Sao Paulo E-Prix: Evans wins last time out, Wehrlein suffers horrific air crash

Mitch Evans claimed victory from last on the grid at the Sao Paulo E-Prix despite two red flags, one of which was caused by a catastrophic air crash for reigning Formula E champion Pascal Wehrlein.

Jaguar driver Evans suffered a powertrain problem that prevented him from setting a lap in qualifying, but Attack Mode’s increased performance and a chaotic race that included two stoppages and a safety car helped the Kiwi take victory. Helped in.

Evans lost the lead on the final lap at the São Paulo street circuit last season and faced a similar situation in the season opener as he came under intense pressure from Porsche’s Antonio Félix da Costa in the closing laps. Were.

Da Costa had to settle for second place as Taylor Barnard became the youngest Formula E podium finisher in third place after a drive-through penalty, with teammate Sam Bird claiming fourth place after being penalized earlier in the proceedings .

With all-wheel-drive available to drivers courtesy of the new Gen3 Evo Era, Oliver Rolland took the lead on the inside of polesitter Wehrlein at Turn 1 after a short delay after Robin Frijns’ Envision was taken off the grid. of. crisis.

Behind, Jake Dennis was pushed out of the way by Maximilian Guenther through contact that was investigated, before the Andretti driver finished ahead of da Costa and Jean-Eric Vergne in the opening laps before an early safety car. Would have lost places.

This happened when Jake Hughes (Maserati MSG) and Nico Muller (Andretti) crashed while exiting Turn 6 on lap two to avoid slower cars ahead, before the incident was investigated.

At the green flag on lap six, Rowland maintained the lead, while Nick Cassidy became the first driver to take the first of two attack modes – a total of eight minutes – which left him on the fringes of the top 10.

But with all-wheel-drive activated in 350kW mode for the first time, the performance advantage increased substantially as the Kiwi took the lead just inside a lap and extended his lead to more than 1.5s, before He slowly lagged behind. The others took their first attack mode, following the pack.

Despite the clear advantage of Power mode, Rowland impressively took the lead before being the last runner to take his first Attack mode on lap 15, and dropped to second behind Cassidy before immediately moving back into the lead.

The Briton caught up to him after a gap of three seconds to the bunch, which was now led by Wehrlein and da Costa, the two Porsche drivers who were some of the first runners to take the second attack mode.

Wehrlein took the lead on lap 18, but running out of extra power allowed his team-mate to move ahead on the next lap as Rowland, now in third, took his second attack mode.

Briefly moving to fourth, Rowland took the lead at the start of lap 21, but Dennis’ Andretti was stranded in the Turn 1 run-off and was in ‘red state’, causing a red flag due to unsafe battery conditions. Deployed to recover the vehicle.

The restarted grid order was based on the previous lap, meaning da Costa pitted in front of Rowland, Wehrlein, Guenther and Edoardo Mortara, with Cassidy in sixth of the only six runners who had not yet taken the second attack mode. .

On the standing start, Rowland took the lead and dropped back, while Cassidy took his attack mode at the earliest opportunity on lap 24 and moved up to second within two laps.

However, Rowland’s lead of 3.2 was deemed in vain as he was slapped with a drive-through penalty for excessive power use, a similar fate befell Nissan teammate Norman Nato and customer McLaren drivers Barnard and Bird in the race. I happened earlier.

Evans, who had taken his second attack mode later than Cassidy, overtook his teammate at the start of lap 29 and da Costa also dropped the second Jaguar a lap later.

Shortly after the second red flag was deployed through the tight Turn 4/5 chicane, Guenther was pushed into the wall as he went three-wide with Cassidy and Wehrlein, before damaged suspension allowed the Jaguar to catch up with the Porsche. Sent sideways, causing Wehrlein to spin and into the Turn 6 barrier.

Wehrlein exited the car without injury and on the four-lap rolling restart, Evans led da Costa, but the back two McLarens, led by Barnard, were able to save huge amounts of energy, as their earlier The penalties had forced them to make saves at the back. Before the first red flag.

With 3% more energy, Barnard was in prime position to take his first Formula E victory in only his fourth start, but tenacious defending from Evans and da Costa meant the Briton was unable to make progress.