Race report
Formula E New York City E-Prix I
New York E-Prix: Gunther grabs win as Cassidy, Vergne collide
BMW's Maximilian Gunther won the first race of the New York City E-Prix double-header, grabbing the lead when Nick Cassidy and Jean-Eric Vergne collided ahead of him.
Matt Kew
Edited: Jul 11, 2021, 10:31 AM
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Gunther slinked through into the lead with eight laps to go when Cassidy and Vergne ran out of steering lock as they battled for position to score his third series triumph.
It also marked something of a home victory for the German-American BMW Andretti squad, with Gunther climbing from fourth on the grid to bag the spoils by a little over two seconds.
Polesitter Cassidy had looked in control for much of the opening two-thirds of the race for Envision Virgin Racing, managing a gap a little over a second, albeit down on energy. The rookie held his position into Turn 1 as third-starting Alex Lynn sought a bold pass on Vergne by trying it around the outside to then gain the inside line for the Turn 2 switchback.
Lynn overshot and was forced to rejoin the train down in fifth, which promoted the Nissan e.dams machine of Sebastien Buemi to third as the lead battle settled into a procession.
DS Techeetah driver Vergne was the first to dive for his 35kW attack mode activation at the hairpin. But with Buemi following suit in third, they resumed in the same positions to maintain the status quo as Cassidy looked solid up front before being instructed to take his attack mode.
He moved off-line a lap later, holding on to the lead by a narrow 0.4s as race engineer Stephen Lane gave the first call for the Kiwi driver to begin saving energy over his rivals. But the SUPER GT and Super Formula champion was soon given respite by a full-course yellow interlude called when Jaguar Racing driver Mitch Evans had to retire.
Evans' car lost drive exiting Turn 1 and although he pulled off line, race director Scot Elkins neutralised the race for less than a minute - meaning he did not introduce an energy reduction.
That ensured Cassidy maintained a small attack mode boost, while Vergne and Buemi had their expire just as the full-course yellow was called, to again find an advantage of around 1s.
Cassidy also survived Vergne using his fanboost out of Turn 4, but as the French racer closed, Cassidy took increasingly defensive lines, which left him prey. Vergne bolted down the inside into the Turn 10 hairpin but with limited steering lock, the two cars tagged and in the delay Gunther charged through to the inside to take control.
The German driver preserved a two percent energy cushion over his chasers and from there held the lead to the flag.
Vergne managed to recover to second, while Audi driver di Grassi profited from the slow-moving Envision Virgin car to score a podium ahead of the manufacturer's customer cars.
Cassidy led home teammate Robin Frijns, whose haul of 10 points for fifth moves him into the joint championship lead with Edoardo Mortara. The Swiss driver failed to score in 14th after his qualifying lap was ruined by a scenario switch locking him out of full power mode.
A marked improvement in the fortunes of Buemi in 2021 took him to sixth ahead of his teammate Oliver Rowland, while Andre Lotterer bagged eighth place for Porsche.
After Jaguar Racing rebuilt Sam Bird’s car with only moments remaining until parc ferme rules came into place, the team and driver recovered strongly in the circumstances with ninth.
Rene Rast in the fourth Audi-powered machine arrived home 10th ahead of a dropping Lynn.
The Briton lost out twice more in the race after his failed Turn 1 lunge. First, he had to stamp on the brakes to avoid tagging with Porsche racer Pascal Wehrlein when he rejoined from the attack mode section but soon jumped the German racer.
However, as Wehrlein ran deep into the braking zone for Turn 10, requiring a later apex as he ran through the attack mode gates, the disqualified Puebla winner span Lynn around.
Lynn was fortunate only to lose one position to Rowland, but Wehrlein took the bigger blow when he was forced to retire with broken steering.
Reigning champion Antonio Felix da Costa arrived home in 12th ahead of another point-less return for Mercedes, the pre-event championship leader’s outing marked by 13th for Nyck de Vries and a retirement for Stoffel Vandoorne.
Race results:
Cla # Driver Team Laps Gap 1 28 Maximilian Gunther
Andretti Autosport 38 2 25
Jean-Eric Vergne
Techeetah 38 2.072 3 11
Lucas di Grassi
Team Abt 38 2.832 4 37
Nick Cassidy
Virgin Racing 38 4.623 5 4
Robin Frijns
Virgin Racing 38 5.239 6 23
Sébastien Buemi
DAMS 38 6.370 7 22
Oliver Rowland
DAMS 38 6.581 8 36
Andre Lotterer
Porsche Team 38 7.826 9 10
Sam Bird
Jaguar Racing 38 8.489 10 33
René Rast
Team Abt 38 11.917 11 94
Alex Lynn
Mahindra Racing 38 14.912 12 13
Antonio Felix da Costa
Techeetah 38 15.289 13 17
Nyck de Vries
Mercedes 38 27.523 14 48
Edoardo Mortara
Venturi 38 27.698 15 71
Norman Nato
Venturi 38 28.472 16 88
Tom Blomqvist
NIO Formula E Team 38 28.746 17 6
Joel Eriksson
Dragon Racing 38 41.106 18 7
Sergio Sette Camara
Dragon Racing 38 49.849 27
Jake Dennis
Andretti Autosport 30 8 Laps 29
Alexander Sims
Mahindra Racing 29 9 Laps 5
Stoffel Vandoorne
Mercedes 27 11 Laps 20
Mitch Evans
Jaguar Racing 14 24 Laps 8
Oliver Turvey
NIO Formula E Team 11 27 Laps 99
Pascal Wehrlein
Porsche Team 10 28 Laps View full results
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