Race report
Formula E London ePrix II
London E-Prix: Dennis crowned champion, Evans wins disrupted race
Jake Dennis clinched the Formula E title in a wild London E-Prix, as Mitch Evans won following two red flags and championship rival Nick Cassidy collided with his team-mate.
Stefan Mackley
Edited: Jul 30, 2023, 11:34 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The Briton finished third on-the-road in a tense penultimate round which would have been enough for the title, but the result was guranteed when he was promoted to second after Antonio Felix da Costa was handed a three-minute penalty for a technical infringement after finishing second.
Dennis’ closest championship rival Cassidy had led early in the race from pole, but his championship chances were dashed after Envision Racing team-mate Sebastien Buemi damaged his front wing.
Cassidy made the perfect start from pole while Dennis was forced to defend from Buemi into the opening turns, but he had to give best to the Envision driver on the exit of Turn 4.
Buemi initially proceeded to act as rear-gunner to Cassidy and began to back the pack up with Cassidy able to take both Attack Mode activations inside the first seven laps and rejoin in the lead both times.
But things began to unravel for the championship protagonist when he let Buemi ahead into T16, a move which would allow his team-mate to take his own Attack Mode activations and lose less time and positions.
Evans – who had risen to third from sixth on the grid having taken pole before serving his five-place grid penalty for colliding with Cassidy in Rome – also took the opportunity to move ahead of Cassidy into the left-hand Turn 17.
It meant that when Buemi activated his first Attack Mode the next lap he rejoined in front of Cassidy, whose attentions turned to Dennis behind him.
The Andretti driver made an audacious move around the outside into the right-hand Turn 19, which then gave him the inside for the final left-hand bend, albeit on a very tight line.
The loss of momentum for both Dennis and Cassidy allowed McLaren’s Rene Rast to move ahead of them and into third.
Three laps later Cassidy retaliated, moving to the outside into Turn 1 and running side-by-side with Dennis before finally regaining the position into Turn 4.
Now back behind his team-mate, Cassidy looked to move back in front but Buemi took defensive lines over the next two laps, seemingly with no orders from his team.
The title was turned on its head at the start of lap 15, with Cassidy moving to the outside into Turn 1 and attempting to repeat the same overtake he had made on Dennis.
But into the Turn 4 right-hander, Buemi cut in front of his team-mate which damaged Cassidy’s front wing and meant a trip to the pits before he retired – dashing his title hopes.
A safety car was deployed to retrieve the debris left by Cassidy’s front wing, with Evans leading at the restart from Buemi, Rast and Pascal Wehrlein.
Porsche’s Wehrlein battled with Dennis, despite protests from the Andretti driver – the team a Porsche customer outfit – who felt that he should be allowed ahead.
Dennis’ struggles became even worse as he missed a second Attack Mode Activation and dropped to sixth.
But he was soon promoted up the order at Wehrlein’s expense, after the Porsche driver had come to grief into Turn 1 as Rast made contact with him.
The race was dramatically halted with just four laps remaining after Sacha Fenestraz made contact with the back of NIO 333’s Sergio Sette Camara into the braking zone of T16.
The impact launched Fenestraz’s car briefly into the air, with the Nissan ploughing into the barrier in the run-off area and noticeable moving the barriers backwards.
The red-flag was deployed to repair the barrier, with Fenestraz uninjured, the race for the championship becoming essentially a five-lap dash, with an extra lap added due to the safety car periods.
Dennis’ charge was helped further when Rast was forced to start at the back after his front wing was replaced under the red flag.
Mitch Evans, Jaguar Racing , Jaguar I-TYPE 6
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
Both Evans and Buemi took their remaining Attack Mode activations at the first opportunity on the rolling start, with Evans rejoining back in the lead from da Costa and Dennis, with Buemi dropping to fourth.
The Envision driver then inexplicably slowed down by several seconds over the next lap and had dropped off the back of the top three.
Norman Nato attempted a move into T19, but Buemi turned in on the Nissan driver with the closely following Sam Bird also making contact and which blocked the track for the remaining drivers behind – prompting a second red flag.
The order remained unchanged on-the-road over the final two laps, Evans claiming the win with Dennis promoted to second at da Costa’s expense with Buemi completing the podium.
Bird, minus front wing following the crash at T19, finished fourth with Sette Camara completing the top five.
London E-Prix - Race 1 results:
Cla Nº Driver Car / Engine Gap 1 9 Mitch Evans Jaguar 2 27 Jake Dennis Porsche 1.116 3 16 Sébastien Buemi Jaguar 1.668 4 17 Norman Nato Nissan 2.527 5 10 Sam Bird Jaguar 3.054 6 3 S.Sette Câmara NIO 3.782 7 48 Edoardo Mortara Maserati 4.263 8 11 Lucas di Grassi Mahindra 4.769 9 33 Dan Ticktum NIO 5.118 10 7 Max Günther Maserati 5.568 11 58 René Rast Nissan 6.789 12 94 Pascal Wehrlein Porsche 8.725 13 5 Jake Hughes Nissan 9.128 14 1 S.Vandoorne DS 10.231 15 36 André Lotterer Porsche 11.094 16 8 Roberto Merhi Mahindra 13.472 17 13 A.F.da Costa Porsche 3'00.666 23 Sacha Fenestraz Nissan Retirement 37 Nick Cassidy Jaguar Retirement 51 Nico Müller Mahindra Retirement 25 Jean-Éric Vergne DS Retirement 4 Robin Frijns Mahindra Retirement
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article London E-Prix: Evans pips Cassidy to pole, Dennis set to start second
Next article Cassidy "kicked hard in the nuts" by title-ending misfortune
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Stefan Mackley
Formula E’s Pit Boost debut receives mixed response from drivers
Formula E
Formula E
Jeddah ePrix I
Formula E’s Pit Boost debut receives mixed response from drivers
The influencer fishing exercise Formula E hopes can achieve its long-term aims
Formula E
Formula E
The influencer fishing exercise Formula E hopes can achieve its long-term aims
Beckham's son, Aguero amongst celebrities set to drive Formula E cars in Miami
Formula E
Formula E
Beckham's son, Aguero amongst celebrities set to drive Formula E cars in Miami
Latest news
'There’s more to come' as IndyCar and NASCAR leaders eye future doubleheaders
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 3 min
'There’s more to come' as IndyCar and NASCAR leaders eye future doubleheaders
Johann Zarco says “I didn’t want to break the engine” after Malaysian GP DNF
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Malaysian GP
1 h
Johann Zarco says “I didn’t want to break the engine” after Malaysian GP DNF
Homestead NASCAR Viewer's Guide: Everything you need to know for the season finale
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
1 h
Homestead NASCAR Viewer's Guide: Everything you need to know for the season finale
Mercedes fined for George Russell skipping F1 Mexico GP media duties
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Mexican GP
2 h
Mercedes fined for George Russell skipping F1 Mexico GP media duties
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe