Formula E: Rowland wins race, Wehrlein wins title

The London finale of the Formula E season took place in the most intense battle, as the fate of the title depended on the results, but in the end the circumstances were such that the decisive factor was not the speed or the ability to fight on the track, but the unfortunate mistakes made by the Jaguar team.

Before the start of Sunday’s race, the three title contenders were separated by just a few points, with all three – Jaguar drivers Mitch Evans and Nick Cassidy, as well as Pascal Wehrlein, who drives for Porsche – running in the top three for a significant portion of the distance. However, towards the end of the race, events took a turn that was extremely unfortunate for the British team, and both drivers lost their chances of winning the world championship.

Initially, Cassidy was unlucky, having to return to the pits after contact with the car of António Felix da Costa, Wehrlein’s Porsche teammate, due to a puncture. After the finish, the Portuguese apologized to him, as it turned out that he was the one to blame for Nick dropping out of the title fight. However, Nick’s Jaguar was also hit by the electric Maserati of Max Gunther.

Evans held Wehrlein’s lead for most of the race, but he was close behind the New Zealander and constantly attacked him, but overtaking opportunities were very limited on the narrow and twisty London circuit. Furthermore, Mitch fought desperately and even earned a black and white flag for moving into the braking zone.

The race finish was approaching, but both were still required by Formula E rules to use the powerful Attack mode, which required them to go off the main track and into a special sector. But it so happened that as they were about to do so, yellow flags appeared on the track after the incident with Cassidy, so the attack mode could not be activated.

Failure to use this mode twice during the race will result in penalties. When the restart was given, Evans and Wehrlein tried to activate Attack Mode again, but while Pascal succeeded, Mitch managed to miss this special sector, which cost him dearly.

The New Zealander had to leave the main line again at the very end of the race and at that point Wehrlein got ahead of him. But even before that they were both surpassed by Nissan driver Oliver Rowland, who eventually won the final race of the season.

Since Mitch had to finish ahead of Pascal to become world champion and he had no time to regain the position, the title went to the German Porsche driver, although Jaguar still won the team event.

Rowland’s second win of the season moved him up to fourth in the championship, but that was small change compared to Pascal Wehrlein’s second place which secured the title for the 10th season of Formula E – and also the first such achievement for Porsche.

In this case, it is also not so important that the fate of the title was decided by the opponent’s miscalculation – this happens in motorsport, but Pascal did everything in his power and was ready at the right time to use any opportunity to achieve his goal.

By the way, Porsche received another award that was only established this year: the so-called Manufacturers’ Trophy. The award goes to the best manufacturer of electric powertrains, and Porsche provides it not only to the factory team, but also to Andretti. Points in this competition are calculated using a special algorithm, but the point is that Porsche scored more points than Jaguar and all other suppliers of similar equipment.

“We finally did it! We became world champions!” – Pascal Wehrlein commented after the finish. – The weekend was hectic, but in preparation for the London final we understood that we had to perform perfectly, and we also knew that this circuit was not one of our favorites, so it was all the more necessary to perform at the highest level.

“We managed to do that on both days of the weekend, but even before this weekend I had the feeling that it was possible. And now I want to thank the whole team, and of course all the fans. I am very proud of our team and today we will celebrate our success!”

Source: F1 News

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