Formula E: Nick Cassidy wins the race in Portland

When it was already deep night in Europe, the first round of the World Electric Car Racing Championship was held on the other side of the Atlantic in the American state of Oregon at the Portland International Raceway.

The peculiarity of the 12th round of the season was that the Portland circuit is completely different from the temporary city circuits, where mainly Formula E is driven. It is a classic stationary circuit with a circle of 3.19 km, 12 corners and two enough long straight lines.

Built over 60 years ago, this track normally hosts IndyCar-level American Series events, but for Formula E racing it had little to do with the addition of curbs and guardrails on some corners.

Even a cursory glance at the configuration of the ring suggested that there would be more than enough overtaking maneuvers, and looking ahead we can say that this prediction came true – 403 successful maneuvers were recorded during the race.

To the delight of the local fans, the driver of the US Andretti team, Jake Dennis, won qualifying, and overall the front four rows looked a bit unexpected as we rarely see half of the riders finish the top eight got. in such high starting positions.

But this was not the only surprise: shortly before the start of the race, the stewards announced that DS Penske was at full power, i.е. reigning world champion Stoffel Vandorn and his teammate Jean-Eric Vergne, departing from the pit lane. It emerged that the team had been convicted on Saturday morning of using illegal scanning equipment, which allowed them to collect telemetry data from all the championship cars. The riders lost their starting positions and DS Penske was fined 25,000 euros.

Nick Cassidy, a New Zealand driver for Envision Racing, started from a fairly distant 10th position, which didn’t stop him from taking his third win of the season.

Nick managed to calculate everything perfectly and realize his plans for the race, which lasted 32 laps, and on the American track it was necessary to find the right balance between energy efficiency and the high speeds it allowed.

Tactical games began immediately after the start, the leader changed almost in every corner, but the whole peloton was constantly overtaken. As the race progressed, Cassidy took the first position several times and had a decisive overtake on lap 28, ahead of António Felix da Costa, a Porsche factory team driver. The Portuguese, who started 8th, is not very lucky this year, although he still got one victory by winning the Cape Town race, and he was very keen to win another race, so he pushed Cassidy to the finish, but in the end only took third place.

Second was Jake Dennis, who won qualifying and led the early laps and took at least a podium finish throughout the race, but it wasn’t until the last lap that he managed to get ahead of da Costa.

Pascal Wehrlein, partnered by the Portuguese, started the American podium leading the championship, but in Portland he qualified unsuccessfully and started from a distant 18th position. He did everything he could to get ahead and at the finish he reached ninth place, earning at least a few points. However, his lead in the individual classification was minimal, dropping the German to third place after the 12th stage of the season.

Mitch Evans was also one of the unlucky ones in qualifying, but on his 29th birthday, after starting from the very bottom of the second ten, the New Zealand factory Jaguar driver finished 4th and received a special Progress Award. As the name of the prize implies, it is awarded to the driver who made the maximum progress and regained the maximum positions.

“It was a great match! said the winner, Nick Cassidy, after the finish. – In recent years I have been able to perform successfully in America. I like racing here. Today it was fun, the fight was very sharp, so the results are so tight, because you have to fight with very strong opponents.

Jake Dennis had a great qualifying but I think he was just unlucky to start from pole. In such a race, this is not the best option. And Antonio, as always, leads such races very well. To be fair, at some stages of the race I saw Mitch pushing forward, so both Jaguar and our Envison Racing deserve credit. We have a great car!”

What Cassidy means is that his car is powered by a very efficient Jaguar engine.

According to the organizers of the Portland race, the debut was successful, more than 20 thousand spectators watched the course of the battle on the track from the stands of the autodrome.

The next leg of the electric series will be a double and will be held in Rome on July 15-16, and it also promises an interesting rivalry as the advantage of individual classification leader Jake Dennis is minimal – he is only one point ahead of Cassidy. Wehrlein and Evans aren’t far behind either, and they all have something to fight for, all retaining very real title chances.