FE | Diriyah 2: Cassidy wins and takes the lead in the world championship

If on Friday at the finish line between first and second there was one of the widest gaps recorded recently, with a thirteen second gap between Jake Dennis and Jean-Eric Vergne, today's race reserved an exciting finale, with the compact group until the finish line.

Nick Cassidy took his first victory with the official Jaguar team by holding off Robin Frijns at the end, which also allowed him to overtake Pascal Wehrlein to take the lead in the Formula E standings with an advantage of 18 points.

Just as yesterday, one of the key moments was the activation of the Attack Mode: while Robin Frijns, who had taken the lead after overtaking Oliver Rowland on the spur of the moment when the traffic lights went out, had been among the first to activate the period of extra power, Cassidy chose to postpone the passage into the Attack Zone, thus being able to push on a clear track. Similar to what happened yesterday with Jake Dennis, this allowed the New Zealander from the official Jaguar team to take the lead by completing an overcut, which he then didn't relinquish until the checkered flag after starting from third place on the grid. .

In fact, when Cassidy activated his second and final Attack Mode during the thirteenth lap he comfortably maintained the lead thanks to the advantage of around two seconds accumulated in the previous laps. After trying the sprint, which ideally could have guaranteed him greater freedom in terms of management, the strategists suggested he slow down to save battery and this gave Frijns the opportunity to get closer again.

However, although Saudi Arabia is not the most challenging circuit in the world championship in terms of energy management, on the other hand it has also proven to be one of the most complex on which to try an overtaking and, despite the attempts, the New Zealander from Envision was unable to put his compatriot's first place at risk. Cassidy must be given credit for having commanded the group excellently in the most delicate phase of the race, without giving in to the pressure put on by his rivals when he was trying to slow down the pace to save energy.

Third place was Oliver Rowland with Nissan, who had started from the pole position won in the afternoon. For the Japanese brand, this is the first podium since the Rome event last season, but the satisfaction is double having managed to bring both cars into the points, as well as Jake Hughes' customer McLaren, which relies precisely on the package provided from the Japanese company.

Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images

Oliver Rowland, Nissan Formula E Team, Nissan e-4ORCE 04

For the Woking team, this is an excellent fourth place, which confirms the competitiveness of the British team on a less demanding circuit from an energy point of view, as had already been seen on Friday such as the good performance of Sam Bird. Also noteworthy is Stoffel Vandoorne's good fifth place with the first of the two DSs.

Good comeback for Pascal Wehrlein, who managed to make the most of the efficiency of his Porsche to overtake three cars and reach seventh place after starting from the tenth spot on the starting grid. Behind him, Jean-Eric Vergne finished in the points with the second DS Penske, Max Gunther with the first Tipo Folgore of Maserati and the reigning world champion Jake Dennis, who did well to get back into the top ten after starting from fourteenth place.

Starting from more than half the group, for the Briton from Andretti it was above all a waiting race, in which he launched targeted attacks with which he also managed to overtake one of his possible rivals with a view to winning the title, Mitch Evans, the who finished in eleventh position outside the points zone.

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

Jake Dennis, Andretti Global, Porsche 99X Electric Gen3

The first Mahindra of Edoardo Mortara was twelfth, followed by the “twin” car of the ABT customer team, that of Nico Mueller. Fourteenth was Antonio Felix da Costa, also the author of a comeback from the back of the grid, even if in this case it did not lead to a top ten result, thus continuing his period without points and lacking in satisfaction.

Behind him, Nyck de Vries, who continues his adaptation to Gen 3 after his return to Formula E, followed by Norman Nato with the second Andetti and Sergio Sette Camara, who collapsed to last place after starting in ninth place. The Brazilian also paid for an initial phase of the race in which he consumed more than he should, then suffering the limits of the ERT package in terms of energy efficiency.

Dan Ticktum retired, forced to return to the pits after a contact already at the end of the first lap, just like in the Friday round, as did Sam Bird and Jehan Daruvala. The British driver from McLaren had to park his car with the steering bent after a failure, while the Indian driver from Maserati, who had been the protagonist of a great qualifying which ended with an excellent fifth place, was forced to retire after a problem with the braking system.

Daruvala had already made a long run during the twenty-fourth lap, when under the pressure of Mitch Evans and Jake Dennis he had run wide at the braking point at turn 18: however, only three laps later, when he had already left the points zone, the standard bearer of Trident team had to park the car. However, Sebastien Buemi did not take part in the race due to his chassis being damaged following the accident in official practice in the afternoon.