Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Autosport
Autosport
Sport
Stefan Mackley

London E-Prix: Cassidy controls wet Formula E finale after two stoppages

The Envision Racing driver took a lights-to-flag victory after an imperious performance in treacherous conditions having rebuffed a strong challenge from Jaguar’s Evans.

The win and sixth place finish for Sebastien Buemi means Envision has provisionally claimed the teams’ championship having been in a battle against Jaguar entering the final race of the season.

Cassidy and Evans dominated proceedings, with newly crowned champion Jake Dennis completing the podium more than 16s behind Cassidy.

The last race of the Formula E season was finely poised on Sunday at the ExCeL London’s unique indoor/outdoor circuit, with Cassidy just taking pole from Saturday’s London E-Prix winner Evans.

As well as pole, Cassidy more importantly secured three points which pivotally moved Envision clear of Jaguar in the teams’ standings prior to the race.

The field began the scheduled 34-lap race behind the safety car due to heavy rain outside the main arena, with race director Scot Elkins stating that the field would circulate for several laps before lining up on the grid for a standing start.

After three laps the safety car headed to the pits with drivers set to take up their positions on the grid, but moments later the safety car was redeployed before cars came to a stop.

Two more laps were run under caution, but with conditions still not improving the decision was taken to red flag the race.

Jake Dennis, Andretti Autosport, Porsche 99 X Electric Gen3 Maximilian Gunther, Maserati Racing, Maserati Tipo Folgore (Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images)

Following a 30-minute delay in which sweeping machines and marshals took to the track to try and disperse water, the field filed out of the pits behind the safety car.

Race director Elkins stated that the field would perform two laps again to reassess the conditions, but with heavy standing water still remaining a second red flag was shown with cars entering the pitlane once more.

After a second lengthy delay and with the rain easing, the race resumed at 1830 local time, with green action running getting under way for the first time on lap eight with a rolling start.

Cassidy and Evans immediately managed to pull clear of the chasing pack, with Dennis stuck behind Norman Nato for two laps before moving ahead when the Nissan driver took his first Attack Mode.

The top three, all of whom were title protagonists in yesterday’s opening race, took both their Attack Mode activations in the first eight laps as energy saving became somewhat irrelevant in the wet conditions.

The biggest gap between the leading pair only briefly exceeded 3s, with the gap generally stabilising around the 2.5s mark as Dennis fell more than 10s behind after just 10 laps of green flag running.

The extended safety car period meant four extra laps were added to the total race distance, during which time Evans began to drop back from Cassidy, eventually finishing nearly 5s behind at the finish.

Mitch Evans, Jaguar Racing , Jaguar I-TYPE 6 Sebastien Buemi, Envision Racing, Jaguar I-TYPE 6 (Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images)

Dennis finished a further 11s behind but well clear of Nato, with DS Penske’s Stoffel Vandoorne claiming fifth after a solid performance.

Behind, the second Envision of Buemi had moved ahead of Jaguar’s Sam Bird around the outside into Turn 1 on lap 26 for sixth, solidifying Envision’s spot at the top of the teams’ championship by 12 points.

Abt Cupra’s Nico Muller finished eighth having come under intense pressure from NIO 333’s Dan Ticktum, as Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein claimed 10th, with all 22 cars incredibly finishing after no yellow flag periods.

Formula E - London E-Prix II results (38 laps)

Cla   Driver   Car / Engine   Time   Gap 
1 Nick Cassidy Jaguar 2h13m56.532s  
2 Mitch Evans Jaguar 2h14m01.466s 4.934s
3 Jake Dennis Porsche 2h14m12.827s 16.295s
4 Norman Nato Nissan 2h14m21.351s 24.819s
5 S.Vandoorne DS 2h14m22.822s 26.290s
6 Sébastien Buemi Jaguar 2h14m23.938s 27.406s
7 Sam Bird Jaguar 2h14m25.908s 29.376s
8 Nico Müller Mahindra 2h14m26.836s 30.304s
9 Dan Ticktum NIO 2h14m27.364s 30.832s
10 Pascal Wehrlein Porsche 2h14m32.090s 35.558s
11 Edoardo Mortara Maserati 2h14m33.147s 36.615s
12 René Rast Nissan 2h14m34.692s 38.160s
13 S.Sette Câmara NIO 2h14m36.827s 40.295s
14 Max Günther Maserati 2h14m47.672s 51.140s
15 Sacha Fenestraz Nissan 2h14m48.450s 51.918s
16 A.F.da Costa Porsche 2h14m49.868s 53.336s
17 Robin Frijns Mahindra 2h14m53.140s 56.608s
18 Lucas di Grassi Mahindra 2h14m54.596s 58.064s
19 Jake Hughes Nissan 2h14m56.488s 59.956s
20 Roberto Merhi Mahindra 2h14m59.038s 1m02.506s
21 André Lotterer Porsche 2h14m59.422s 1m02.890s
22 Jean-Éric Vergne DS 2h14m09.464s 1 lap /12.932s

 

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.