FP3-
Half a second split the top 17 runners as Nick Cassidy topped the times for Jaguar TCS Racing in Free Practice 3 ahead of the Shanghai E-Prix Round 12.
A warm, steamy morning saw 27 degree air temperatures early on in Shanghai, and times matching free practice 2’s.
Cassidy ran to a 1m13.500s late on and said he’d found something in himself to get there, while praising the team’s work over the weekend so far.
Dan Ticktum, on home soil for ERT followed just 0.089s back with Porsche’s Antonio Felix da Costa rounding in third.
Qualifying-
NEOM McLaren’s Jake Hughes achieved his second Julius Baer Pole Position of the season around the Shanghai International Circuit.
In a very intense qualifying battle, NEOM McLaren’s Jake Hughes managed to beat DS PENSKE’s Stoffel Vandoorne by just 0.001s!
The insane margin between the two in the final of the duels ties the record set by Lucas di Grassi in Berlin back in 2017.
And it’s the second time we’ve seen a pole decided by such a small gap this season, with Wehrlein of TAG Heuer Porsche putting it on pole by only 0.002s in Sao Paulo.
Several of the big names were knocked out early on including reigning world champion, Jake Dennis who will start 16th. Yesterday’s pole sitter Jean-Eric Vergne couldn’t replicate his success a second consecutive day and will line up ninth.
Mahindra’s Nyck de Vries managed his best qualifying performance of the year to start fourth after making his first Duels appearance of the year.
The full top 10 are- Pole: Hughes, P2: Vandoorne, P3: Da Costa, P4: De Vries, P5: Cassidy, P6: Evans, P7: Nato, P8: Rowland, P9: Vergne and P10: Guenther.
Round 12-
A good start from Vandoorne saw the DS driver beat Hughes to Turn 1 with da Costa in tow. The Portuguese driver took Hughes’ second spot at Turn 10 a lap later, aiming to drag himself up to leader Vandoorne in the slipstream on lap 2.
Hughes, Nato, de Vries and Cassidy – third to seventh – all jumped for Attack Mode on lap 3, though could stick with the lead pair with the race pace as it was early on.
The Jaguars running sixth and seventh, Evans from Cassidy once again looked to play the team game, though the latter exclaimed over team radio at his unhappiness at the change of tactics for round 12.
Norman Nato led Vandoorne, da Costa, Hughes, de Vries, Cassidy, Evans, Guenther, Bird and Vergne – with da Costa a percent to the good on energy on those around him.
Sure enough, the Portuguese’ progress started in earnest as he caught Vandoorne unawares with a dive around the outside into the final chicane complex to set about leader Nato.
On lap 9, da Costa jumped to the front, beating Nato to Turn 1’s apex before ceding P1 again to take his first Attack mode boost – a contrasting strategy for the Porsche driver.
Drama on lap 12, saw title contender Pascal Wehrlein forced into pitting to have his left-rear tyre replaced, punctured following contact with NEOM McLaren’s Sam Bird.
Da Costa looked to be the man to beat given the energy he had in-hand on the rest 0 some three percent of usable energy to the good on the leaders, enabling him to jump to the front again on lap 16 and looked to dictate.
Hughes in third got the call to use more energy to move forward and set about Nato in second and da Costa in first on lap 18.
A lap later, Cassidy tried to make a move on Hughes into Turn 1 and clipped his front wing in the process.
Then at Turn 6, Hughes then it out around the outside of Nato to make it by the Frenchman for P2.
The battling in-behind da Costa was playing into the Porsche driver’s hands, despite being the car punching through the air first.
From lap 16 to the end, da Costa had the energy, pace and temperature margin to hold fast and dictate to the end, despite severe pressure from podium debutant Hughes.
The full top 10 are- P1: Da Costa, P2: Hughes, P3: Nato, P4: Cassidy, P5: Evans, P6: Vandoorne, P7: Vergne, P8: Gunther, P9: Frijns and P10: Rowland.
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