Evans slashes Vandoorne’s Formula E lead with dominant win

Mitch Evans almost halved Stoffel Vandoorne’s Formula E World Championship lead with a commanding win in the Seoul opener, but the Mercedes driver still goes into Sunday’s finale in a very strong position.

Evans’s victory was mostly earned with his brilliant first lap at the wet original start, in which he muscled past front row starters Oliver Rowland and Lucas di Grassi to take the lead.

A very strange incident… what do you make of this?

📸 @FIAFormulaE pic.twitter.com/c5uOzDph64

— The Race (@wearetherace) August 13, 2022

The race was then halted in bizarre fashion as eight cars slid into the Turn 21 barriers in a sequence of crashes that left outgoing champion Nyck de Vries trapped in his Mercedes under Sebastien Buemi’s Nissan. De Vries was unhurt but could not get out until the Nissan was removed.

Both drivers plus Andre Lotterer, Oliver Turvey, Dan Ticktum and Oliver Askew were ruled out of the eventual restart, with Norman Nato and Nick Cassidy starting at the back after repairs.

The order was taken from where cars were running when the crash occurred, meaning Evans led away from the safety car restart and simply controlled the entire race from there as the track dried.

A finish under the safety car because Alexander Sims – who’d progressed from 21st on the grid after a qualifying crash to run ninth, via a collision with Antonio Giovinazzi that earned Sims a 5s penalty – had crashed in the stadium section made Evans’s task even easier.

Vandoorne drove a cagey race to fifth place. He gained a place early on when a clash between Edoardo Mortara and Jean-Eric Vergne sent Mortara wide (and earned Mortara a penalty for his defensive driving too) and later overtook Vergne.

With Evans unable to keep fastest lap and the bonus point for it, Vandoorne’s championship lead has been reduced from 36 points to 21. But with only 29 on the table tomorrow, that is still a comfortable position for the Mercedes driver.

Rowland scored Mahindra’s first podium of the season in second ahead of his 2023 team-mate di Grassi’s Venturi Mercedes and Avalanche Andretti driver Jake Dennis.

Mortara’s championship bid officially ended when he parked his Venturi Mercedes while running seventh, due to the effects of a slow puncture incurred in the Vergne clash.

Vergne had been knocked out of the hunt when he didn’t get the pole bonus earlier in the day. He finished the race sixth ahead of slow-starting second row qualifier Pascal Wehrlein’s Porsche.

Robin Frijns, Antonio Felix da Costa and Nick Cassidy completed the top 10.

Race Results