Formula E: McLaren’s first victory

The fourth round of the Electric Car World Championship took place on the city circuit in Sao Paulo, which is characterized by long straights and slow corners connecting them.

Qualifying was won by Pascal Wehrlein, a driver for the Porsche factory team, and this is his second pole position of the season. He started excellently and immediately tried to open a gap, but Stoffel Vandoorne, who plays for DS Penske this year, did not let him and put the German on the foot. But Vandoorne’s teammate, two-time Formula E champion Jean-Eric Vergne, did not hold third position and allowed Jaguar driver Mitch Evans to take the lead.

But he did not stay with her long; he was preceded by Antonio Felix da Costa, Wehrlein’s partner. Moreover, on the third lap the Portuguese attacked Vandoorne and took second position. But Pascal activated Attack Mode, for which he drove off the line, and da Costa took the lead in the race.

Vandoorne opted for the same tactic, followed by da Costa, moving Sam Bird, the McLaren driver who started from 5th position, to first position. Antonio rode after him, followed by his partner. Evans was in fourth place, with Vergne already behind him.

When Bird decided to activate high power mode, da Costa returned to first position. But then yellow flags appeared on the track and an electric safety car rolled out. This happened because contact occurred on track following an incident involving Nick Cassidy, a Jaguar driver and last year’s vice-champion, and Lucas di Grassi, who drives for ABT Cupra, after which the marshals had to remove quite large sections of the asphalt and roadsides, rubble.

The race resumed on the 9th lap. Mitch Evans had the best restart and took the lead, followed by Sam Bird and da Costa in third. But this order changed on the next lap, when Evans activated Attack Mode and therefore let the Brit take the lead. Naturally, he expected to win back quickly, and he did.

Mitch was again in the lead, Antonio Felix da Costa moved up to second position, but soon both entered the attack mode activation zone and Jake Dennis, the Andretti driver and current world champion, took the lead.

He was closely followed by Sam Bird, followed by Evans, who was also clearly preparing to storm into first position again. Dennis quickly lost out to Bird, as he also activated the high-power mode, but then the safety car returned to the track. This time because of Cassidy’s accident. The New Zealand Jaguar driver retired from the race after forceful contact with a bump stop, causing his car to lose not only part of the aerodynamic body kit, but also one of the wheels.

On the 20th lap they restarted, Bird retained the lead, he was chased by Evans and Wehrlein was third. Dennis moved up to 4th position and succeeded thanks to a daring overtake by Da Costa, which the Briton performed at the hairpin bend. True, there was contact between their cars, but it was light, so there were no consequences.

On lap 24, Wehrlein came into action and tried to attack Evans, but he retained second position. Five laps before the finish, yellow flags were again flown on the track as Nico Muller’s car stopped in Turn 1, but these were quickly cleared and the race resumed normally.

Shortly after the restart, Evans attacked Bird and took the lead, using his favorite tactic of waiting until the final laps and then showing what he can do. At the same time, there was some doubt that Sam would be able to counterattack, as his battery charge was less than Mitch’s.

Dennis was third and wasn’t really worried about the battery charge, as he also had more than Bird. Therefore, you would expect Jake to attack the McLaren driver, but Sam not only defended himself, but even tried to threaten the leader.

At this point, the decision of the race management was announced to add three laps to the original distance, which the peloton spent behind the safety car. On the one hand, this news did not please Bird, especially since he was warned on the radio that the car was overheating. On the other hand, he had no intention of giving up and continued to put pressure on Evans. The team repeated the alarming message about the need to cool the car, but Sam was extremely militant and continued to attack the leader until the last lap. As he said after the finish: “I realized: now or never!”

Surprisingly, he literally managed to stay ahead of Evans in the last corner through a completely mysterious overtaking action. Let’s not forget that Mitch is one of the best masters of not only attack, but also defense, but this time experience and determination allowed Bird to break the New Zealander’s line of defense. And his victory was not only the first for McLaren in this championship, but also the first achievement for a third-generation electric car with a Nissan power plant.

Of course, Mitch Evans was angry when he lost the victory in the final meters of the race, but Formula E is known for its unpredictability – and anyone who followed the events of the race in Sao Paulo witnessed another such example.

But this was not the only surprise that occurred in the final seconds of the race: Oliver Rowland, a driver from the Nissan factory team, made a sharp jerk, immediately allowing him to get ahead of both Dennis and Wehrlein, who were eager to fighting each other.

It should be noted that the top three drivers were driven to the awards ceremony by Felipe Massa in a luxury electric Porsche Taycan.

Since this is Bird’s first podium of the season and previous results were not so rosy, he is still in 6th place in the individual competition. In 5th place is Evans, who also finished in the top three for the first time this season, while Nick Cassidy remains in the lead despite today’s retirement. Pascal Wehrlein, who took fourth place in Sao Paulo, moved up to second place. Jake Dennis comes third.

The next Formula E round will take place in Tokyo in two weeks. An electric series race is being held for the first time in the Japanese capital.