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Mitch Evans saw his championship advantage wiped out after a tough first race in London.
Evans put in a flawless qualifying performance to take pole position on Saturday morning. Intrigue in the intra-team battle at Jaguar was raised further by teammate Nick Cassidy’s nightmare session, placing him in P18.
Evans enjoyed a strong start at lights out, immediately taking command of the race.The first race of the Formula E finale weekend later turned into a tactical battle of Attack Mode deployment and energy management. While Evans opted to defend hard from Sébastiein Buemi’s Envision, championship rival Pascal Wehrlein’s Porsche saved his energy.
By the second half of the race, the Porsche had the advantage. While Evans found himself in energy management mode until the end of the race, Wehrlein used his saved energy to take the race win, despite a late Safety Car.
A question of power
Lacking the power needed to overtake his championship rival, Evans secured second place. Dejected in Parc Ferme, Evans rued his lost points, which also saw him lose the championship lead. Speaking to FormulaNerds after the race, Evans praised Wehrlein when asked why his pace and energy evaporated in the second half of the race:
“It was just Pascal. (He) got an energy advantage during the race, and he was able to use that against me, and then I use more to try and keep up and then it just hurt me even more.
“So think everyone’s in the same boat, it was a shame.”
Evans said his car had the pace to win the first race of the weekend, believing Wehrlein’s tow gave his rival an extra advantage:
“Car pace was good. It was just energy. It was up and down, he was in the tow for the whole race, so that just benefitted him massively.”
When asked if he plans to be more attacking Sunday’s finale, the Jaguar driver said that qualifying would be crucial:
“Depends on qualifying. Hopefully, I mean, the main thing’s going to come up to the front, and then see where the other guys are and then kind of adapt accordingly.”
His recovery to second place comes off the back of a challenging race for the Jaguar team in Portland, where Evans received a time penalty following a collision with the McLaren of Jake Hughes.
Evan’s struggles in London saw him drop three points behind Weirlien in the title race. The championship is not a lost cause, but the Kiwi will require a flawless day on Sunday to secure it.
Feature Image Credit: @JaguarRacing on X