Nick Cassidy scores another win this season, ahead of Dennis from Avalanche Andretti and Da Costa from TAG Heuer Porsche.
Photo credit: Formula E Media Bank / LAT Images
The first ever Formula E race in Portland is about to kick off. Starting from pole position is championship leader Jake Dennis, joined on the front row by Sacha Fenestraz.
Three drivers will start from the pit lane: Mitch Evans due to a battery and powertrain switch just before qualifying, which resulted in breaking the pit lane procedure, and both DS Penske drivers Jean-Eric Verge and Stoffel Vandoorne due to the team installing a scanning device which identified the type of tyre ran by every car at the pit entrance.
Other championship contenders will start back, which might turn out to be an advantage considering the importance of energy saving ion this track. Pascal Wehrlein is starting from P18 and Nick Cassidy in P10.
At the start many drivers made their way up, included the McLarens, with Rast up to P3 and Hughes to P, shortly after overtaken by Cassidy and Gunther. Nio’s Dan Ticktum has made his way up to P10.
On Lap 3 Muller ran wide at Turn 1 and lost his front wing, with Cassidy who has found his way up to P1. The Envision driver two times E-Prix winner in 2023 is followed by Dennis and Nato. Rast rans wide on the grass, but his car is not affected.
On Lap 5 Cassidy went to take up his first Attack Mode, leaving Nato in the lead ahead of Da Costa and Dennis, but the safety car was issued to allow the removal of Mahindra’s Roberto Merhi stranded on track after a technical issue.
A lot of contact happened in the first laps of the race, as Fenestraz has to pit at the restart on Lap 8 for a new front wing from P6. Almost all the drivers in the Top 10 went into the Activation Zone for their first Attack Modes, with Cassidy going for his second.
The drivers at the back of the grid catched up with the safety car, as Wehrlein is in P13, Vergne in P15 and Evans in P17.
On Lap 10 ABT’s Nico Muller crashed out due to a brakes issue on the straight between Turn 9 and Turn 10, bringing out another safety car. Cassidy leads Gunther, Nato, Mortara and Da Costa. The German driver suffered from a 27G impact and has been taken to the medical center for precaution, but was cleared shortly after.
The restart saw many drivers going for their second power boost. At Turn 1 many drivers made contact, with Wehrlein, Lotterer and Hughes dropping many positions. Vergne was squeezed out on the grass at the Turn 9-10 straight, moving backwards as well but not crashing out.
After all the reshuffling, Mitch Evans has made his was up to P7 after his pit lane start. On Lap 21 Cassidy is leading Da Costa, Bird, Gunther and Dennis, but at every passage the Turn 9-10 straight sees the field bunch up and create chaos, as Fenestraz’s new wings is damaged.
Da Costa gets in the lead on Lap 23, followed by Cassidy, Gunther, Vergne and Bird, as the Porsche driver tries to build a gap on the rest of the grid.
Four laps were added to the initial 28 due to the safety car outings. Dennis, who has a 2% more of energy compared to the other drivers around, moves back up to P3, as Cassidy returns in the lead on Lap 27. Bird tries to overtake Gunther, but he is unsuccessful.
Dennis overtakes Da Costa on the outside and tries to fight for the lead with Cassidy as well, but has to back off and fend Da Costa’s assaults. However, the Portuguese driver completes the move to return in P2 just before the end of Lap 28.
The provisional top 5 sees Evans and Bird, with the latter complaining that he has more pace than the Kiwi. Bird is then overtaken by Buemi on his final power boost and the Maserati drivers.
Da Costa overtakes Cassidy to return in the lead, but it’s short lasted as Cassidy strikes back. At the beginning of the final lap Dennis tried to pass Da Costa, but didn’t manage to close it, as the latest driver to lose a winglet is Mitch Evans.
The Andretti driver is successful in the end, as he manages to overtake Da Costa in the final moments of the race, as Cassidy has developed a bit of a gap over the two Porsche-powered drivers.
Nick Cassidy is the winner of the Portland E-Prix, and will be sharing the podium with Jake Dennis, who has scored in his team’s home race his fifth P2 of the season, and Antonio-Felix Da Costa. The top ten is completed by the great comebacks of Mitch Evans and Sebastian Buemi, followed by Gunther, Bird, Di Grassi, Wehrlein and Nato.
Jake Dennis has retained the championship lead conquered with his pole position earlier today, but only has a point of advantage on race winner Nick Cassidy ahead of the two final double header weekends in Rome and London.
