Mitch Evans had his first Formula E win in wet Race 1 of Berlin EPrix weekend, ahead of Pascal Wherlein and Edoardo Mortara.
With the rain finally abating but the track still slippery, Evans led the pack away with standings leader Rowland slipping to fifth as the field ran four wide through the first turn. A Safety Car was required almost immediately for the recovery of Jake Dennis’ stranded Andretti, which initially failed to get off the line at lights out before a reset saw him join the back of the pack for the restart.
Leader Evans headed straight for his first of two mandatory 50kW four-wheel drive ATTACK MODE boosts on the restart on Lap 3, with Frijns temporarily inheriting P1 before the Kiwi swooped by to once again hit the front just a few turns later. He led the Dutchman, da Costa – who’d also jumped for ATTACK, Guenther, Rowland, Vergne, Wehrlein, Mortara, Ticktum and Hughes.
Wehrlein activated his first ATTACK on Lap 4 to make use of that extra power and traction, allowing the German to clamber up to fourth come Lap 5 just behind Guenther, da Costa and leader Evans with Frijns slipping back by some eight seconds in the tricky conditions. The Porsche driver made a move for P3 stick on Guenther at Turn 6 a lap later. Standings leader Rowland eventually went late for ATTACK on Lap 7, having to work his way up the top 10 from P9 as it stood on Lap 8. The Yorkshireman managed to clamber to sixth before his first ATTACK MODE expired on Lap 10.
Wehrlein took P2 into the penultimate turn on Lap 11, with da Costa backing P3 Frijns into his teammate’s grasp, allowing Wehrlein to scamper away from the hairpin ahead of the pair though Evans was some four seconds up the road out front. Frijns took third from da Costa into Turn 2 on Lap 15 with a smart move up the inside of the Porsche.
The PIT BOOST window opened with Guenther the first of the leaders to take on his 10% energy boost. Rowland had worked his way up to P3 behind his nearest title rival Wehrlein, though 14 seconds back and inherited the lead, temporarily as PIT BOOST stops continued. Evans, on Lap 24, jumped into the pits from P1 with Wehrlein matching him up, stopping on the same lap.
Rowland followed on Lap 25 and came out of PIT BOOST in ninth spot – a net loss of three spots through the stops. Once it all shook out, Evans retained the lead from Wehrlein, Vergne, Guenther, Frijns, da Costa, Mortara, Rowland, Hughes and Barnard. A coming-together between Beckmann and Sette Camara saw the Safety Car make another appearance – the Brazilian looking as though he should have yielded as he rejoined from the ATTACK MODE activation zone.
The Green Flag flew on Lap 33, with Evans getting the jump on the pack, allowing him to take ATTACK and retain the lead in the process. Huge drama struck the restart as Rowland was spat out into a spin in contact with Vandoorne after a botched move at the hairpin – the Nissan taking race ending damage in the process. A none score for the standings leader the best news for the Porsche of reigning champion Wehrlein.
Wehrlein jumped for ATTACK on Lap 35, and retained second, some five seconds back from leader Evans. The German closed to within a second of Evans as his 50kW boost came to an end – it became a three-lap scrap to the finish. The Porsche had closed to within 0.5 seconds of the Jaguar, but Wehrlein went in too deep through the final turn on the penultimate lap – the chance of the win blown, allowing Evans to hold on and seal victory.
[The story is as per press release]
