Barnard started off well and forced Buemi into defensive manoeuvres in order to keep a hold of P1. The Swiss looked to have done just that but outbraked himself into Turn 1 gifting the DS PENSKE driver the lead – with the Envision finding himself all the way down in 18th.
Wehrlein, down in P8, was the first to jump for his initial of two mandatory 50kW all wheel driver ATTACK MODE boosts.
Meanwhile, on lap 5, Mortara put the pressure on Barnard for the lead into Turn 1, with Mueller able to follow.
Wehrlein led Mortara, Mueller, Dennis, Barnard, Guenther, Evans, Ticktum, Rowland and da Costa on Lap 6.
Da Costa and Maloney, 10th and 17th respectively, were next to take ATTACK on Lap 8 – the rest of the pack still held on.
Meanwhile, Mueller slipped by Mortara for second into Turn 1 on Lap 9 and dispatched his teammate for P1 at the hairpin.
Lap 11 and the pace began to pick up. Jake Dennis, Sao Paulo’s winner sat seventh with 0.5% energy in hand on the rest of the top 10.
Mortara hit the front again, with Mueller, Ticktum, Wehrlein, Barnard, da Costa, Dennis, Guenther, Evans and Rowland the top 10 – and ominously, four Porsche powered cars in the top five positions.
The scrap on the edge of the points-paying positions lit up at the half way stage as impatience looked to be building. Three-wide won’t work all that often through the hairpin.
A full course yellow was required with Nyck de Vries Mahindra needing recovery – leaving Rowland’s Attack Mode ticking to zero under caution, as Jaguar’s Da Costa avoided Barnard and swerved in front of the Brit and onto the grass at the hairpin.
The race was back green on Lap 22 with Mueller, Mortara, Wehrlein, Dennis, Evans, Ticktum, Da Costa and Rowland the top 10.
Several drivers came to blows at the hairpin as the field squeezed. Vergne, da Costa and Guenther looked to be the ones most entangled on Lap 26.
Dennis was next to make moves, on Lap 32. He was told he had a lap’s energy to the good on the lead few by his engineer and was able to make it as far as third.
From there, it looked like Cassidy’s to lose – the Kiwi having gained 12 spots from his grid slot. Mortara was his closest competition with two minutes more ATTACK MODE to use to hunt the Citroen driver down.
With the top 10 all in ATTACK, reigning champion Rowland made it by Mueller and Dennis in one swoop for third at Turn 1 on Lap 35, only for Dennis to return the favour half a lap later.
The whole top five were within half a second of each other through the stadium on Lap 36 – Rowland squeezed back by Dennis the final podium spot.
Cassidy held on in style to lead Mortara and Rowland home for the French giant Citroen’s first Formula E victory in their second outing.
The top 10 are- P1: Cassidy, P2: Mortara, P3: Rowland, P4: Barnard, P5: Dennis, P6: Wehrlein, P7: Marti, P8: Vergne, P9: Mueller, P10: Nato.
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