Formula E

Evans wins crazy Berlin Formula E opener after 23 lead changes

by Josh Suttill
5 min read

Mitch Evans claimed his second successive Formula E victory after emerging victorious from a frenetic first Berlin E-Prix of the double-header weekend that featured 23 lead changes.

Multiple drivers and teams had their time at the front of the field in Berlin but it all boiled down to an all-Jaguar-powered fight at the front in the closing laps of the race.

Record-breaking polesitter Sebastien Buemi rode a rollercoaster of yo-yo-ing throughout the top 10 in the customer Envision but led proceedings with five laps of the normal race distance to go.

Evans, who had charged from ninth on the grid to the front, passed his Jaguar team-mate Sam Bird for second at the final corner and then passed Buemi at the opening turn of the following lap with a brave dive down the inside.

Bird was able to follow him through on the final lap with an equally brilliant move on Buemi to secure a factory Jaguar one-two – the team’s first ever in Formula E.

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Buemi missed out on his first podium with Envision after coming off second-best in a final corner scuffle with Guenther whose third place finish marks his first points of the season.

The top five was completed by Nick Cassidy who somehow recovered from picking up a puncture following contact with Dan Ticktum to make a pitstop, drop to the back to the field and then charge to fifth.

Cassidy is now Pascal Wehrlein’s closest challenger in the championship. Wehrlein stayed out of the chaos to finish in sixth place for Porsche.

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Jean-Eric Vergne was tapped into a spin by Andre Lotterer but bounced back to finish in seventh place ahead of Lotterer who was handed a five-second time penalty for the contact but managed to limit the damage to still finish in eighth.

The top 10 was completed by Edoardo Mortara – angered by a clash with his Maserati team-mate Guenther earlier on in the race – and Mahindra’s Oliver Rowland.

Ex-championship leader Jake Dennis’s miserable run of point-less finishes was extended to four races when he lost control of his Avalanche Andretti-run machine while trying to attack Maximilian Guenther at the final corner.

He ploughed into the fellow Porsche-powered entry of Antonio Felix da Costa and inflicted terminal damage on both cars.

Dan Ticktum had his most eventful race yet in Formula E as he moved from fourth to first on the run down to Turn 1 on the opening lap that was completed by a swish around the outside move on Buemi.

Ticktum began to slip back thereafter – in line with this year’s NIO 333 tendency to be weaker over a race distance than a single-lap – but his race came to a dramatic end when he caused the second safety car of the race by inadvertently feeding Stoffel Vandoorne into the wall, destroying both of their cars and ending their races.

Ticktum told his team “I got taken out. There was nothing I could do there. I got taken out” while Vandoorne was enraged by Ticktum’s actions. Their collision also hampered Nissan’s Norman Nato and McLaren’s Jake Hughes.

Hughes’ strife capped off a miserable race for McLaren with his team-mate Rene Rast tapping an already front wing-less Sergio Sette Camara (who lost his wing after contact with Guenther) into Turn 1, ending either’s distant chance of points.

The stewards deemed Rast to be at fault for that incident and slapped him with a five-second penalty – albeit one that didn’t change his finishing position of 17th and the last car on the road.

Race Results

Pos Name Team Car Laps Laps Led Total Time Fastest Lap Pitstops Pts
1 Mitch Evans Jaguar TCS Racing Jaguar I-TYPE 6 43 11 55m10.391s 1m07.458s 0 25
2 Sam Bird Jaguar TCS Racing Jaguar I-TYPE 6 43 9 +1.85s 1m07.663s 0 18
3 Maximilian GĂĽnther Maserati MSG Racing Maserati Tipo Folgore 43 1 +2.738s 1m07.537s 0 15
4 Sébastien Buemi Envision Racing Jaguar I-TYPE 6 43 7 +2.849s 1m07.39s 0 15
5 Nick Cassidy Envision Racing Jaguar I-TYPE 6 43 0 +4.787s 1m07.295s 0 10
6 Pascal Wehrlein TAG Heuer Porsche Porsche 99X Electric 43 0 +9.111s 1m07.708s 0 8
7 Jean-Eric Vergne DS Penske DS E-Tense FE23 43 0 +9.191s 1m07.782s 0 6
8 André Lotterer Avalanche Andretti Porsche 99X Electric 43 0 +9.504s 1m07.269s 0 5
9 Edoardo Mortara Maserati MSG Racing Maserati Tipo Folgore 43 2 +10.159s 1m07.915s 0 2
10 Oliver Rowland Mahindra Racing Mahindra M9Electro 43 0 +10.308s 1m07.632s 0 1
11 Lucas Di Grassi Mahindra Racing Mahindra M9Electro 43 0 +19.449s 1m08.19s 0 0
12 Sacha Fenestraz Nissan Nissan e-4ORCE 04 43 0 +21.549s 1m07.734s 0 0
13 Norman Nato Nissan Nissan e-4ORCE 04 43 0 +24.561s 1m08.02s 0 0
14 Robin Frijns ABT CUPRA Mahindra M9Electro 43 0 +25.627s 1m08.278s 0 0
15 Nico MĂĽller ABT CUPRA Mahindra M9Electro 43 0 +27.58s 1m08.343s 0 0
16 Sérgio Sette Câmara NIO 333 Racing NIO 333 ER9 43 0 +34.847s 1m08.86s 0 0
17 René Rast NEOM McLaren Nissan e-4ORCE 04 42 0 +1 lap 1m08.359s 0 0
18 Jake Dennis Avalanche Andretti Porsche 99X Electric 38 5 +5 laps 1m06.604s 0 0
AntĂłnio FĂ©lix da Costa TAG Heuer Porsche Porsche 99X Electric 30 0 DNF 1m08.393s 0 0
Jake Hughes NEOM McLaren Nissan e-4ORCE 04 19 0 DNF 1m09.129s 0 0
Stoffel Vandoorne DS Penske DS E-Tense FE23 19 1 DNF 1m08.926s 0 0
Daniel Ticktum NIO 333 Racing NIO 333 ER9 19 6 DNF 1m09.658s 0 0
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