DS Techeetah’s Antonio Felix da Costa won FIA Formula E Championship’s Marrakesh ePrix from BMW Andretti’s Maximilian Gunther second from Jean-Eric Vergne.
Pole-sitter DS Techeetah’s Antonio Felix da Costa led the way in Marrakesh Formula E race at the start from BMW Andretti’s Maximilian Gunther and Mercedes’ Nyck de Vries as Porsche’s Andre Lotterer and Venturi’s Edoardo Mortara rounded the Top 5.
The Top 10 then had Nissan’s Oliver Rowland and Sebastien Buemi in sixth and seventh with DS Techeetah’s Jean-Eric Vergne eighth, Jaguar Racing’s James Calado ninth and Mahindra Racing’s Jerome D’Ambrosio 10th.
Lotterer, de Vries and NIO’s Ma Qing Hua were put under investigation, where the German cut the chicane, the Dutchman over-used power and the Chinese jumped the start. Both de Vries and Hua were handed a drive-through penalty.
It dropped de Vries, in particular, outside the Top 10 as Vergne was the man on charge to be up to fourth behind da Costa, Gunther and Lotterer. He was briefly third but then lost out to the German soon when he took the Attack Mode.
Mortara hung on to fifth as Buemi climbed up to sixth while the fight from seventh down to 10th was close between multiple drivers. Rowland defended hard but BMW Andretti’s Alexander Sims was another man on charge to move up to seventh.
Rowland was eighth as Audi’s Lucas di Grassi was up to ninth from D’Ambrosio as Calado dropped outside the Top 10. At the front, though, Gunther passed da Costa to take the lead of the Marrakesh Formula E race but the Portuguese racer stayed on his tail.
His teammate Vergne retook third place from Lotterer as Mortara managed to get past the German as well to be fourth after he cleared Buemi early on. At the fag end of the Top 10, Jaguar’s Mitch Evans made his way up to 10th from back of the grid.
At the same time, Lotterer pushed his way past Mortara to retake fourth as he also lost out to Buemi as well. Just ahead, Vergne passed Gunther to make it a DS Techeetah 1-2 as Evans was up to eighth from Rowland and di Grassi.
The fight for second intensified as Gunther tried a hard move on Vergne but the Frenchman covered off the gap as the German had put on the brakes. Juts behind, Buemi was up to fourth with Mortara and Sims getting past Lotterer too in the Top 6.
While da Costa sealed the win in Marrakesh ePrix in a dominant fashion with 11 seconds buffer and register his first Formula E victory for DS Techeetah, his teammate Vergne lost out to Gunther on the last lap to take second to split them.
The Frenchman was low on power like Buemi, whom he managed to hold off with the Swiss racer in fourth from Mortara. With Sims having an issue and retiring, it helped Evans to be sixth from the back as di Grassi was seventh from Lotterer.
Rowland ended up ninth as Envision Virgin’s Sam Bird rounding out the Top 10. Mercedes’ de Vries fought back to 11th with Envision Virgin’s Robin Frijns in 12th ahead of D’Ambrosio, Audi’s Daniel Abt and Mercedes’ Stoffel Vandoorne in the Top 15.
Abt was involved in a scuffle with Venturi’s Felipe Massa in the ePrix which dropped the Brazilian to 17th behind Calado, who also lost pace in the second half of the Formula E race. Porsche’s Neel Jani was 18th from the pair of GEOX Dragon cars.
It was Brendon Hartley in 19th from Nico Mueller as NIO’s Oliver Turvey was 21st with Mahindra’s Pascal Wehrlein only 22nd after having a puncture and NIO’s Hua 23rd, finishing a full lap down on the leader.