Sergio Jimenez beat Simon Evans to victory in the third race of the 2019/20 Jaguar I-PACE eTROPHY season at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City.
A crash for Audi’s Daniel Abt in FP1 in the run-up to Formula E’s Mexico City E-Prix led to the cancellation of qualifying for the I-PACE eTROPHY, with the grid getting determined by the results of the series’ only practice session of the weekend.
Further disruption followed for the Formula E support series when it was confirmed that the race would take place after the main event in Mexico in an attempt to preserve the racing surface.
As the fastest driver of the aforementioned practice session, Jimenez lined up on pole while Evans joined the Jaguar Brazil Racing driver on the front row of the grid.
Leading into Turn 1, Jimenez held the lead for the entirety of the race, briefly dropping back to second place when Evans overtook around the outside of Turn 9 with the aid of Attack Mode with only a handful of laps remaining.
Holding one final usage of Attack Mode, Jimenez emulated Evans’ strategy to overtake the Kiwi on the penultimate lap of the race, remaining unchallenged as the chequered flag waved after 25-minutes + 1 lap of racing.
While Evans took second, guest VIP driver and former IndyCar racer Mario Dominguez secured third as Team Saudi Racing’s Fahad Algosaibi took victory in the Pro-Am class as the overall fourth-placed finisher.
On debut, Takuma Aoki recorded a top-five finish and therefore a place on the Pro podium as the first disabled driver to compete in an international-level electric motor racing series. Fellow rookie Adalberto Baptista took sixth.
On his return to the Jaguar I-PACE eTROPHY, Caca Bueno in the second Jaguar Brazil Racing entry finished seventh, with a puncture in the dying stages of the race costing the 43-year-old a place on the podium.
Like Bueno, Alice Powell and 19-year-old Manuel Cabrera also picked up punctures during the race, with this series of incidents relegating the pair to eighth and ninth.
David Cheng and Mashhur Bal Hejaila were the only retirements in the field of 11, with the pair colliding at the start and therefore causing a safety car.
The Jaguar I-PACE eTROPHY will return on February 29, supporting the ABB FIA Formula E Championship at the Marrakesh E-Prix.
