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Jake Boxall-Legge

New York E-Prix: Da Costa beats Vandoorne in Brooklyn

Da Costa kept Vandoorne at arm’s-length in the latter stages of a frenetic second race at the Brooklyn Street Circuit in Red Hook, where a flurry of late yellow flags reduced the Belgian's opportunity to mount a late pass.

A pile-up at Turn 6 on the antepenultimate lap, which involved Jean-Eric Vergne, Lucas di Grassi and Oliver Askew, left the Andretti driver stranded on the corner exit as di Grassi stopped further up the road on the exit of Turn 10, limiting Vandoorne's passing zones to Turn 1.

Despite dwindling energy compared to Vandoorne, da Costa held on to collect his and DS Techeetah's first win of the year, continuing his turnaround after a difficult start to the year.

Da Costa held his pole position off the start despite pressure from fellow front-row starter Alexander Sims, but the Mahindra driver looked more concerned by the cars behind him and thus tried to stick with the Portuguese driver.

The leading duo picked up their sole eight-minute attack mode activations on lap 12, with Vandoorne instructed to do the opposite of Sims, which allowed the Mercedes driver to pick up the lead for a lap.

Vandoorne then picked up attack mode on the following tour, dropping back to third, but he continued to stick with the frontrunners along with teammate Nyck de Vries. But having lost a little ground to da Costa, Sims was then under heavy pressure from Vandoorne, who after a few aborted efforts finally made his way past on the 22nd lap.

That put Vandoorne onto the back of da Costa, but passing opportunities were at a premium as the Season 6 champion was resolute in defence. Although Vandoorne mounted an assault with fanboost on lap 35, da Costa was far enough ahead to see that threat off.

But amid the late skirmish at Turn 6 with the cars on the fringes of the points, Vandoorne's opportunities dwindled and thus da Costa was able to cement victory.

Mitch Evans collected a hard-fought third place, recovering from a shoulder-barge from de Vries and a subsequent huge slide after hitting a bump in the road on the run to Turn 6 – which he miraculously saved.

Those incidents put Evans down into fifth and some way away from the leading quartet, but a series of strong laps from the Kiwi meant that he was able to get back onto de Vries' tail – and the Dutchman then explored the same bump which handed Evans fourth.

As Sims then dropped off the back of da Costa and Vandoorne, he was susceptible to Evans' advances and was dispatched on lap 36 – denying the Mahindra driver a podium.

Sims tailed Evans to the finish but, like Vandoorne, had few opportunities to return the favour but still claimed his best finish of the season.

Jaguar’s Sam Bird collected an excellent fifth from 16th on the grid, scything his way through the field and keeping Robin Frijns at bay in the latter stages.

De Vries hit the bump ahead of Turn 6 for a second time, which put him into the run-off and allowed Bird to pass – and also could not keep Frijns behind him ahead of the final five laps – and thus had to be content with seventh.

Jake Dennis claimed eighth place ahead of Andre Lotterer, who mistimed his start and shed multiple positions from third on the grid, as Edoardo Mortara benefitted from the late-race Turn 6 scuffle to pop up into the points, having worked his way into the points from 21st on the grid.

Pascal Wehrlein beat a bright-starting Dan Ticktum, who was briefly in points contention in the early stages, as both again benefitted from Vergne and di Grassi's conflict.

Race 1 winner Nick Cassidy could not recover from being sent to the back after his penalty for taking a new battery, where he also had to serve a drive through to make up the part of the grid drop he could not serve, but was classified in 16th ahead of Maximilian Gunther – who got a five-second penalty for a clash with Oliver Rowland.

Sergio Sette Camara started fourth, but the limitations of his Dragon Penske package came to the fore and the Brazilian thus fell down the order despite holding his own in the top six in the first part of the race – ultimately finishing 18th.

Cla Driver Team Laps Time Gap Interval Points
1 Portugal Antonio Felix da Costa France Techeetah 39 46'55.511     28
2 Belgium Stoffel Vandoorne Germany Mercedes 39 46'56.440 0.929 0.929 18
3 New Zealand Mitch Evans United Kingdom Jaguar Racing 39 46'59.035 3.524 2.595 15
4 United Kingdom Alexander Sims India Mahindra Racing 39 46'59.142 3.631 0.107 12
5 United Kingdom Sam Bird United Kingdom Jaguar Racing 39 46'59.923 4.412 0.781 10
6 Netherlands Robin Frijns United Kingdom Virgin Racing 39 47'00.490 4.979 0.567 8
7 Netherlands Nyck de Vries Germany Mercedes 39 47'01.744 6.233 1.254 6
8 United Kingdom Jake Dennis United States Andretti Autosport 39 47'01.827 6.316 0.083 4
9 Germany Andre Lotterer Germany Porsche Team 39 47'02.101 6.590 0.274 2
10 Switzerland Edoardo Mortara Monaco Venturi 39 47'08.960 13.449 6.859 2
11 Germany Pascal Wehrlein Germany Porsche Team 39 47'13.980 18.469 5.020  
12 United Kingdom Dan Ticktum United Kingdom NIO Formula E Team 39 47'18.513 23.002 4.533  
13 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi France DAMS 39 47'25.727 30.216 7.214  
14 United Kingdom Oliver Rowland India Mahindra Racing 39 47'28.187 32.676 2.460  
15 United Kingdom Oliver Turvey United Kingdom NIO Formula E Team 39 47'28.766 33.255 0.579  
16 New Zealand Nick Cassidy United Kingdom Virgin Racing 39 47'35.210 39.699 6.444  
17 Germany Maximilian Gunther France DAMS 39 47'41.445 45.934 6.235  
18 Brazil Sergio Sette Camara United States Dragon Racing 39 48'03.704 1'08.193 22.259  
  France Jean-Eric Vergne France Techeetah 36 43'25.414 3 Laps 3 Laps  
  Brazil Lucas di Grassi Monaco Venturi 36 43'25.869 3 Laps 0.455  
  United States Oliver Askew United States Andretti Autosport 36 43'33.429 3 Laps 7.560  
  Italy Antonio Giovinazzi United States Dragon Racing 27 32'55.546 12 Laps 9 Laps  
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