With two rounds of the Formula E season remaining, each a doubleheader, only three drivers remained with a realistic chance of winning the title. In the World Electric Car Racing Championship, Nick Cassidy, driving for Jaguar, was leading, 25 points behind Pascal Wehrlein, driver for the Porsche factory team, and Mitch Evans, Cassidy’s teammate and fellow countryman, was in third place, but a further seven points behind.
In theory, Oliver Rowland also had some chances to this day, but the British Nissan driver was ill and could not start the stage in Portland. He was replaced by Chao Collette.
When Formula E races take place on stationary circuits, it always brings its own peculiarities, as these cars are primarily made for narrow, winding city circuits. This is the second year the Oregon event has been held at Portland International Raceway, and 2023 has been quite interesting. The first race of the American weekend also did not disappoint.
The Portland circuit is 3190 meters long and has quite long straights and 12 corners with different configurations. Mitch Evans won qualifying, before admitting that pole position means little at this track other than getting 3 extra points, and that’s what’s important in his position. Before the start, the New Zealand Jaguar driver said that today’s race would most likely have a “wild” character and that you have to be prepared for anything. His words turned out to be prophetic.
On the front row next to Evans’ Jaguar was Jake Hughes’ McLaren, and the Briton thought that, unlike the pole holder, he had nothing to lose, as he was only 10th in the individual competition and did not claim the title, so he could act much less cautiously and afford to take risks.
At the same time, Pascal Wehrlein, based on the qualifying results, started from 8th position, and another Porsche driver, Antonio Felix da Costa, started from 4th place and did not hide that his main task was to help his partner in the fight for the title. title.
Championship leader Nick Cassidy started the race on Saturday in tenth place overall, but paradoxically his task was tactically easier than Evans’, as the wide track in Portland allows for easy overtaking, especially if you have a good car. And Jaguar has a good car, it is no coincidence that this team is confidently leading the teams’ standings.
Mitch had a good start, but after a few corners Jake Hughes overtook him, although the McLaren driver failed to create a gap. Third place was in the hands of Robin Frijns, but soon they were all ahead of Andretti driver Norman Nato.
Five laps later, when many riders had already used the powerful Attack Mode, the picture in the leading group changed somewhat, partly due to the departure of Hughes. From the outside it looked like he simply couldn’t keep the car on the track, ended up on the side of the road, after which he rolled back to the very back of the pack, only to return to the pits with a punctured left rear tire.
NATO remained in the lead for some time, but was ahead of Frijns, but he did not stay in the lead for long as many activated Attack Mode for the second time and Jake Dennis, the current World Champion riding for Andretti, took the lead.
Evans stayed in the top five for a while, but then decided it was time to improve, and by the 10th lap he was back in the lead. However, it was clear that all these numerous rearrangements, reminiscent of leapfrog, were purely tactical in nature, because the one in front consumes more energy – if only because he hits the air first. It is important who crosses the finish line first, but that was still far away.
On the twelfth lap, Nick Cassidy had taken the lead, but he was attacked by Dennis and Frijns – the track allowed four cars to drive abreast. A lap later Nick was already sixth and Evans returned to the lead, followed some time by Sam Bird, the teammate of the loser Hughes.
The commentators could not follow the change of leaders and already said that anyone could take the lead and that all participants in the race could win. Except for Hughes of course, who drove last after an unplanned visit to the pits.
Ten laps from the finish it became clear that Mitch Evans had also lost his chance of victory, as the stewards identified him as the culprit for Hughes’ departure and the New Zealander was given a 5-second time penalty.
At this stage of the race Jean-Eric Vergne, a DS Penske driver, was in the lead, but after one lap Nick Cassidy took the lead again, followed by Antonio Felix da Costa, Frijns was third and Evans was still fourth. but soon came ahead of Robin and returned to the first three.
On the 21st lap da Costa was ahead of Cassidy, but he counterattacked successfully almost immediately. The finish line was approaching, the tactical games were coming to an end and the decisive phase of the race began.
On the 24th lap, Evans improved and overtook the Portuguese, moving up to 2nd position. It seemed that Jaguar was planning to play a simple combination where Mitch would help his teammate win the race, since he was already being fined anyway, and this way he would at least cover Cassidy’s backside. And there was no doubt that Evans knew how to defend himself.
But then a surprise occurred: Cassidy made a rare mistake, unforgivable for the championship leader. He couldn’t keep the car on track in turn 11, his Jaguar spun and he lost a lot of positions. With the British team at their disposal, everyone simply grabbed their heads!
As this happened one lap before the finish, Mitch Evans was the first to see the chequered flag, but was pushed back to 8th place by a penalty. And the victory went to António Felix da Costa, who was extremely happy to have won, albeit in this way, his third race of the season.
Robin Frijns came in second, Jean-Eric Vergne third. Pascal Wehrlein finished only 10th, closing the gap to championship leader Nick Cassidy by just one point.
Naturally, the Jaguar drivers were the most upset, because one of them missed a certain victory, and due to his own mistake, and it became more difficult for the second to overtake his partner and Wehrlein in the fight for the title. But there’s another race on Sunday, and it will make its own adjustments to the balance of power.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
