Antonio Felix Da Costa returns to victory for the third time in the Berlin E-Prix, with the omnipresent Nick Cassidy second and Oliver Rowland completing the podium.
For the TAG Heuer Porsche team, this is the first Formula E victory at their home race; while for Formula E, Da Costa is the eighth driver to win out of a total of ten races.
Scheduled over 38 laps – two less than Race 1 on Saturday – Race 2 of the Berlin E-Prix had to be scheduled differently because with a shorter distance to cover there was the possibility of pushing harder, even if in the first part during the race we saw the compact running and a thousand overtakings in the middle of the group.
Da Costa managed the energy of his Porsche perfectly, used the Attack Mode in the right way and at the right time and was able to first defend himself from the attacks of the two Jaguars and his teammate Wehrlein.
The final act took place when Mitch Evans was in the lead in the Jaguar and Da Costa forced the braking at the hairpin, managing not only to overtake him, but also to force him to follow less than perfect trajectories which caused to lose several positions by the Jaguar driver, while behind Oliver Rowland with the Nissan, a true champion of overtaking over the weekend with a total of 25 if we didn’t do the math wrong, and Nick Cassidy took the opportunity.
The New Zealander from Jaguar then overtook Rowland again… finishing in second place overall.
Da Costa then made an interesting gap before the arrival of the last Safety Car that came out as a consequence of the accident between Norman Nato and Sacha Fenestraz. However, the Portuguese driver had no problems managing the situation and maintained a safe distance until the finish line.
Pascal Wehrlein was in the mix for a long time, but in the end he remained at the foot of the podium, but securing fourth place and second in the championship, while after a disastrous Race 1, the driver was seen again in the upper areas of the race was English Jake Dennis with Andretti Porsche who finished ahead of Mitch Evans with the other Jaguar.
Of note is the excellent work of Jehan Daruvala (Maserati MSG), Taylor Barnard (NEOM McLaren) and Joel Eriksson (Envision Racing); all with points in seventh, eighth and ninth position respectively.
Daruvala made the comeback from 13th starting place, marking his personal best qualifying and also the best by an Indian driver in the history of Formula E.
19-year-old Taylor Barnard maintained his philosophy of staying out of trouble in the middle of the pack and it paid off, moving up from 18th to eighth place. Two races in Formula E, scoring points in both… a more unique than rare case; and Swede Joel Eriksson, ninth in the end, also scored his best performance in Formula E.
The top ten is closed by two-time champion Jean Eric Vergne with tenth place, who had climbed to the second step of the podium the previous day. Sign of how everything can change in Formula E in just a few hours…
Formula E confirmed at Tempelhof for at least 6 more years
The guest of honour at today’s race was the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Kai Wegner. As part of his visit to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Formula E racing in the city, Wegner announced the extension Formula E’s contract with Tempelhof Airport for another six years, enabling it to continue as the series’ longstanding and only ever-present race location pending calendar approval by the FIA World Motor Sport Council.
António Félix da Costa, No. 13, Tag Heuer Porsche Formula E, said:
It just feels great to win at a home race for Porsche, it’s amazing. We’ve got so many guests here: so many people who work in the factory that don’t normally get to come to the races, our Board members are here, so it’s definitely a special one.
Honestly, it’s been a tough start to the season and we’ve been building a really good momentum, always closing the gap to the championship leaders and it feels good to take this one. You have to work hard when things aren’t right, but when you have the right people around you it makes it a little bit easier. I want to dedicate to this to my engineer’s father-in-law who passed away this week, so it’s for him and his family.
Nick Cassidy, No. 37, Jaguar TCS Racing, said:
Ultimately, it’s been a great weekend for us. I feel sorry for Mitch [Evans], he lost out a bit, but I feel like we both could’ve maybe had a bit of a better race. We try to work together – that sometimes works, it sometimes doesn’t, but we gave it our best. It was an eventful race but ultimately it’s been a fantastic weekend. I’m proud of my guys and girls. We turned things around a bit overnight and had a really fast package today – it has been a really good day. António drove fantastically today and when he picked up the pace at the end, I thought he was quicker than us as well, so a really deserved win and I’m so happy for him.
For the title fight, we’ve just got to keep doing what we’re doing. The team’s done an amazing job, I’m really enjoying it and I’m really proud to be driving for Jaguar TCS Racing.
Oliver Rowland, No. 22, Nissan Formula E Team, said:
Yesterday’s strategy was obviously to try and get quickly to the front, and today it was slightly different because we knew everybody might copy. So, for the first five laps we stayed calm and then we went on a mission – again it was a bit like I arrived at the front and it was a little bit too quick, but it’s a super tough race, everybody’s been aggressive. The tough thing for me was that I had two Porsches and two Jaguars kind of trying to help each other, and then me alone trying to fight them a bit, but it was fun, there was a lot of contact, and great to come from 16th to third.
The next Formula E race will take place on May 25th and 26th and will mark the return of the electric single-seater category to China from 2019 with a double heather at the Shanghai Autodrome.
In the following links you can read and/or download the official Race 2 Final Classification of the Berlin E-Prix 2024, the positions of the Drivers’ Championship and those of the Teams’ Championship. (PDF)
104_Doc 104 – Final Classification RACE
105_Doc 105 – Drivers Championship Points after R10
106_Doc 106 – Teams Championship Points after R10
#MarceloPadin #theEMNteam
Source: Formula E
Photo Credits: BMF / Mitsuaki Futori
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