Portland E-Prix: Da Costa wins as Cassidy and Evans throw away victory

Error for Cassidy and time penalty for Evans hands win to da Costa

A Nick Cassidy error and time penalty for Mitch Evans meant Jaguar threw away victory in the Portland E-Prix, allowing Antonio Felix da Costa to take back-to-back Formula E wins.

Championship leader Cassidy was on course to take his third win of the season and with it, put one hand on the title at the Portland International Raceway.

But on the penultimate lap and in the lead, the Kiwi ran wide through the fast left of Turn 10, putting him offline through the next sweeping right that sent him into a spin as he finished out of the points.

Evans had been directly behind his team-mate and took the chequered flag first on-the-road, but the Kiwi had been handed a five-second penalty for an earlier collision with Jake Hughes.

It meant Evans, who had started on pole, slipped down to eighth in the final classification as da Costa claimed another win having secured victory last time out in Shanghai and which also makes it three wins from the last four races.

Cassidy had decisively taken the lead on lap 23 from da Costa having run under the radar for the opening segment as he circulated on the fringes of the top 10 in order to save energy.

He only hit the front for the first time on lap 12 after starting in 10th, and immediately took his first Attack Mode before taking his second activation on lap 17.

Rejoining second, the pace of the leading runners noticeably increased as Cassidy and da Costa swapped positions several times over the following laps, with Evans keeping a watching brief.

Antonio Felix da Costa, Porsche, Porsche 99X Electric Gen3 Edoardo Mortara, Mahindra Racing, Mahindra M9Electro

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images

But at the start of lap 24, Evans swept to the outside of da Costa at Turn 1 and moved ahead of the eventual race winner, and now directly behind Cassidy.

Any chance of victory for Evans, though, had all but evaporated earlier in the race after making contact with Hughes on the back straight.

The contact damaged Evans' front wing and led to the McLaren driver suffering a puncture as Evans was handed a five-second penalty.

Despite being under no immediate threat for track position, Cassidy began to take defensive lines in the build-up to his mistake.

Cassidy’s error and finishing position of 19th offered the perfect opportunity for Pascal Wehrlein to close the 25-point gap to his title rival.

But the Porsche driver failed to feature in the leading group for much of the 27-lap race, becoming the final driver to take both Attack Modes, and could only finish 10th to reduce Cassidy’s points lead to 24 points.

The German also remains under investigation for an alleged collision with Maserati MSG’s Maximilian Guenther during the race.

Classified second, Robin Frijns had featured amongst the leading runners for much of the race as the podium was completed by DS Penske’s Jean-Eric Vergne, who had climbed from 14th.

Mahindra’s Edoardo Mortara, Nico Muller (Abt) and Andretti’s Jake Dennis completed the top six, the reigning champion having featured towards the front in the early running before slipping back in the pack.

Portland E-Prix race result

1 - 2
Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Points	Retirement
1	A. Felix da Costa Porsche Team	13	27	34'00.097			25
2	R. Frijns Envision Racing	4	27	+0.415 34'00.512	0.415		18
3	J. Vergne DS Penske	25	27	+1.440 34'01.537	1.025		15
4	E. Mortara Mahindra Racing	48	27	+1.701 34'01.798	0.261		12
5	N. Müller Team Abt	51	27	+2.086 34'02.183	0.385		10
6	J. Dennis Andretti Formula E	1	27	+2.634 34'02.731	0.548		8
7	S. Bird McLaren	8	27	+2.858 34'02.955	0.224		6
8	M. Evans Jaguar Racing	9	27	+4.507 34'04.604	1.649		4
9	S. Vandoorne DS Penske	2	27	+5.183 34'05.280	0.676		2
10	P. Wehrlein Porsche Team	94	27	+5.653 34'05.750	0.470		1
11	L. di Grassi Team Abt	11	27	+6.325 34'06.422	0.672
12	N. de Vries Mahindra Racing	21	27	+6.477 34'06.574	0.152
13	N. Nato Andretti Formula E	17	27	+6.487 34'06.584	0.010
14	S. Sette Camara ERT Formula E Team	3	27	+6.857 34'06.954	0.370
15	S. Fenestraz Nissan e.Dams	23	27	+8.686 34'08.783	1.829
16	J. Daruvala Maserati Racing	18	27	+9.031 34'09.128	0.345
17	D. Ticktum ERT Formula E Team	33	27	+9.186 34'09.283	0.155
18	C. Collet Nissan e.Dams	22	27	+15.005 34'15.102	5.819
19	N. Cassidy Jaguar Racing	37	27	+15.445 34'15.542	0.440
20	S. Buemi Envision Racing	16	27	+58.409 34'58.506	42.964
21	J. Hughes McLaren	5	26	+1 Lap 34'24.807	1 Lap
dnf	M. Gunther Maserati Racing	7	22	+5 Laps 28'00.508	4 Laps			Retirement
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