Nick Cassidy has salvaged six points for Jaguar TCS Racing in their 100th E-Prix in a difficult race in the first-ever Tokyo E-Prix on the Tokyo Street Circuit.
Having started 19th, Cassidy came home in ninth as the biggest mover and gained two positions post-race after Norman Nato incurred a 5-second penalty and Edoardo Mortara was disqualified.
Mitch Evans will be left disappointed in his 100th start, crashing out of the top 10 mid-race before coming home in 14th.
The team was on the back foot from qualifying for the race earlier this afternoon. Cassidy’s fastest effort in the group stages was stripped for a technical infringement, which dropped him out of a quarter-final spot and to 19th on the 22-car grid.
Evans had qualified fifth in the group and progressed to the quarter-finals upon his teammate’s relegation. He lost to Oliver Rowland in the first knockout race after scraping the Turn 9 wall and was also awarded a grid penalty for impeding during qualifying, which dropped him to ninth.
Rowland qualified on the pole and led over Mortara off the start, while Evans dropped to 11th and Cassidy climbed to 18th.
A processional series of laps followed, with the first incident of note coming on Lap 6 when McLaren’s Jake Hughes ran into the Turn 15 wall following contact with Lucas di Grassi. A yellow was briefly waved, but Hughes resumed under his own power.
In a tight field on a narrow course with limited overtaking opportunities, Cassidy had only gained four places by Lap 15 of 33, while Evans had entered the top ten and climbed to ninth shortly after.
However, the Jaguar veteran’s progress was undone shortly after, as he locked up attempting a pass at Turn 9 and collected Envision’s Robin Frijns before going into the wall and taking front wing damage.
He returned to pit lane under his own power, taking a new nose and returning near the rear of the field.
The race suddenly burst to life on this, and Cassidy was quickly up to 12th, while championship contender Pascal Wehrlein took front wing damage of his own and dropped out of the top five.
A Safety Car was called on lap 20 for debris on the circuit, with Rowland retaining the lead from Maximilian Gunther, Mortara, da Costa and defending champion Jake Dennis.
Gunther took the lead on Lap 25 as Rowland sacrificed track position in an attempt to save energy, with the Maserati driver still needing to use an attack mode.
That decision would backfire for Nissan, with Gunther going on to build an advantage he would retain when he utilised the energy boost. He would hold the lead over the final circuits, and two added laps to take the chequered flag.
Rowland retained second, while da Costa lost out attempting to take the position late in proceedings, allowing Dennis to sneak through to complete the podium.
Cassidy, who used both attack modes early, entered the top ten when Frijns and Nato came together on Lap 32, with the Envision driver dropping down the order following the contact.
Sergio Sette Camara used his final Attack Mode on Lap 32, which elevated Cassidy to ninth, where he would cross the line.
Nato was penalised for the contact with Frijns, which dropped him out of the points, while Mortara was disqualified from fifth for an energy overuse infringement.
Mortara’s disqualification sees Cassidy retain the championship lead on countback from Wehrlein, with the duo equal on points.
Evans drops from third to sixth, with Rowland taking his position while Dennis and Gunther also leapfrog the Kiwi.
Jaguar retains a healthy 19-point advantage over Porsche in the Team’s Championship.
Formula E returns with the Missano E-Prix double-header on April 13-14.
Header Image: Simon Galloway/ Formula E
