lap.
At the start of lap three, Nato took the lead and pulled out a gap on Hughes, with Dennis now third. All three then took their first Attack Mode, the Frenchman keeping his lead and Hughes keeping his second place, with Frijns behind.
On lap four, Cassidy – down in 12th – took his first Attack Mode, with Nato, Hughes and Frijns taking their second a lap later, releasing da Costa into second, with Hughes sliding off onto the grass at T10, dropping down to 18th behind team-mate Sam Bird, the McLaren being on the marbles, off the racing line, in the midst of jostling for fourth with Dennis, but, as it turned-out, the slide was caused by being tapped from behind by Evans a matter of yards before, causing a puncture on his right rear.
On lap seven, Frijns took the lead with Nato second and Evans third, with the Dutchman taking Attack Mode, dropping down to fourth place, but quickly took third off Nato, with Dennis now ahead.
Hughes’ race was effectively over after pitting to replace his flattening tyre. On lap eight, Dennis took another Attack Mode and dropping to third, with da Costa now leading. Evans determinedly took Dennis for third, the pair wheel-to-wheel at the end of the lap, with the Kiwi eventually edging through and ahead.
Fenestraz, suffering the indignity of qualifying behind the under-prepared stand-in team-mate Caio Collet, worked his way up to seventh, with the ABTs of Müller and Lucas di Grassi looking bright in sixth and ninth places respectively.
Evans took his next Attack on lap 10, handing the lead back to Frijns, with da Costa second and Fenestraz now third. Nato was now down in 10th, one place behind Cassidy, who quickly worked his way up one spot, now right behind his title rival Wehrlein.
With peloton in full effect, da Costa, Müller and Cassidy all quickly traded the lead upon the start of lap 12, with Wehrlein taking Attack Mode, almost knocking into his team-mate as he rejoined the racing line. Ticktum was now back in the top six, and Bird now in ninth place, working his way up to fourth a matter of corners into lap 13.
Cassidy sat back and allowed the pack to swarm him again, handing team-mate Evans first, with Bird now second and Müller in third. The Swiss took the lead from Evans, handing it to Frijns by the end of lap 14, with da Costa now in second.
The high intensity of the race, as predicted, would leave a game of ‘who is now leading?’ to be played, with Mortara getting in on the act, finding himself in first place on lap 15.
Evans, for his part in the incident that caused Hughes’ puncture, received a five second time penalty, severely compromising his own race, however the replays would suggest that the penalty was somewhat harsh, with Evans protesting over the team radio that it was Hughes who in fact moved across on him, later calling the decision a “disgrace”. The sister Jaguar of Cassidy was back in the lead a lap later, the Andrettis of Dennis and Nato, showing promise early on, were now 15th and 19th. Max Günther, starting at the wrong end of the grid due to a penalty, was now in the top 10.
Vergne, quietly going about his business during the race, swept into first on lap 17, with Cassidy still keeping his powder dry in fifth, before taking the lead once again a lap later, with Wehrlein in 10th and needing to stay in-touch.
With a little over a quarter of the race left, the peloton dissipated slightly with Cassidy staying in the lead, with da Costa second and Evans third, now in a prime position to help his countryman and team-mate.
On lap 21, da Costa took Cassidy for the lead, with Wehrlein taking an Attack, briefly relegating him from the top 10. Cassidy quickly regained his authority, with Evans searching desperately for a way past the Portuguese’s Porsche. Despite Wehrlein’s attack, the German found himself unable to make many more places up, as well as being under investigation for an incident with Günther’s Maserati.
With four laps to go, Cassidy led with Evans finally taking da Costa for second place, leaving himself in the prime position to be the rear gunner for Cassidy, who started to create a gap.
But drama with ensue with only two laps to go. Cassidy, closely-followed by Evans, went off-line towards the end of the lap, went wide, sliding onto the grass, rejoining in 19th place, throwing his race away when it looked his championship stranglehold was tightening
Evans took the chequered flag on the road, but da Costa would take another win, with Frijns second and Vergne third. Cassidy could consider himself fortunate that his title lead was down by only one point, with Wehrlein unable to significantly capitalise on his mistake.
