A mistake by Nick Cassidy and a penalty for Mitch Evans are a huge blow for Jaguar, as they effectively meant the British brand threw away a near-certain win in the Portland E-Prix, allowing Antonio Felix da Costa to secure another success this Formula E season.
Championship leader Cassidy was poised to take his third win of the season and put a serious title fight in his sights at Portland International Raceway. But on the penultimate lap, while leading, the New Zealander ran wide at the fast left-hander Turn 10 after losing control of his car, which sent him off the road at the following right-hander. That sent him spinning into the grass, dropping him out of the points. “Sometimes you have to take a lot of responsibility and hold your hand up and say you made a mistake. Today was my day. I think it was a series of events that led to this, but that’s the way it is,” Cassidy said.
Evans was directly behind his teammate and took the chequered flag first, but the other Jaguar driver was given a five-second penalty for an earlier collision with Jake Hughes.
In this way Evans, who had started from pole, slipped to eighth place in the final standings, while da Costa achieved another victory, after the one obtained last time in Shanghai, which brought him to three successes in the last four races.
Cassidy had taken the lead on lap 23 from da Costa, after having driven a low-key first part of the race to conserve energy, which is crucial on a circuit as taxing on the battery as the American one, remaining on the fringes of the top 10. While Cassidy and da Costa swapped positions several times in the following laps, Evans remained behind them as a spectator.
Antonio Felix da Costa, Porsche, Porsche 99X Electric Gen3 Edoardo Mortara, Mahindra Racing, Mahindra M9Electro
Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images
At the start of lap 24, Evans moved around the outside of da Costa at Turn 1 and moved ahead of the eventual race winner in what, at the time, could have been a 1-2 Jaguar. However, any chance of victory for Evans was dashed when he was given a penalty for contact with Hughes on the back straight, which resulted in a puncture of the right rear tyre on the Englishman’s McLaren.
The contact damaged Evans’ front wing but, above all, it cost him a five-second penalty which put paid to his dreams of glory, not only of victory, but also of moving closer in the world rankings. Although he wasn’t in any danger because of his position on the track, Cassidy started to defend himself the moment he made the mistake.
Cassidy’s mistake and 19th place finish presented the perfect opportunity for Pascal Wehrlein to close the 25-point gap on his title rival which, however, the German failed to exploit. The Porsche driver was unable to join the leading group for much of the 27-lap race, finishing only in tenth place, delaying the activation of the attack mode: the single point gained meant that Wehrlein was able to reduce the gap, but Cassidy’s lead remains at 24 points.
Second place, Robin Frijns was among the protagonists for most of the race, while the podium was completed by DS Penske’s Jean-Eric Vergne, who moved up from 14th place.
Mahindra’s Edoardo Mortara, Nico Muller (Abt) and Andretti’s Jake Dennis completed the top six finishers, while the defending champion led in the early stages of the race before slipping back into the pack.
Portland E-Prix race results
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