Evans wins from last, Wehrlein suffers scary airborne crash

Mitch Evans claimed victory from last on the grid in the Sao Paulo E-Prix which featured two red flags, one caused by a frightening airborne crash for reigning Formula E champion Pascal Wehrlein.

Jaguar driver Evans suffered a powertrain issue that prevented him from setting a lap in qualifying, but the increased performance of Attack Mode and a chaotic race that featured two stoppages and a safety car helped vault the Kiwi to victory.

Evans had lost the lead on the final lap at the Sao Paulo street circuit last season and faced a similar situation for the season-opener as he came under stern pressure from Porsche’s Antonio Felix da Costa in the closing laps.

Da Costa had to settle for second as Taylor Barnard became the youngest Formula E podium finisher in third having served a drive-through penalty, with team-mate Sam Bird claiming fourth after also being penalised earlier in proceedings.

With all-wheel-drive available for drivers at the start courtesy of the new Gen3 Evo era, Oliver Rowland launched into the lead on the inside of polesitter Wehrlein at Turn 1 following a short delay after Robin Frijns’s Envision was wheeled off the grid with a problem.

Behind, Jake Dennis was muscled out of the way by Maximilian Guenther via some contact, which was investigated, before the Andretti driver lost further places to da Costa and Jean-Eric Vergne over the opening tours prior to an early safety car.

This was after Jake Hughes (Maserati MSG) and Nico Muller (Andretti) crashed on the exit of Turn 6 on lap two in avoidance of slower cars ahead before the incident was placed under investigation.

Oliver Rowland Nissan Formula E Team Nissan e-4ORCE 05 Pascal Wehrlein TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team Porsche 99X Electric Gen3

Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images

At the green flag on lap six, Rowland maintained the lead while Nick Cassidy became the first driver to take the first of two Attack Modes – eight minutes in total – that left him on the fringes of the top 10.

But with all-wheel-drive activated in the 350kW mode for the first time, the performance advantage was stark as the Kiwi surged into the lead inside just one lap and stretched his advantage to more than 1.5s before he was gradually reeled in by the chasing pack as others took their first Attack Modes.

Despite the clear advantage of the power mode, Rowland impressively cycled back into the lead before being the last runner to take his first Attack Mode on lap 15, briefly dropping to second behind Cassidy before charging immediately back ahead.

The Briton pulled a gap of three seconds before he was caught by the pack, which was now headed by Wehrlein and da Costa, the two Porsche drivers some of the first runners to take the second Attack Mode.

Wehrlein took the lead on lap 18 but running out of extra power first allowed his team-mate to move ahead on the following tour as Rowland, now in third, took his second Attack Mode.

Briefly as far back as fourth, Rowland surged back through to lead at the start of lap 21 but with Dennis’s Andretti stranded in the Turn 1 run-off and in a ‘red state’, whereby in an unsafe battery condition, the red flag was deployed to recover the vehicle.

The restarted grid order was based on the previous lap, meaning da Costa lined up in front of Rowland, Wehrlein, Guenther and Edoardo Mortara, with Cassidy in sixth one of only six runners yet to take a second Attack Mode.

Mitch Evans Jaguar TCS Racing Jaguar I-TYPE 7 Sam Bird NEOM McLaren Formula E Team Nissan e-4ORCE 05, Lucas di Grassi Lola Yamaha ABT Formula E Team Lola-Yamaha T001, Seba

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images

At the standing start, Rowland jumped into the lead and pulled away while Cassidy took his Attack Mode at the earliest opportunity on lap 24 and charged up into second inside two laps.

Rowland’s 3.2s lead counted for nothing, though, as he was slapped with a drive-through penalty for overpower usage, a similar fate that befell Nissan team-mate Norman Nato and customer McLaren drivers Barnard and Bird earlier in the race.

Evans, who had taken his second Attack Mode later than Cassidy, passed his team-mate at the start of lap 29 with da Costa also demoting the second Jaguar a lap later.

Shortly after a second red flag was deployed as through the tight Turn 4/5 chicane, Guenther was pushed into the wall as he went three-wide with Cassidy and Wehrlein before damaged suspension sent the Jaguar into the side of the Porsche, flipping Wehrlein over and into the Turn 6 barrier.

Wehrlein climbed out of the car unhurt and at the four-lap rolling restart, Evans led da Costa but the two McLarens behind, headed by Barnard, had been able to save vast amounts of energy after their earlier penalties consigned them to saving at the back prior to the first red flag.

With 3% more energy, Barnard was in prime position to take his first Formula E victory on only his fourth start, but resolute defences from Evans and da Costa meant the Briton was unable to make progress.