Race report
Formula E Sao Paulo ePrix
Sao Paulo E-Prix: Jaguar's Evans beats Cassidy in late-race duel
Mitch Evans claimed victory in the inaugural Sao Paulo E-Prix, beating Nick Cassidy to the win after a thrilling battle as Sam Bird secured a double podium for Jaguar.
Stefan Mackley
Edited: Mar 27, 2023, 2:10 AM
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Evans defended fiercely against Envision’s Cassidy over the final lap, notably into the Turn 4 chicane and through the final sequence of corners, as the leading trio were covered by just over half a second at the flag.
Antonio Felix da Costa was the leading Porsche runner in fourth, heading home the DS Penske duo of Jean-Eric Vergne and Stoffel Vandoorne.
Championship leader Pascal Wehrlein remarkably finished seventh despite starting 18th, as contact between himself and title rival Jake Dennis resulted in the retirement of the Andretti Autosport driver.
Polesitter Vandoorne got the perfect launch away at the start and held a comfortable lead through the opening sequence of corners, while da Costa had to repel a challenge from Evans – the Jaguar driver taking to the outside line into T1 but settling back into third.
Behind, Nissan’s Norman Nato lost his front wing over the back of Jake Hughes’ McLaren as the pack slowed for the right of T3, while Edoardo Mortara also lost his front wing through the opening sequence of corners and dropped out of fourth.
While the rest of the opening lap passed without further incident, Sebastien Buemi was another to require a trip to the pits, after tripping up over the back of Maximilian Gunther’s Maserati MSG through the Turn 4 chicane on the second lap and damaging his front wing.
Stoffel Vandoorne, DS Penske, leads the rest of the field
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
Out front, Vandoorne took the decision to active one-minute of attack mode on lap five, dropping him behind da Costa. But at the start of lap seven the reigning champion moved back to the front with a move into T1.
Vergne and Bird were two drivers to activate attack mode on lap six, with Bird taking the decision to use three minutes of his allocated four to Vergne’s one. The extra boost allowed Bird to power past Hughes into Turn 1 at the start of lap eight, moving him into sixth behind Vergne, as Vandoorne continued to lead from Evans and Cassidy, as da Costa dropped to fourth.
The condensed field was offered no chance to spread out as a safety car was called moments later, to retrieve the stricken Nissan of Sacha Fenestraz, which had come to a halt on the exit of T6.
At the restart on lap 12, da Costa was the driver initially on the move, diving to the inside of Evans at T1, and getting back ahead of Cassidy into T4 moments later.
With the slipstream so powerful, both Vandoorne and da Costa backed off to avoid leading, allowing Cassidy – now up to third – to overtake them both at the start of lap 14, before dropping back to second as he activated one-minute of attack mode.
Behind, championship rivals Dennis and Wehrlein made contact into T1, with the former stopping out on track and instigating a second safety car. Replays showed that Dennis had been hit from behind by Dan Ticktum into T1, which damaged his car ahead of the Wehrlein contact.
Prior to the safety car on lap 16, Cassidy had moved back to the front with da Costa also demoting Vandoorne down to third as the Belgian tried to regain a deficit on energy of some 3% compared with his rivals.
As things settled down at the front Cassidy began to stretch his lead, moving to 1s ahead of Evans while both continued to pull away from Vandoorne, who was attempting to save further energy having led in the early stages.
Wehrlein had remarkably climbed from 18th to fourth by the time he used three minutes of attack mode, dropping to seventh behind Vergne, Bird and da Costa. A lap earlier, his Porsche team-mate da Costa lost any chance of victory having run wide at T1, needing to come to a complete stop before rejoining, having dropped from third to seventh.
In front of the Porsches, Bird moved into fourth at the expense of Vergne into T1 on lap 29, and soon disposed of Vandoorne for third before setting after the leading duo.
The gap to Evans stood at nearly 2s, but this quickly reduced as Evans began to pressure Cassidy, and he made his winning move into T1 at the start of lap 31, with four extra laps added due to the two safety car periods.
Cassidy took a watching brief until the final lap, and tried several times to find a way past his fellow New Zealander, but had to settle for second.
Cla Driver Team Laps Time Gap Interval 1 Mitch Evans
Jaguar Racing 35 53'25.536 2
Nick Cassidy
Envision Racing 35 53'25.820 0.284 0.284 3
Sam Bird
Jaguar Racing 35 53'26.043 0.507 0.223 4
Antonio Felix da Costa
Porsche Team 35 53'29.023 3.487 2.980 5
Jean-Eric Vergne
DS Penske 35 53'29.578 4.042 0.555 6
Stoffel Vandoorne
DS Penske 35 53'30.112 4.576 0.534 7
Pascal Wehrlein
Porsche Team 35 53'31.195 5.659 1.083 8
Jake Hughes
McLaren 35 53'31.677 6.141 0.482 9
René Rast
McLaren 35 53'32.939 7.403 1.262 10
Sébastien Buemi
Envision Racing 35 53'33.512 7.976 0.573 11
Maximilian Gunther
Maserati Racing 35 53'40.728 15.192 7.216 12
Andre Lotterer
Andretti Autosport 35 53'40.881 15.345 0.153 13
Lucas di Grassi
Mahindra Racing 35 53'44.783 19.247 3.902 14
Dan Ticktum
NIO Formula E Team 35 53'44.934 19.398 0.151 15
Robin Frijns
Team Abt 35 53'46.287 20.751 1.353 16
Oliver Rowland
Mahindra Racing 35 53'52.001 26.465 5.714 17
Sergio Sette Camara
NIO Formula E Team 35 53'57.050 31.514 5.049 18
Nico Müller
Team Abt 19 33'32.998 16 Laps 16 Laps 19
Edoardo Mortara
Maserati Racing 19 33'33.333 16 Laps 0.335 20
Jake Dennis
Andretti Autosport 13 22'53.709 22 Laps 6 Laps 21
Sacha Fenestraz
Nissan e.dams 6 9'12.924 29 Laps 7 Laps 22
Norman Nato
Nissan e.dams 0 0.000 View full results
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