Formula E: Nick Cassidy’s Strange Victory

The US round of Formula E was accompanied by cloudy weather and it looked like it was going to rain before the start of Saturday’s race in New York. And it started, but not immediately, to become a major factor that predetermined the outcome.

Nick Cassidy had a great start from pole, but Stoffel Vandorn failed to hold on to second, missing both Lucas di Grassi and Sebastien Buemi and fell back to fourth on lap one. However, the fight on the track was immediately interrupted by the appearance of yellow flags following the accident of Jean-Eric Vergne. French driver DS Teechetah pushed forward from a distant 17th position but was knocked off the track by Mitch Evans but also pushed from behind.

Vergne returned to the pits under his own power, although his car was badly damaged, meaning the safety car did not have to be produced.

The race was resumed, Robin Frijns, who started seventh, had already moved up to 5th position and actively put pressure on Buemi. Nick de Vries made a braking error, went off the track, but returned to the race in 10th position. Incidentally, Vernu had the front fender replaced and he also returned to the track, although of course he was the last to drive.

Fryance was one of the first to activate the high power mode and rushed to overtake Vandorn. The leader, Robin’s Envision teammate, followed suit, but it cost him first place and Lucas di Grassi took the lead. However, the Brazilian didn’t advance very long, as he also used Attack Mode, which requires deviating from the main race track to a special sector, but Lucas was able to return to second position.

It turns out that all of the top four drivers used this mode, which meant their cars’ speed capabilities were about equal, and we haven’t seen a particularly notable battle yet.

Already 14 laps down, Cassidy remained in the lead, but the pack was very tight, the intervals between the cars were minimal and there could be some realignments at any time. For example, Jake Dennis outperformed Alex Sims with a nice maneuver and moved into 7th position, and Nick de Vries bypassed Edoardo Mortara by activating Attack Mode, after which he caught up with Sims and the aforementioned Dennis at the same time and pushed him to 8th place!

Cassidy also used the high power mode for the second time, but di Grassi immediately went after the Attack mode, so Nick returned to the lead and immediately created a gap from his pursuers, more than a second, so to get him into , it was necessary to put in more effort.

But di Grassi, who was in second, was closely followed by Vandorn and put pressure on the Brazilian very actively, but the experienced Lucas defended himself skillfully. However, in the 24th round, Stoffel still managed to pass successfully, taking advantage of another bonus he received from the votes of the fans: their sympathy was on the side of the Belgian, and he was entitled to the so – called Fan Boost in the second half of the race.

What he did, and very effectively. Now he was second, di Grassi – third, but Robin Fryance reached fourth, but he got no further. But then events took an unexpected turn: di Grassi rushed to attack Vandorn, who, defending himself, slowed down and tried to block the Brazilian’s trajectory, but failed. However, Frijns took advantage of this situation and came before Stoffel.

Just over ten minutes from the finish, and the top five now looked like this: Cassidy – di Grassi – Frijns – Vandorn – Mortara.

But the next surprise was not long in coming: it started to rain!

And so strong that the riders did not even have time to adapt to the changed conditions, did not start carefully and slowed down, which immediately led to collisions, also with the participation of the leaders! The race was stopped by red flags, Cassidy, di Grassi and Vandorn left their wrecked cars behind – in part the riders were almost uninjured and escaped with only bruises.

In the middle of the pack there was another blockage, but the important thing is that in this situation Frijns was in first place, Edoardo Mortara in second place, Mitch Evans in third, who started from some very distant positions, but skillful action and took full advantage of every opportunity to move forward. Besides, of course he was lucky.

Time passed, the rain seemed to have stopped, but race management was in no rush to give a restart as the evacuation of broken equipment and the repair of damaged barriers continued. Formally, there were still seven and a half minutes to the finish, plus one more lap. Commentators have already started speculating whether the race will resume at all?

In any case, Friines and Mortara stayed in the cockpits of their electric cars waiting for some way to move forward. But they didn’t wait for the end of the race, which they clearly expected. Formula E is generally known for not making the most logical court decisions, and the New York race was no exception.

Her management suddenly announced that the finish had been set on the 29th lap, meaning Nick Cassidy took the winner, Lucas di Grassi second and Robin Friens third, although everyone saw he was the one leading the race when the first two hit their stride. cars to smithereens.

When a pleased Cassidy commented on his win, he nevertheless said he would not evaluate the race directors’ decision-making process, suggesting that he also did not fully understand their logic. Sebastien Buemi, ranked sixth, however, partially explained.

Nissan’s Swiss driver said the rubber became almost slick at the end of the race (Formula E uses regular low profile Michelin tires, not racing, just the same as you can buy in a shop), and it just became unsafe to keep fighting on a flooded track.

The race weekend in New York continues on Sunday and something tells us there are more surprises to come.