Nick Cassidy capped off his final weekend with Jaguar TCS Racing in style, securing a commanding lights-to-flag victory in Round 16 of the 2024/25 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship at the London ExCeL Circuit.
The win completed a double victory for the Kiwi in the season finale and elevated him to second place in the Drivers’ Championship standings.
Cassidy inherited pole position after Dan Ticktum (Cupra Kiro) was hit with a grid penalty for spinning Mitch Evans in Sunday’s race.
The penalty demoted Ticktum to sixth on the grid, though the Briton still celebrated his maiden Formula E pole with emotion in front of his home crowd.
Cassidy lined up alongside Maximilian Günther (DS Penske) on the front row, with Evans starting third ahead of Pascal Wehrlein (Tag Heuer Porsche), Nyck De Vries (Mahindra Racing), and Ticktum on row three.
Stoffel Vandoorne (Maserati MSG) and Edoardo Mortara (Mahindra) shared the fourth row, followed by Nissan duo Norman Nato and newly crowned champion Oliver Rowland.
After his win on Saturday, Cassidy entered the final race of the season third in the standings, 14 points behind Wehrlein. In the Teams’ Championship, Jaguar sat third, 16 points adrift of Nissan and trailing leaders Porsche.
As the race got underway, Cassidy held his lead over Günther, while Evans slotted into third. De Vries made an early move on Wehrlein to climb into fourth, as Ticktum held sixth.
Mortara’s race came to a premature end on the opening lap with a driveshaft failure, becoming the first retirement of the day.
Evans overtook Günther on lap 4 to make it a Jaguar 1-2, but the order quickly shuffled as De Vries surged into second and Rowland climbed to third. Evans retook third from Rowland on lap 6, just as drivers began activating their Attack Mode strategies.
Drama struck on lap 9 when Ticktum was forced to retire from his home race due to mechanical issues. Shortly after, contact between De Vries and Rowland resulted in front wing damage for the Nissan driver.
Then, on lap 10, a collision between Nato and Barnard brought out the first safety car of the race.
Racing resumed on lap 11 with Cassidy extending his lead to three seconds. De Vries, Wehrlein, and Dennis began burning their Attack Mode activations, while Evans remained the only driver in the top five with a full allocation still available.
Evans was placed under investigation for speeding under full-course yellow conditions and was soon handed a five-second time penalty.
In response, he activated his first four-minute Attack Mode stint, determined to build a sufficient gap and protect his podium position.
Lap 14 saw De Vries make the most of his Attack Mode advantage to pass Rowland and take second place. But Rowland’s afternoon would soon unravel.
Contact with Günther led to a crash into the barriers, triggering the second safety car and ending the championship winner’s home race prematurely.
When the race resumed on lap 20, Cassidy led with a healthy energy margin, holding 2% more usable energy than De Vries and 1.5% more than Evans. The Kiwi duo locked out the top two positions once again after Evans passed De Vries on lap 20.
With Evans needing to pull a five-second gap to retain his podium position, he pleaded over team radio for Cassidy’s support. The team informed Evans that Cassidy was attempting to secure the fastest lap before potentially helping his teammate.
However, Cassidy continued to push and extended his lead to over 10 seconds with four laps remaining after two additional laps were added due to the earlier safety cars.
Frustration grew for Evans as he struggled to break clear of De Vries and Sébastien Buemi (Envision), who remained in close pursuit. Ultimately, Evans’ pace wasn’t enough to neutralise the penalty.
Cassidy crossed the finish line with a dominant 13.5-second margin, Formula E’s second-largest winning gap in history, clinching his fifth career victory and second of the weekend.
It was an emotional farewell for both Cassidy and Jaguar Team Principal James Barclay, who also departs the team after this season.
“Yeah, that was incredible. Honestly, I love racing at this place. It’s not been that kind to me the last few years, but this weekend it’s absolutely delivered. When this stadium is packed full of people, it’s a pleasure to race here. This one’s for my team,” said Cassidy
De Vries claimed a strong second place to complete a double podium weekend for Mahindra, while Buemi rounded out the podium in third after starting 19th on the grid. Jake Dennis (Andretti) finished fourth ahead of Evans, who was classified fifth after his time penalty was applied.
The final race also settled the championship standings. Tag Heuer Porsche sealed the Teams’ title with 256 points, while Cassidy and Evans’ efforts lifted Jaguar TCS Racing to second overall on 230 points. Nissan completed the top three on 207 points.
Porsche also secured their first-ever Manufacturers’ title with 383 points over Jaguar, which finished runner-up with 350 points, followed by Nissan in third with 342 points.
Formula E returns for the 2025/26 season in São Paulo on 6th December.
Header Image: Simon Galloway/LAT Images for Formula E
