Remarkable result for Jaguar in São Paulo, after having three Jaguar-powered cars claim the podium in the race.
Credit: Formula E Media Bank / Carl Bingham
The starting grid sees a few differences to the qualifying results, as Pascal Wehrlein has a three places grid penalty due to causing a collision in Cape Town, as well as Maxi Guenther.
The race began with a first turn contact between Maserati’s Edoardo Mortara, who lost the front wing, involving also Norman Nato, who broke off his rear wing, while at the second Andre Lotterer was hit.
Guenther and Ticktum went wide at the beginning of the second lap, cutting through the first chicane.The Maserati driver was then penalised by the stewards with 5 seconds time penalty.
The top three drivers remain the same, with Vandoorne having a great start, Evans making a move on Da Costa for P2 but teh Porsche driver managing to hold n to his starting position.
A yellow flag was issued in the second lap when Buemi’s car stopped after making contact with an unlucky Guenther. The Envision Racing driver is the fourth driver out of contention after only two laps completed.
During laps 4 and 5, Sam Bird recovered two positions on both McLaren driver for P6, just as Wehrlein makes his way into in the points already from P18, signing also the fastest lap.
Da Costa takes the lead of the race as Vandoorne goes into activation zone, with the top four drivers appearing to be the fastest of the grid beginning to build a gap to the rest of the group.
On Lap 7 Vandoorne returns in the lead, with Da Costa losing the position on Evans as well.
It’s definitely not Nissan’s weekend as Sacha Fenestraz has to stop the car after looking great in the previous practise sessions. A safety car was issued as his car had stopped in an hard place to recover after a collision with a McLaren which left him up in the air and destroyed the front part of his car, with debris hitting even Sam Bird and breakimg his mirror.
The safety car is a great chance for Edoardo Mortara to rejoin the group after changing his front wing, with racing resuming on Lap 12. The first major move sees Evans and Da Costa fighting for P2, with the Jaguar driver overtaken by Cassidy for P3, who makes also his way up to P1 before entering the activation zone.
Jake Dennis’s Andretti stopped on Lap 15, hit by Dan Ticktum, issueing yellow flags and then a safety car to remove his car and the many debris left on track. It’s the third 0 in a row for him but his first retirement of the season, after a great win and double P2 in the first rounds.
Racing resumed on Lap 19, with Cassidy and Vandoorne going to the activation zone whereas Da Costa and Evans opt for a push lap, going into the activation zone a lap later. The top 4 keep swapping places, with Vergne and Bird waiting forthe right moment to take advantage of.
Another round of yellow flags was issued when Mortara crashed out again, hit by his teammate. Rast, Wehrlein, Da Costa and Evans were all put under investigation for overtaking under the yellow flags.
Championship leader Pascal Wehrlein has managed to make his way up to the top 5 in spite of starting the race rather behind in P18.
A sad moment for the Cape Town race winner Da Costa as his car locks up while he was fighting for the race win, and he is forced to rejoin in P7.
On Lap 29 Sam Bird overtakes Vergne, while Hughes gets ahead of Wehrlein as he goes into activation mode. The British driver also manages to overtake pole sitter Stoffel Vandoorne to enter the provisional podium, while having a good 2% of energy more than the other drivers in the top spots, his teammate Mitch Evans and race leader Nick Cassidy.
Four laps were added in order to make up for the time lost under the safety car regime. On the first added lap Evans makes the move on Cassidy for the race lead. Bird, however, didn’t close the move on the Envision racing driver, keeping his P3, while Da Costa returns up in P4 passing Vergne.
The last lap sees all three Jaguar-powered drivers fighting for the race win, but in the end Mitch Evans manages to hold on the top spot for his first race win of the season.
