Formula E: Da Costa wins Cape Town race

The first South African Formula E race started with surprises. We talked about not all teams being able to start, but as soon as the race started, the championship leader, Porsche driver Pascal Wehrlein, immediately fell out of contention.

He didn’t get off to a great start in 6th place and Sébastien Buemi, who started eighth for Envision this year, was ahead of him. In an attempt to regain control, Pascal clearly made a mistake on the brakes, crashing into the Swiss car from behind at full speed. The Porsche’s front suspension was broken and Wehrlein had to leave the cockpit after the first lap.

Edoardo Mortara, a Maserati driver, also retired on the first lap. The electric safety car left.

A restart was called on the fifth lap and Max Günther, Mortara’s teammate, kept the lead – it should be noted that he started second in the race, but acted very confidently, so he was quickly faster than the pole holder Sasha Fenestras, who plays for the Nissan team.

In general, the configuration of the Cape Town circuit is somewhat unusual by Formula E standards: it has only 12 corners and three of them are a kind of chicane near the square. The corners are connected by short straights, and what is characteristic of almost every city track is uneven asphalt pavement.

After ten laps, Gunther was still leading, with Nick Cassidy, another Envision member, behind him less than a second behind, while Fenestrasz held on for third. The leader quickly lost first position when he swerved off the line to activate high power mode, so Cassidy took the lead.

Around this time it was revealed that Mitch Evans was handed a pit lane penalty for improper battery use, after which he rolled all the way to the back of the pack. The Jaguar team is clearly out of luck as its other racer, Sam Bird, crashed the car in qualifying and the mechanics didn’t have time to repair it at the start of the race. Therefore, Mitch only defended the colors of the factory team of the famous British brand, but he was not destined to compete for a high result either.

After twenty laps the top five looked like this: Cassidy led, followed by Fenestrasz, third was Gunther, fourth was António Felix da Costa, fifth was Jean-Eric Vergne, two-time Formula E champion and winner of the previous contest.

But it was on the 20th lap that the picture changed, because Gunther made a mistake, didn’t fit into the corner, and when he returned to the track, he overdid it and hooked the bump stop. The suspension was damaged and the entire Maserati team was out of action.

After another restart, Cassidy continued to lead, but was already being chased by da Costa, followed by Vergne. Until last year he and the Portuguese were partners, but now António is in favor of Porsche.

This team’s third generation cars proved to be very fast, and on lap 23 da Costa went on the attack in the straight and easily got ahead of Cassidy, and then Vergne did it, but at the cost of the increased power mode .

Soon the leader changed again in the race: da Costa was also using Attack Mode, so he left the track and Vergne took the lead. Relations between these two riders weren’t the easiest when they both raced for DS Techeetah, but now that they’re on different teams, their rivalry has become even more fundamental.

Vergne started lap 30 in the lead, but da Costa was less than half a second behind and was clearly plotting a decisive attack. Jean-Eric is a top driver and can defend position, helped by the tight track, but he couldn’t match the speed of the Porsche on the straight. A few laps before the finish, Antonio had a great overtake, but Vergne didn’t give up and tried to counterattack until the last. But then the race is over.

António Felix da Costa, Formula E champion, confirmed his class and was the first to see the black and white checkered flag, Jean-Eric Vergne lost less than three-tenths to him, Nick Cassidy finished third, but already one and a half seconds behind, and fourth place was taken by McLaren driver René Rast.

After the finish, Antonio could not restrain his tears – both because he was so happy with the success, and because it had been given to him at the cost of great effort. By the way, Jean-Eric Vergne was the first to congratulate him, realizing that the maneuver, which da Costa beat him to, was simply amazing.

“I understood that for tactical reasons it was necessary to attack in the last laps,” said the race winner. “I wanted to stay close behind Vergne for a few laps, which forced him to expend more energy to take advantage of this later on.

I know Jean-Eric well, it’s always extremely difficult to get ahead of him, so it was risky to delay the maneuver for the last laps, and at one point I even thought I wouldn’t be able to, because in the Turn 9 almost flew off the track. But he acted very correctly and it was a pleasure for me to deal with such an opponent!

With the win, António moved up to fourth in the individual standings, the third such achievement for Porsche drivers since the start of the season. And Pascal Wehrlein remains in the championship lead despite today’s coincidence.