Antonio Felix da Costa prevailed in a bruising second Berlin E-Prix race as Jaguar’s challenge fell apart in the closing stages.
TAG Heuer Porsche’s da Costa led 22 of 41 laps — extended from 38 after two safety car periods — but was in an intense lead fight with the Jaguars of Mitch Evans and Nick Cassidy.
In the final 10 laps da Costa and Evans were trading places at the front, but with Evans leaving it late to take his second Attack Mode, he was holding up Cassidy who’d dropped back to save energy after leading early on.
The Jaguars switched positions on lap 39, but while Cassidy then only had da Costa ahead, it looked to be too late to mount a challenge for the lead. Things got worse a lap later when Evans locked up at Turn 6, opening the door for Pascal Wehrlein and then Jake Dennis.
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Da Costa ultimately had a relatively straightforward final two laps, coming home 0.691s ahead of Cassidy, with Oliver Rowland third after being passed by Cassidy in the late going.
It was another well-managed race for Rowland, the Nissan driver having started 16th on the grid. After conserving for the first five laps, he went on a charge and was up to fifth by the first safety car. The safety car periods proved valuable for him, allowing him to conserve again after his push to the front and keep him in the podium fight until the end.
But it wasn’t a clean climb for him — Rowland was shown a driving standards flag for multiple instances of contact, including one with Mahindra’s Edoardo Mortara just before the first safety car — but he wasn’t the only one. Fourth- and fifth-placed Pascal Wehrlein and Jake Dennis traded blows on the first two laps of the second safety car restart — and both of those caution periods came as a direct result of contact.
After being caught up in a Turn 2 concertina on lap 11 where he was tagged by Nato, Maximilian Guenther’s front wing went under his car, sending him into the wall. On lap 25, a disastrous overtake attempt from Nato that was never on sent Sacha Fenestraz into the barrier at Turn 3, resulting in sarcastic applause from the Nissan driver and a 10-second penalty for the Andretti man, who was able to continue.
No room there 😳
The moment that @NatoNorman and @sachafenestraz came to blows in the @SUNMINIMEAL #BerlinEPrix!
The @PorscheRaces Safety Car is out once again as the stranded @NISMO is recovered. pic.twitter.com/nfQt2kZIZG
— Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) May 12, 2024
After his late lock-up, Evans survived to finish sixth ahead of Maserati MSG’s Jehan Daruvala, who took his best-ever Formula E finish with a late pass on NEOM McLaren’s Taylor Barnard.
Joel Eriksson and Jean-Eric Vergne — who dropped to a low of 13th from ninth on the grid early on in a bid to save energy and mirror Cassidy’s winning strategy from Saturday — completed the top 10.
Vergne’s DS Penske teammate finished 20th, one spot behind Nato, with his race being similarly undone by contact.
After both races in Berlin, Cassidy leads the championship with 140 points, 16 ahead of Wehrlein, with Rowland in third a further six points back. Reigning champion Dennis sits fourth on 102 points, five ahead of Evans.