Sao Paulo E-Prix: Evans wins from last, Wehrlein suffers airborne accident

Mitch Evans stormed from final to first to assert victory within the Sao Paulo E-Prix which featured two purple flags, one attributable to a daunting airborne crash for reigning Components E champion Pascal Wehrlein.

The Jaguar driver suffered a powertrain problem that prevented him from setting a lap in qualifying, however the elevated efficiency of Assault Mode and a chaotic race that featured two stoppages and a security automotive helped vault Evans to victory.

The Kiwi had misplaced the lead on the ultimate lap on the Sao Paulo avenue circuit final season and confronted an identical state of affairs for the 2024/25 season-opener as he got here below stern stress from Porsche’s Antonio Felix da Costa within the closing laps.

However Da Costa settled for second as Taylor Barnard grew to become the youngest Components E podium finisher in third, having served a drive-through penalty as team-mate Sam Bird claimed fourth after additionally being penalised earlier in proceedings.

With all-wheel-drive accessible for drivers at first courtesy of the brand new Gen3 Evo period, Oliver Rowland launched into the lead on the within of polesitter Wehrlein at Flip 1 following a brief delay after Robin Frijns’s Envision was wheeled off the grid with an issue.

Behind, Jake Dennis was muscled out of the best way by Maximilian Gunther through some contact, which was investigated, earlier than the Andretti driver misplaced additional locations to da Costa and Jean-Eric Vergne over the opening excursions previous to an early security automotive.

This was after Jake Hughes (Maserati MSG) and Nico Muller (Andretti) crashed on the exit of Flip 6 on lap two in avoidance of slower automobiles forward earlier than the incident was positioned below investigation.

On the inexperienced flag on lap six, Rowland maintained the lead whereas Nick Cassidy grew to become the primary driver to take the primary of two Assault Modes – eight minutes in whole – that left him on the fringes of the highest 10.

However with all-wheel-drive activated within the 350kW mode for the primary time, the efficiency benefit was stark because the Kiwi surged into the lead inside only one lap and stretched his benefit to greater than 1.5s earlier than he was progressively reeled in by the chasing pack as others took their first Assault Modes.

Regardless of the clear benefit of the facility mode, Rowland impressively cycled again into the lead earlier than being the final runner to take his first Assault Mode on lap 15, briefly dropping to second behind Cassidy earlier than charging instantly again forward.

The Briton pulled a 3s hole earlier than he was caught by the pack, which was now headed by Wehrlein and da Costa, the 2 Porsche drivers being among the first runners to take the second Assault Mode.

Wehrlein took the lead on lap 18 however operating out of additional energy first allowed his team-mate to maneuver forward on the next tour as Rowland, now in third, took his second Assault Mode.

Pascal Wehrlein TAG Heuer Porsche Components E Crew Porsche 99X Electrical Gen3 Maximilian Gunther DS Penske DS E-Tense FE25

Picture by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Pictures

Briefly way back to fourth, Rowland surged again by to steer at first of lap 21 however with Dennis’s Andretti stranded within the Flip 1 run-off and in a ‘purple state’, whereby in an unsafe battery situation, the purple flag was deployed to get better the car.

The restarted grid order was based mostly on the earlier lap, that means da Costa lined up in entrance of Rowland, Wehrlein, Guenther and Edoardo Mortara, with Cassidy in sixth one among solely six runners but to take a second Assault Mode.

On the standing begin, Rowland jumped into the lead and pulled away whereas Cassidy took his Assault Mode on the earliest alternative on lap 24 and charged up into second inside two laps.

Rowland’s 3.2s lead counted for nothing although, as he was slapped with a drive-through penalty for overpower utilization, an identical destiny that befell Nissan team-mate Norman Nato and buyer McLaren drivers Barnard and Chook earlier within the race.

Evans, who had taken his second Assault Mode later than Cassidy, handed his team-mate at first of lap 29 with da Costa additionally demoting the second Jaguar a lap later.

Shortly after a second purple flag was deployed as by the tight Flip 4/5 chicane, Gunther was pushed into the wall as he went three-wide with Cassidy and Wehrlein earlier than a broken suspension despatched the Jaguar into the aspect of the Porsche, flipping Wehrlein over and into the Flip 6 barrier.

Wehrlein climbed out of the automotive unharmed and on the four-lap rolling restart, Evans led da Costa however the two McLarens behind, headed by Barnard, had been in a position to save huge quantities of power after their earlier penalties consigned them to saving on the again previous to the primary purple flag.

With 3% extra power, Barnard was in prime place to take his first Components E victory on solely his fourth begin, however a resolute defence from Evans and da Costa meant the Briton was unable to make progress.