Envision Racing’s Nick Cassidy clambered from 10th to the top step of the podium with a perfectly judged drive to win the inaugural Southwire Portland E-Prix, Round 12 of the ABB Formula E World Championship. He led home the Avalanche Andretti entry of Jake Dennis and TAG Heuer Porsche’s Antonio Felix da Costa, while just seven seconds split the first 17 runners.
Cassidy measured his race to perfection from P10 on the grid as the 22-strong field jostled for superiority over the 32-lap encounter, where Formula E’s unique balancing act between energy efficiency and outright pace came to the fore. The strategic battle for top spot was evidenced from the opening lap as positions and race leaders changed corner by corner in groups five and six wide at points.
The New Zealand driver led several times but got the better of da Costa on lap 28 with the decisive move — only a few turns after the Portuguese had seized the initiative. Cassidy first hit the front on lap 3 while da Costa rose through the pack from eighth at the outset to pile the pressure on the Envision Racing driver right to the flag, but Cassidy held fast for his third win of the season.
Polesitter Dennis led the opening stages but wouldn’t time his late-race charge as precisely as Cassidy managed to. The Avalanche Andretti driver took second late from da Costa, enough to keep the drivers’ standings lead by a single point over Cassidy.
Mitch Evans (Jaguar TCS Racing) recovered from 20th on the grid to fourth — ensuring he’s still well in the fight for the title with four races to run.
As it happened…
Formula E’s unqiue balancing act between energy and outright pace is always the challenge and the strategic battle took as many turns as ever in Portland.
Dennis flew away from pole as the pack filtered through the first chicane, with Fenestraz in tow while the big climber over the opening couple of laps was the NIO 333 of Dan Ticktum — the Briton up eight places to seventh by lap 3.
The strategic battle began to play out immediately, with drivers unwilling to head the way and lifting early into the big stops — energy was widely expected to be a priority for the teams on the quick, sweeping circuit. The order would hardly be representative of the final shakeup in the opening stages but strong progress from 10th on the grid for Cassidy saw the second-placed driver in the standings briefly lead on lap 3 before he became the first driver to jump for two of eight mandatory minutes’ ATTACK MODE. A brief break in racing action followed a lap later with Roberto Mehri’s Mahindra stranded on-track after suffering technical trouble and requiring recovery.
During the ssfety car, Fenestraz pitted to replace his broken nosecone — heartbreaking for the front-row starter but it was his own error, the French-Argentine running into the back of Dennis’ Andretti. Back under racing conditions on lap 8, the lead group went for their first 50kW boosts — Cassidy taking his second early and Mortara holding off entirely.
On lap 9, Nato was the incumbent leader, with da Costa, Guenther, di Grassi, Cassidy, Mortara, Dennis, Rast, Ticktum and Hughes the top 10 – though this order was changing several times over a given lap. Lap 10 saw a big shunt for Nico Mueller in the ABT CUPRA who fired off the track at high speed into a 27G impact with the wall at Turn 10, reporting “no more brakes.’ Safety car number two ensued. Just prior to the neutralisation, Cassidy retook the lead and pole position in the title fight — but this would by no means be the last word on the race order.
After a long delay, the restart on lap 17 had Nato leading Cassidy, Guenther, Mortara, da Costa, Dennis, Rast, di Grassi, Ticktum and standings leader Wehrlein rounding out the top 10. The leader and the Maserati pair jumped for ATTACK MODE immediately, along with Rast — for their second boosts. Cassidy retook the lead from da Costa and Nato with the whole pack split by only three seconds.
The concertina effect caught out Wehrlein into Turn 1 on lap 18 — the Porsche’s front wing damaged and the German relegated down the order to 16th.
It was six wide into Turn 1 on lap 20 with drivers jostling for position and reluctant to be the first to make the jump and seize the initiative though Cassidy still held P1 — as he did in Berlin on the way to his race two victory — with Jakarta race two winner Guenther just behind. At the start of lap 22, Porsche’s da Costa made the jump on the leaders to hit the front as the field. From there, the former champion began to stretch his legs and dictate the pace, drawing out just under a second on Cassidy in P2.
Four laps were added on for those lost under the safety car. It was da Costa from Cassidy, Dennis, Guenther, Bird, Mortara, Vergne, Evans and Wehrlein.
On lap 26, Cassidy once again jumped to the head of the pack into Turn 1. Track position was becoming king and Cassidy was defending hard as da Costa and Dennis behind looked for an opening. The latter made a nice move stick on da Costa through the first sector for second but he couldn’t hold the Portuguese back for long as the pair swapped positions again halfway around the same tour. Da Costa then set about Cassidy — and made it by the leader on lap 28 with a surprise leap into Turn 11. It wouldn’t last any more than a few seconds, though, as Cassidy forced his way by once again into Turn 1.
On the final lap, da Costa held fast under severe pressure from Dennis but the Andretti driver made it count to pinch second spot at the last from the Porsche driver, but had nothing left for Cassidy who held on to win by 0.294s.
