It’s an Auckland 1-2 with Cassidy in P1, Evans in P2 and Jake Dennis in P3.
Credit: Formula E Media Bank / Sam Bloxham
And for the final session of an action packed Saturday – it’s race time in Monaco! So far today we’ve had a few heartbreaks and a few surprises – including remarkable front row for Nissan and their customer team McLaren, with Fenestraz on pole and Hughes starting alongside the other rookie from the front of the grid. A bit of a difficult position for the title contenders, with Cassidy starting from P9 after just missing the duels, and Wehrlein starting from P12 – behind the two Porsche-powered Avalanche Andretti drivers. Porsche seemed to struggle in the morning, with a reported issue with regen on their cars that caused them to miss a big chunk of the first practice early in the morning today.
Who will be victorious on the streets of Monte Carlo? Who will have to come to terms with a defeat? Soon enough all of these questions will be answered. Ahead of the E-Prix start, we’ve got to know that Fenestraz’s Pole lap time was deleted, which means Hughes will start ahead of him in P1. The starting grid for the Monaco E-Prix looked like this:
And we go green in Monaco! Good get away by Hughes, as he holds the lead! Cassidy gains 2 places on the tart, everyone remains pretty much in the same position and gets safely to the first corners. First lap down, and the Top 10 was: Hughes, Fenestraz, Nato, Ticktum Gunther Evans, Cassidy, Dennis, Sette Camara, and Rowland in P10. Rowland gets elbows out and overtakes, started P13 and gets to P9 after the first two laps of the race. Drivers fighting for the championship were trying to stay away from trouble. Yellow flag and it seems that Lotterer collected some damage, tough day for the German today, and first DNF from the race today. Ticktum gold onto P4 for the first 5 laps of the race, impressive performance from the NIO 333. Huge move from Nick Cassidy as he gains 2 places in one corner, ballsy stuff from the Kiwi.
Gunther takes his first attack mode promoting Cassidy to P5 and Evans to P6. Damage for Rowland! He manages to hold onto P13. Cass on the gas once again and after 7 laps, he’s second! He overtook Ticktum and Nato one after another, and after Hughes took his attack mode, that promoted the Kiwi to P2 and Fenestraz to P1. Fenestraz goes for 2 minutes attack mode and Cassidy gets P1. What is going on?
Dennis gets Hughes who dropped back after taking his attack mode, promoting the Andretti driver to P6. Cassidy and Nato take attack mode, making them drop to P5 and P7. Yellow flag and it seems a lot of damage for Rene Rast.
10 laps down and the Top 10 was: Ticktum, Evans, Fenestraz, Dennis, Cassidy, Hughes, Nato Wehrlein, Gunther, and Mortara in P10. With the other drivers taking their attack modes, Evans goes P1 ahead of Fenestraz and Cassidy in P3. Evans takes another attack mode and Cassidy goes P1. Are we aiming for another overtake record breaking as we did in Berlin?
It was Cassidy, Evans and Dennis leading the pack by lap 12. Fenestraz gets ahead of Dennis, and Hughes completed the Top 5 at that moment. Cassidy took the remaining attack mode and dropped to P2. Dennis overtakes Fenestraz, Evans takes attack mode and fights with Dennis outside of the tunnel. Cassidy remained P1, ahead of Evans, Dennis and Fenestraz in P4. Evans overtook Cassidy, and it’s Evans, Cassidy and Dennis in Top 3. We’ve momentarily got a yellow flag on track, as Da Costa shuffled down the pack and went back to the pits.
17 laps of the race down, and it was Evans ahead of Cassidy, Dennis, Fenestraz, Ticktum, Hughes, Gunther, Mortara, Bird and Nato in P10. Cassidy takes P1 away from Evans. Dennis and Evans get their elbows out but Evans remained ahead of Dennis. Absolutely remarkable stuff from the drivers today! Crunch at Turn 6 and yellows out, but we’re not sure who was the source of that crunch for now, most likely it was the DS Penske of Vandoorne.
Hughes is defending hard and so far he was able to hold to his P6. We had double yellow at turn 6 and it appears that it was Mortara’s front wing left on track. Appears the Maserati doesn’t need it after all. Yellow flag and and it appears damage for Nato and Ticktum! The French is out of the race! Safety car out – seems Gunther stopped on track as well. We can’t imagine what goes through James Rossiter’s head right now. It appears it was Gunther and Ticktum involved in the trouble, but we won’t judge which driver was at fault in this situation.
Safety car out, and since it was lap 24 of 29, there will be crunch time ahead. Stress intensifies. Cassidy’s engineer told him on the radio to chill and have a cigar, maybe we all should take his advice before the green flag.
Safety car goes into the pits and it’s green flag again! Cassidy manages to stay ahead of Evans, Dennis, Fenestraz and Hughes in P5. Lap 26 out of 29 and Wehrlein doesn’t advance further than P12, meaning no points for the German so far. FIA decided to not extend the race despite the short safety car period. Two laps to go and the drivers were flat out on track, Cassidy ahead of Evans, Dennis ahead of Fenestraz. Yellow flag again! And it’s Müller out of the race! What a depressing sight – the Swiss was running 10th and on his way to collect another point for ABT Cupra. It appears he had contact with Bird, bad luck. Safety car deployed right at the end of the race, with Cassidy leading the way – it seems Auckland will be proud today with both Kiwis on the podium.
Checkered flag is out and it’s Nick Cassidy ahead of Evans and Dennis! The Kiwi does it again and wins second race in a row! Remarkable stuff from the Envision driver. Today’s win puts him ahead of Wehrlein in the championship standings, as the German fails to score any points today. The two rookies that locked the front today cross the finish line in P4 for Fenestraz and P5 for Hughes, fantastic result for the Nissan-powered teams. The rest that completed the Top 10 were: Ticktum, Vergne, Buemi, Vandoorne and Bird. What a fantastic A̶u̶c̶k̶l̶a̶n̶d̶ Monaco E-Prix!
