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Misano E-Prix: Da Costa beats Rowland to victory after chaotic race

The Porsche driver hit the front three laps from home in the 28-lap race after passing Rowland into Turn 5 – a move that proved pivotal as he took victory by less than half a second and his first win since Cape Town last season.

The first-ever Formula E race at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli proved to be as hectic as originally thought, with drivers not wanting to lead on the long straights and countless overtakes the order of the day.

Immediately from the start the theme of the race became clear as Envision’s Sebastien Buemi from eighth moved into the lead halfway around the opening lap, as almost half the field led at some stage.

The close racing inevitably had its casualties, which turned out to be crucial in the championship battle as standings leader Pascal Wehrlein and Nick Cassidy had to pit for new front wings.

Cassidy was forced to pit on lap six after making contact with Jean-Eric Vergne through the Turn 8/9 chicane, with the DS Penske driver handed a five-second penalty to his race time.

Vergne was in the wars again the following lap as Wehrlein made contact with the rear of the Frenchman through Turn 5, although this time Vergne was blameless.

Similar to his race-winning strategy in Sao Paulo, Sam Bird was the first driver to take both his Attack Mode activations by lap eight and moved to the front before the halfway point before the Briton noticeably upped the pace.

But his charge came to an end eight laps later, when the McLaren driver suffered a left-rear puncture having dropped into the pack. He rejoined before ultimately retiring before the end of the race.

Jean-Eric Vergne, DS Penske, DS E-Tense FE23, Nick Cassidy, Jaguar TCS Racing, Jaguar I-TYPE 6, Antonio Felix da Costa, Porsche, Porsche 99X Electric Gen3 (Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images)

With less than six laps remaining da Costa, now at the front of the field, began to defend his position into Turn 1 and the Turn 8/9 chicane, before Rowland swept around the outside a lap later into Turn 1.

Behind the leading pair, Vergne had begun to heavily defend from reigning champion Jake Dennis, allowing Rowland and da Costa to pull away over the closing laps.

Despite failing to win again, Rowland’s fourth podium on the bounce has put him to the top of the standings on 73 points with Dennis moving into second just five points behind.

The Andretti driver was promoted to third at the expense of Vergne’s five-second penalty, also promoting Maximilian Guenther, who for Maserati MSG had stayed in the leading bunch over the closing laps.

ERT claimed an incredible double-points finish as Dan Ticktum scored his first score of the year in fifth with team-mate Sergio Sette Camara seventh, as polesitter Mitch Evans split the pair.

Vergne was classified eighth as Norman Nato (Andretti) and the second DS Penske of Stoffel Vandoorne completed the top 10.

Misano E-Prix Race Results

   
1
 - 
4
   
   
1
 - 
2
   
Cla Driver # Laps Time Interval km/h Points Retirement
1 Portugal A. Felix da Costa Porsche Team 13 28

40'04.766

    25  
2 United Kingdom O. Rowland Nissan e.dams 22 28

+0.410

40'05.176

0.410   19  
3 United Kingdom J. Dennis Andretti Formula E 1 28

+3.413

40'08.179

3.003   15  
4 Germany M. Gunther Maserati Racing 7 28

+4.198

40'08.964

0.785   12  
5 United Kingdom D. Ticktum ERT Formula E Team 33 28

+4.964

40'09.730

0.766   10  
6 New Zealand M. Evans Jaguar Racing 9 28

+6.083

40'10.849

1.119   11  
7 Brazil S. Sette Camara ERT Formula E Team 3 28

+7.936

40'12.702

1.853   6  
8 France J. Vergne DS Penske 25 28

+7.969

40'12.735

0.033   4  
9 France N. Nato Andretti Formula E 17 28

+7.998

40'12.764

0.029   2  
10 Belgium S. Vandoorne DS Penske 2 28

+8.049

40'12.815

0.051   1  
11 France S. Fenestraz Nissan e.dams 23 28

+8.178

40'12.944

0.129      
12 Brazil L. di Grassi Team Abt 11 28

+8.377

40'13.143

0.199      
13 Switzerland N. Müller Team Abt 51 28

+8.721

40'13.487

0.344      
14 Switzerland S. Buemi Envision Racing 16 28

+13.857

40'18.623

5.136      
15 United Kingdom J. Hughes McLaren 5 28

+14.115

40'18.881

0.258      
16 Netherlands N. de Vries Mahindra Racing 21 28

+18.461

40'23.227

4.346      
17 Germany P. Wehrlein Porsche Team 94 28

+1'05.378

41'10.144

46.917      
18 Netherlands R. Frijns Envision Racing 4 28

+1'18.770

41'23.536

13.392      
dnf India J. Daruvala Maserati Racing 18 27

+1 Lap

38'54.212

1 Lap     Retirement
dnf United Kingdom S. Bird McLaren 8 25

+3 Laps

37'33.942

2 Laps     Retirement
dnf New Zealand N. Cassidy Jaguar Racing 37 23

+5 Laps

34'23.619

2 Laps     Retirement
dnf Switzerland E. Mortara Mahindra Racing 48 0

0.000

      Retirement
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