Race decided on the last lap
The first edition of the Shanghai E-Prix provided a spectacle over the course of 29 total laps on the Chinese permanent circuit, with a good fight between Jaguar and Porsche which ended with the victory by Mitch Evans, his second success of the season after Race 1 at Misano. The New Zealander, after a long struggle with Pascal Wehrleinmanaged to get the better of the German only on the last lap, with the top-3 closed by Nick Cassidywho thanks to his comeback from tenth place on the starting grid maintains the championship leadership.
Race report
Unlike qualifying, which ended with Jean-Eric Vergne’s pole position, the race did not smile on the Frenchman from DS Penske. Despite having maintained the lead at the start, the start saw Wehrlein as the great protagonist, who jumped into second position ahead of Evans and Da Costa while taking advantage of the colorless start of Rowland, who even slipped to 6th place. A race which, during the first ten laps, seemed to reward Porsche’s excellent teamwork, with the two drivers who, after using both attack modes available, managed to maintain the first two positions for a long time. A virtual one-two that was constantly questioned by the group of top ten drivers who were always very united and with constant overtaking especially at the braking point at turn 6, where there was no shortage of contacts. The race, as often happened in Formula E, however, was decided only in the final phase: Evans, after having attempted on several occasions to overtake Werhlein to jump to the top of the standings, succeeded in his attempt only at last lap, with the Porsche German maintaining second position over Cassidy at the last chicane, not without contact between the two. A negative round for the Stuttgart team, as demonstrated not only by Rowland’s overtaking of Da Costa for 4th place, but also and above all for the developments in the Drivers’ world championship, which sees Cassidy still leading with a 7-point lead on Wehrlein.
Upcoming events
An outcome therefore remained uncertain right up until the last lap, which combined with the hard-fought qualifying of the previous hours. One more reason not to miss both events scheduled for tomorrow, with the fight for pole live at 04:20 on sportmediaset.it and Eurosport 2, and with Race 2 also free-to-air on Canale 20 again at 09:00.
E-Prix Shanghai 1 2024, order of arrival
POS. | PILOT | TEAM | RPM/GAP |
1 | Mitch Evans | Neom McLaren | 29 laps |
2 | Pascal Wehrlein | TAG Heuer Porsche | +0.796 |
3 | Nick Cassidy | Jaguar TCS | +1,498 |
4 | Oliver Rowland | Neom McLaren | +1,743 |
5 | Antonio Felix da Costa | TAG Heuer Porsche | +2,165 |
6 | Jake Dennis | Andretti Global | +2,361 |
7 | Jean-Eric Vergne | DS Penske | +2,599 |
8 | Nyck De Vries | Mahindra | +2,818 |
9 | Maximilian Günther | Maserati MSG | +3,165 |
10 | Sébastien Buemi | Envision | +3,610 |
11 | Stoffel Vandoorne | DS Penske | +4,095 |
12 | Lucas Di Grassi | ABT Cupra | +4,397 |
13 | Sacha Fenestraz | Nissan | +4,791 |
14 | Robin Frijns | Envision | +5,083 |
15 | Sergio Sette Camara | ERT Formula E Team | +5,425 |
16 | Norman Born | Andretti Global | +5,793 |
17 | Nico Müller | ABT Cupra | +6,178 |
18 | Jake Hughes | Neom McLaren | +6,566 |
19 | Sam Bird | Neom McLaren | +6,944 |
20 | Jehan Daruvala | Maserati MSG | +7,372 |
21 | Dan Ticktum | ERT Formula E Team | +7,688 |
22 | Edoardo Mortara | Mahindra | Withdrawn |
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