R13 – Shanghai E-Prix

Before the race had started, Mitch Evans’ race was run. A technical issue saw his team working away on his Jaguar but they weren’t able to rectify the problem to get him out on the grid for lights out.

The conditions meant a couple of laps behind the Safety Car before the static start, with polesitter Drugovich leading the field through the sweeping right-hand Turn 1.

Taylor Barnard, Pepe Marti, Edoardo Mortara and Nyck de Vries immediately jumped for the first of their two mandatory Attack Mode 50kW, all-wheel drive boosts to make use of that extra power and grip while the pack was bunched up.

Barnard had the front on what was Lap 5, with Drugovich, Wehrlein, Marti, Mortara, Rowland, de Vries, Mueller, Dennis and Maloney following as the field ran two and three wide through Sector 1.

Wehrlein’s overlap in Attack saw him cycle to P1 come Lap 7, heading teammate Mueller by a couple of seconds – though Nico did have a couple more minutes overlap in Attack to make use of himself.

The Porsche’s then worked together to stretch a gap to Drugovich in third, pulling out three seconds as the race passed Lap 10.

Da Costa went later with Attack and made up good ground to third on Lap 16 by the time his first 50kW, all-wheel drive jolt had run its course – behind the lead Porsche pair. He’d clipped Rowland’s Nissan earlier through Turn 1 and damaged his front wing but looked to have avoided any further action.

Buemi sat fourth with three percent of usable energy in-hand on Lap 18 – well placed to pounce as he took Attack Mode number two. He immediately made it by da Costa at the hairpin, setting about Mueller and leader Wehrlein a couple of seconds up the road.

Mueller responded to the charging Envision pair, taking Attack a lap later. However, Eriksson was able to sweep around the outside of Mueller and Buemi at the start of Lap 21 at Turn 1 – the Swede second ahead of Buemi as they navigated Mueller’s Porsche and it was now Eriksson with the energy in hand.

A tour later and Eriksson swept by Wehrlein on the run to Turn 1 – a 16 place gain on his starting berth. He still had an Attack Mode to use, too.

The drivers that had set up for drying conditions were flying – Eriksson 4.4 seconds out front, Vergne flying through the field to P2 on lap 23 while di Grassi joined the party in P3 leaving Wehrlein outside of the podium positions. All three had made up 16 spots on their grid slot.

A Full Course Yellow was required on Lap 24 with Maloney’s Lola in the wars and needed recovery. This left his teammate di Grassi in the ideal position; P3 but with Attack Mode still to use as those around him saw theirs ebb away under caution.

On the restart, Eriksson had it all to do to keep two champions at bay. Vergne was right on the rear of the Envision, with di Grassi in Attack with the pair of them.

Vergne then made a move at the hairpin stick as di Grassi lunged – the pair past Eriksson and now scrapping over the provisional win.

Through Turn 1 on the final lap, di Grassi swept right around the outside of Vergne to pinch P1. He held on in Attack to take the team’s first Formula E win, heading Vergne and Eriksson home on track.

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