Jaguar Racing’s Mitch Evans dominated 2019/20 FIA Formula E Championship’s Mexico City ePrix with DS Techeetah’s Antonio Felix da Costa ending up second.
Porsche’s Andre Lotterer started Formula E Mexico City EPrix well on pole but being on the inside, he went slightly off on the grass as Jaguar Racing’s Mitch Evans sneaked past to take the lead of the race with Mercedes’ Nyck de Vries in second.
Lotterer dropped to fourth from Nissan e.Dams’ Sebastien Buemi as Envision Virgin’s Sam Bird was fifth ahead of GEOX Dragon’s Nico Mueller, Envisio Virgin’s Robin Frijns, DS Techeetah’s Jean-Eric Vergne & Antonio Felix da Costa and Venturi’s Edoardo Mortara.
The two Mahindra Racing drivers were handed stop and go time penalty for technical infringement which they carried from qualifying. Due to Pascal Wehrlein’s start position, he had one but teammate Jerome D’Ambrosio had two.
While Evans led the way, de Vries started to lose places as Mueller crashed straight on at Turn 3 which resulted in a safety car period. His off helped Mercedes’ Stoffel Vandoorne to get inside the Top 10 as re-start was smooth for all the drivers.
Pole-sitter Lotterer lost his way as he was passed by Bird in the stadium section. The German then lost to Frijns and de Vries as well when Venturi’s Felipe Massa hit the wall at Turn 3 which broke his left suspension to retire from the ePrix.
At the same time, NIO’s Ma Qing Hua was handed a drive-through penalty for a technical infringement, something Porsche’s Neel Jani got as well. His teammate Lotterer’s race was sealed when his front-right bodywork started to come lose as he had continued on.
He got a banner stuck to his tail as well as stewards were forced to show him a black flag with orange disc to pit. At the same time, Bird got past Buemi to take second as de Vries while fighting with da Costa had his brakes undone to collide with Frijns.
De Vries was forced to retire as Frijns dropped out of the Top 10. In all of it, da Costa was up to fourth after team orders helped him get ahead of Vergne. Behind them, Vandoorne maode up to sixth with Audi’s Lucas di Grassi in seventh.
BMW Andretti’s Alexander Sims also made his way up to eighth as Nissan e.Dams got up to ninth with Mortara 10th. While Evans led the way, the inter-team battle at DS Techeetah was on when Vergne was allowed back in front of da Costa to take fourth.
But few laps later, da Costa was back in fourth when Hua hit the wall. Sims, meanwhile, passed di Grassi to be seventh as da Costa got Buemi at ease to be third with Bird his next target, as the Portuguese driver tried his all to take the British driver.
But Bird hung on until he went into the wall. He managed to continue but only for few corners as he eventually retired. The fight between the Top 2 drivers of the championship ended when Vandoorne touched the wall, allowing Sims to be fifth.
At the front, though, Evans eased into to win Formula E Mexico City ePrix, his first of 2019/20 season and the fourth different one. He won by 4.271s over da Costa as Buemi was third ahead of Vergne with Sims rounding out the Top 5.
Di Grassi was sixth with Rowland in seventh as Mortara was eighth and Calado ninth, with Wehrlein making in the Top 10 after starting from the back and having a penalty too. Teammate D’Ambrosio missed out just in 11th, with Frijns in 12th.
BMW Andretti’s Maximilian Gunther was 13th with GEOX Dragon’s Brendon Hartley 14th, NIO’s Oliver Turvey 15th and Jani 16th to round out the finishers of Mexico Formula E race. DNF: Vandoorne, Bird, Daniel Abt, Hua, de Vries, Lotterer.
UPDATE: A post-race disqualification from Mexico Formula E race for both Caldado and Frijns helped D’Ambrosio to finish in points despite having multiple stop/go penalty. Position 11-14: Gunther, Hartley, Turvey and Jani.
