Antonio Felix da Costa has taken victory in the second Berlin E-Prix of the weekend, just a month after being disqualified from a win in Italy.
The Portuguese would quickly make-up ground from tenth on the grid to be in the fight all the way through the race to take a win that, like his performance in Misano, that will resonate through the FIA Formula E paddock as a much-deserved one.
Saturday winner Nick Cassidy finished in second place, aggrieved with his team over radio that the strategy from Jaguar TCS Racing ruined his chances of another triumph.
The evergreen Oliver Rowland would take his second third place of the weekend, his sixth podium of the year, after yet another barnstorming drive through the pack. Da Costa’s team-mate Pascal Wehrlein was fourth, with pole sitter Jake Dennis fifth, the two men battling for most of race and making contact on several occasions.
Jehan Daruvala would score his first points of the season with a brilliant seventh ahead of an equally-impressive Taylor Barnard, who bettered his 10th on Saturday with eighth. Envision Racing stand-in Joel Eriksson took a superb ninth, with Jean-Eric Vergne rounding-up the top ten.
There will be nerves in the Porsche ranks after the late disqualification of da Costa previously, but no-one can take away the brilliance of his performance that once again shows Porsche that replacing him in the team would be a serious risk.
HOW THE RACE UNFOLDED
Cassidy took the lead at the start, with Wehrlein up to second at the end of the lap after escaping behind squeezed into the wall by Norman Nato with minimal damage. Max Günther and Vergne would be the ones to lose most on the first lap, dropping back to 11th and 13th respectively.
On lap three, Cassidy opted for Attack Mode, dropping him to third behind Wehrlein and Dennis, who both opted for it a lap later. Wehrlein would opt for his second one lap later with Nato following, dropping them to fourth and sixth. Cassidy would take his second on lap six, the race a much more understated style of racing compared to Saturday, owed to the two less.
Rowland was beginning to move further through the field, moving from 16th to 12th by lap seven. Without any Attack Modes activated, da Costa would find himself in the lead at this stage, with Nato taking his second attack, bringing him back into the clutches of Vandoorne and Mortara.
On lap nine, Dennis encountered problems with the car, his dash telling him he had taken both Attack Modes, with himself and his team of the belief he had not. Rowland’s usual stellar drive through the pack was once again in evidence, now up to third.
Da Costa took Attack Mode and found himself back in the lead, with his team-mate all over his tail, but the racing would halt on lap 12 with the emergence of the Safety Car after Max Günther, for the second race in a row, crashed out after contact at turn nine, but the home hero would manage to get his Maserati going again, but only into the pits and retirement.
Racing resumed on lap 15 with Cassidy a spectator to both Porsches jostling for first ahead of him. Rowland, wanting in on the action, locked-up at turn eight, losing one place to Dennis. Cassidy and Wehrlein would claim the ascendancy at the start of lap 16, with Rowland soon moving up to third, but would suffer minor front wing damage, the right hand side of it hanging closer to the ground.
On lap 20, Mortara took Attack Mode from the points, but dropped down to 11th, but further ahead, drama would ensue as Dennis made contact with Wehrlein, the German having a mirror same incident as the one on the opening lap. Vandoorne would then damage his car after attempting to lunge up the inside of Fenestraz, lifting the Frenchman’s Nissan two wheels off the ground. The Belgian dropped down the last, needing to replace the front of his Penske.
Lap 22 and Cassidy and da Costa were still jostling for first with Rowland and Dennis keeping a watching brief behind. Rowland would indeed get ahead of Dennis a lap later, but both men’s respective team-mates would come together on lap 25, with Nato and Fenestraz colliding at turn three, the Nissan youngster being sent into the barriers, giving his countryman a sarcastic round of applause before the Andretti would free itself from the tangle and rejoin the circuit. The incident would bring out the Safety Car again with 11 laps left.
Amid the chaos, Barnard would find himself in the points again, along with Daruvala, the two jockeying for position upon the green flag. Dennis and Wehrlein would then make contact but both surviving the touch, the Porsche managing to take fifth place. Evans would lead, lose it to da Costa and then take it back again, with Cassidy also looking strong in third place.
Dennis and Wehrlein would clash again at turn nine, with fragments of the Andretti front wing falling off in the process. Behind Dennis, the McLarens of Hughes and Barnard were seventh and eighth respectively. With Cassidy battling da Costa for second, Evans would lock-up and hand the lead to da Costa, compromising Cassidy who would fall to fourth, moments after complaining on the radio that Evans needed to take Attack Mode in order to maintain his chances of victory, with his help. Dennis kept battling with Wehrlein, Barnard wanted in on the action behind, and would duly nab sixth off the reigning champion, taking his team-mate Jake Hughes in the process.
Lap 36 and Cassidy would boldly race his team-mate for second, but Evans would not hold back and fought valiantly to keep his third place. A lap later, Rowland would take second off Evans leaving da Costa with a second’s gap ahead with just four laps left.
Further behind, Joel Eriksson – standing-in for Robin Frijns – would keep his head amongst the chaos and found himself in the points, just behind the Barnard-Daruvala battle.
With two laps to go, the Jaguars would find themselves in the midst of battle again, with Cassidy eventually getting ahead. Evans would soon make an error early on the penultimate lap leaving himself vulnerable to Dennis and Wehrlein, losing track position to both of them.
On the final lap, da Costa would lead from Cassidy by one second, with Rowland third, and Wehrlein and Dennis still battling each-other. Da Costa, after the heartbreak of Misano, would cross the line to take a brilliant win, using his experience and guile once again to show he has lost none of his old brilliance. Cassidy would finish second, perhaps rueing a lost opportunity for a second win of the weekend, with Rowland taking his second successive third place, with Wehrlein fourth, Dennis fifth and Evans sixth.
Cassidy now leads the championship from Wehrlein by 16 points, with Jaguar leading the Teams’ Championship, 54 points clear of Porsche.
