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Stefan Mackley

Rome E-Prix: Evans wins from Cassidy after early-race pile-up

The Jaguar driver beat fellow Kiwi and championship protagonist Nick Cassidy by 1.6s to the win, as the runner-up spot moved the Envision Racing driver into the points lead. 

Maserati’s Maximilian Guenther completed the podium while Jake Dennis – who had led the championship standings ahead of the race – took fourth after a defensive drive over the final laps to keep Jean-Eric Vergne (DS Penske) and Nico Muller (Abt Cupra) behind. 

The race was red flagged on lap nine after numerous cars were involved in a high-speed accident after Jaguar’s Sam Bird lost control through the high-speed left-hand Turn 6 sweep after running wide. 

The Briton had started on the front row alongside team-mate Evans, initially led the opening laps after taking the lead into the first turn but was running fourth when the incident took place. 

While Dennis, Cassidy and Guenther immediately behind were just able to avoid the spinning Bird after the Briton had bounced off the wall, Envision’s Sebastien Buemi was unable to avoid the stricken Jaguar which had stopped broadside across the track.  

The heavy impact sent Bird’s Jaguar further onto the racing line, with Stoffel Vandoorne hitting the wall in avoidance, while team-mate Vergne just squeezed through on the inside of the wreckage. 

Edoardo Mortara’s Maserati was unable to avoid the stricken Jaguar, though, suffering a heavy head-on collision as the resulting chaos and debris caused a concertina effect behind which claimed Antonio Felix da Costa (Porsche), Lucas di Grassi (Mahindra) and Robin Frijns (Abt Cupra).  

All drivers involved in the incident were able to extract themselves from their respective cars and underwent medical checks.

The same spot on the track had already claimed the Andretti Autosport machine of Andre Lotterer earlier in the race which caused a safety car, as well as the McLaren of Jake Hughes in qualifying, with the latter unable to start the race due to the damage caused in the crash.  

Marshals remove the car of Sam Bird, Jaguar Racing, Jaguar I-TYPE 6, with a crane after a big crash on the 9th lap (Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images)

Fourteen cars took the standing restart after a lengthy delay with Sacha Fenestraz resuming in the lead having kept ahead of Evans and McLaren’s Rene Rast prior to the restart. 

But the Nissan driver quickly began to lose more energy compared with his rivals, with Dennis taking the lead midway through the race into the 90-degree left of T7 having jumped Evans at T3. 

Dennis led for a lengthy period, only dropping behind Evans when activating his final Attack Mode with the Kiwi following suit two laps later. 

The Jaguar driver rejoined second and clear of Cassidy, who had also demoted Fenestraz, but Evans had missed the Attack Mode activation sensors meaning he had to run off-line again the following lap. 

This time with Attack Mode activated, Evans overtook Dennis for the lead on the approach to Turn 7, with Cassidy pulling off the same move further round the lap. 

While the top two remained unchanged until the flag, Dennis lost a further position to Guenther with five laps remaining as he conserved energy. 

The Briton was just able to hold on to fourth from Vergne and Muller over the final laps, as Pascal Wehrlein completed the top seven. 

The Porsche driver, who is also in championship contention, was forced to pit on the opening lap after damaging his front wing and then suffered suspension damage in the Bird incident. 

Although his car was repaired and he recovered to seventh, the German is under investigation by the stewards for going too fast under the red flags. 

Rome E-Prix - Race results:

Cla # Driver Team Time Gap
1 9 New Zealand Mitch Evans United Kingdom Jaguar Racing 1:37'02.976  
2 37 New Zealand Nick Cassidy United Kingdom Envision Racing 1:37'04.615 1.639
3 7 Germany Maximilian Gunther Monaco Maserati Racing 1:37'12.102 9.126
4 27 United Kingdom Jake Dennis United States Andretti Autosport 1:37'23.986 21.010
5 25 France Jean-Eric Vergne United States DS Penske 1:37'24.458 21.482
6 51 Switzerland Nico Müller Germany Team Abt 1:37'24.834 21.858
7 94 Germany Pascal Wehrlein Germany Porsche Team 1:37'26.558 23.582
8 17 France Norman Nato Japan Nissan e.dams 1:37'27.047 24.071
9 3 Brazil Sergio Sette Camara United Kingdom NIO Formula E Team 1:37'28.403 25.427
10 23 France Sacha Fenestraz Japan Nissan e.dams 1:37'33.318 30.342
11 1 Belgium Stoffel Vandoorne United States DS Penske 1:37'47.937 44.961
12 8 Spain Roberto Merhi India Mahindra Racing 1:38'08.024 1'05.048
13 33 United Kingdom Dan Ticktum United Kingdom NIO Formula E Team 1:38'37.776 1'34.800
  58 Germany René Rast United Kingdom McLaren 1:30'49.305 12 Laps
  10 United Kingdom Sam Bird United Kingdom Jaguar Racing 18'07.724 19 Laps
  16 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi United Kingdom Envision Racing 18'10.757 19 Laps
  13 Portugal Antonio Felix da Costa Germany Porsche Team 18'11.432 19 Laps
  48 Switzerland Edoardo Mortara Monaco Maserati Racing 18'14.646 19 Laps
  11 Brazil Lucas di Grassi India Mahindra Racing 18'15.096 19 Laps
  4 Netherlands Robin Frijns Germany Team Abt 18'17.089 19 Laps
  36 Germany Andre Lotterer United States Andretti Autosport 5'17.996 25 Laps
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