Penalised Evans boosts slim hopes of Formula E title in London

Jaguar driver Mitch Evans boosted his slender Formula E title hopes by setting the fastest time in qualifying for the first of the London E-Prix at the ExCeL and claiming three bonus points at the expense of fellow title contender Nick Cassidy.

But a five-place grid penalty for Jaguar driver Evans, for wiping out Cassidy in the previous race in Rome, means Cassidy will start from pole – with points leader Jake Dennis joining him on the front row.

Evans’s 1m10.578s lap in the final gave him pole by a mere 0.026 seconds over Cassidy – who lamented a “very, very small” lock-up at the reprofiled Turn 16 hairpin in his Envision-run Jaguar on his run but also hinted at wider frustrations over his team radio.

“Can you imagine Dennis? Jake had Christmas and New Year’s in July,” he said – Evans’s fastest qualifying time, despite his grid penalty, having ensured Dennis’s 24-point lead over Cassidy remained intact.

Evans, whose three-point bonus means he is now 41 points behind Dennis with 55 still available over the double-header London weekend, had earlier seen off Dennis in their semi-final.

That Evans-Dennis semi-final wasn’t an especially close-run one – Evans progressing by almost four tenths – but Cassidy had a considerably healthier margin in his, having been up against Envision team-mate Sebastien Buemi in the second semi-final.

Buemi had actually been marginally the quicker of the two over the first part of the lap but had a small wobble at the Turn 10/11 chicane before rejoining, then backed off suitably over the remainder of the lap to ensure Cassidy’s effort was not troubled.

He will therefore start third, with Dennis sandwiched between the Envision drivers on the grid.

Neither of the two main title protagonists had a trouble-free route to the duels earlier on in the group stages.

Cassidy locked up on his first serious push lap in Group B at Turn 16 and had to bail out of that lap, leaving him with one shot at advancing.

He duly delivered the fastest time in either group, a 1m10.721s, but described it as “the highest-pressure moment” over the Envision team radio.

Dennis reported something loose on his seat’s right-hand side and later a “huge” power cut at Turn 9, and he also hit the wall at Turn 9 – but ultimately topped his group too.

🔊 Sound on!

'I've just had a huge power cut' says Jake Dennis 😬@Hankook_Sport #LondonEPrix pic.twitter.com/7M82Vlpy0F

— ABB FIA Formula E World Championship (@FIAFormulaE) July 29, 2023

NIO driver Dan Ticktum was the fastest of those knocked out in the quarter-final stages and will start fourth ahead of McLaren’s Rene Rast, who is understood to be contesting his final races with the team this weekend, with the penalised Evans next up.

Final title outsider Pascal Wehrlein, who is 49 points behind Dennis, was seventh for the factory Porsche team while Stoffel Vandoorne took eighth.

Outgoing champion Vandoorne made the duels section with a last-gasp run in the opening group that prevented Evans’s team-mate Sam Bird from making it four Jaguars in the knockout stages.

Dennis won’t have Andre Lotterer for close company at the sharp end of the grid, the second Andretti driver having been only eighth fastest in the same group topped by his team-mate.

Lotterer is also under investigation for crossing the finish line twice after the chequered flag.

Qualifying Results