Mercedes’ Stoffel Vandoorne won the Monaco E-Prix from fourth on the grid, beating championship rivals Mitch Evans, who finished second, and Jean-Eric Vergne, in third.
Jaguar’s Evans started on pole, but efficiency issues got the best of him and he slipped back to fourth mid-race, although managed to recover to finish second in the end. Vergne, racing for DS Techeetah, started third but Vandoorne jumped him using Attack Mode.
Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein, who started second alongside Evans and who looked to be in control of the race, had what looked like a power failure on the car and retired from the lead at around the half way mark. This put Vandoorne into the lead of the race, which he wouldn’t go on to lose.
Robin Frijns finished fourth for Envision, but wasn’t able to find a way past Vergne in the last few laps for the final place on the podium, but he did take fastest lap as a consolation prize. Antonio Felix da Costa finished 5th, putting Frijns into a DS Techeetah sandwich as the Portguese came from 10th to take valuable points.
Lucas di Grassi finished sixth for Venturi, with Frijns’ teammate Nick Cassidy an excellent seventh after starting 18th. Similarly, Nissan’s Sebastien Buemi came from 22nd and last on the grid to finish eighth.
Jake Dennis came home ninth for Andretti, while Nyck de Vries rounded out the top 10 for Mercedes in 10th.
Alexander Sims finished 11th for Mahindra, just out of the points. Dan Ticktum capitalised on an impressive qualifying for Nio 33 and finished 12th, while the Dragon duo of Sergio Sette Camara and Antonio Giovinazzi were 13th and 14th.
Ticktum’s Nio 333 teammate Oliver Turvey was 15th, with Andretti’s Oliver Askew 16th. Maximmilian Gunther was the last of the finishers in 17th, although he ran out of usable energy on the final lap.
Retirees included Edo Mortara for Venturi, who pitted with unspecified technical issues. The no points score will be a big blow to his championship hopes. Mahindra’s Oliver Rowland and Porsche’s Andre Lotterer collided at St Devote, putting them both out of the race, meaning both teams scored no points.
Wehrlein had aforementioned technical issues, while Sam Bird capped off a disappointing weekend for Jaguar, retiring in the first few laps with broken suspension.
The result means Vandoorne leads the Drivers’ Championship on 85 points, 10 points ahead of Vergne on 75. There’s then a three point gap to Evans, then a single point between the Kiwi and Frijns, on 71.
Mercedes-Eq leads the teams championship with 120 points, 15 ahead of DS Techeetah on 105. Jaguar are in third on 94.
All eyes now turn to the Berlin double header weekend in two weeks time.
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