Formula E: Mitch Evans wins race in Sao Paulo

The sixth round of the World Electric Car Championship was held in Sao Paulo this year, and if Formula 1 regularly tours Brazil, then this will be the first time in Formula E history. Again, unlike F1, the races of the electric series take place on urban circuits, and now the Brazilian circuit, which has been given the cheerful name of “Sambadrome”, has been included in the calendar.

With a lap length of 2993 m there are not that many corners, only 11, and they are usually quite slow, but most of the track consists of straights of various lengths, and this promised high speeds, at least by the standards of the Formula E. Given the Brazilians’ passionate love for motorsport, it is not surprising that despite the warm weather, many fans gathered in the stands of the Sambadrome.

Qualifying on the new everyone-only track was won by Stoffel Varndorn, the current series champion, confirming his skills – this year he will be playing for the DS Penske team. He wasn’t very lucky at the start of the season and was certainly hoping to be more confident this weekend – his best result to date was 7th in South Africa.

But individual classification leader Pascal Wehrlein in Sao Paulo failed to approach the track and he started from a distant 18th position. But António Félix da Costa, Porsche works team driver and winner of the Cape Town race, started the Brazilian e-Prix from the front row and it was clear that he would try to beat Vandorn.

But further events developed in such a way that none of them managed to become the main characters of the day.

At the start, Stoffel kept the lead and da Costa kept 2nd position, although he was attacked by Jaguar driver Mitch Evans, who started 3rd. but not everyone could finish the first round – Norman Nato fell out of contention. His Nissan even flew into the air in front of him due to contact with Andre Lotterer’s car and the landing proved to be very difficult. Edorado Mortara also went to the pits to replace the damaged front wing.

On the second lap, the peloton missed Sebastien Buemi, who was in contact with Max Günther’s Maserati.

On the fifth lap the race leader switched when Vandorn decided to use the increased power mode, which required going off track at a certain point on the track, so da Costa moved up to first position . But only temporarily, because already through the circle Stoffel was ahead of the Portuguese.

On lap 7, Mitch Evans repeated Vandorn’s maneuver pushing da Costa into third position, then Buemi’s New Zealand Envision teammate António was able to get ahead of Nick Cassidy. But the car of Sasha Fenestras, Nissan’s driver, stalled on the track, neutralizing the race – the electric safety car took off.

They restarted five laps later, with Vandoorn doing well to stay ahead and da Costa back in third ahead of Cassidy. This was not enough for António and Evans became his next victim. However, the New Zealander activated attack mode and quickly moved into second, overtaking Evans. But he didn’t stay in this position for long and surprisingly he overtook da Costa and Vandorn in one go before the first corner and took the lead.

However, the electric safety car intervened again in the course of events by an on-track stop by Jake Dennis, whose car was seriously damaged. When the Porsche Paycan returned to the pits, there was less than half the distance to the finish.

On the restart, Cassidy stayed in first place, but immediately all the top four decided to activate Attack Mode, so da Costa took the lead first, but Nick soon returned to the lead, but Mitch Evans was behind him after a circle for.

Changes in the group leaders continued, first one rider, then another used the high power mode, but then da Costa made a mistake on the brakes, didn’t fit into the corner and couldn’t return to the track immediately, leaving him fell out. falling back to 7th position, although just one of the contenders for the win.

Cassidy led, Evans was behind him, Vandorn was third and Jean-Eric Vergne, who had previously kept a low profile outside the top five, moved up to fourth.

Meanwhile, the finish line approached and you could expect the battle on the track to intensify as some riders had to save the battery, and someone managed to save some of it, and it was time to use it to the end.

This is exactly what Sam Bird did, ahead of both Verne and Vandorn, making it to the top three. So Cassidy was in the lead and behind him were two cars from the factory Jaguar team.

On lap 31, Evans made a determined attack on the leader and soon outmaneuvered Cassidy to take the lead. Now Nick was being pressured by Bird, but Nick was not only able to hold on to second position, but also threatened Mitch. This trio noticeably broke away from the rest of the peloton and finished in that order.

It has to be emphasized that Cassidy gave it all and a few times it looked like he could take the lead, but the most experienced Mitch defended well and was able to get the green light first with a checkered flag. He finished the race just 0.284 seconds ahead of Cassidy and Bird crossed the white line close behind Nick.

The following fact indicates how fierce the battle for victory was: Evans and Cassidy literally returned to the pits at a snail’s pace, as their batteries were almost completely depleted.

Needless to say, this wasn’t just Jaguar’s best result this year: Sam Bird couldn’t remember at all if one of the team’s drivers won and the second also finished on the podium.

Admittedly, Jaguar’s success today did not lead to any special permutations in the individual standings: Pascal Wehrlein, who finished seventh, remained the leader; Jake Dennis, Nick Cassidy and Jean-Eric Vergne are second through fourth, just three points apart, with António Felix da Costa rounding out the top five.

Mitch Evans and Sam Bird, who distinguished themselves today, started the season rather pale, so now the New Zealander is only in 9th place and his partner in 6th.

The next Formula E races are now almost a month away: on April 22 and 23, the 7th and 8th stages of the season will be held in Berlin.