Antonio Felix Da Costa made light work of the competition today as he dominated the Marrakesh E-Prix.
Da Costa led from lights to flag by virtue of a much better start than second-place Max Gunther.
Gunther and Da Costa traded fastest lap times as their lead up the front plateaued at two seconds.
After starting last, Mitch Evans had already broken into the top ten within the first quarter of the race.
But it was Jean-Eric Vergne who was also stealing the limelight. The Frenchman having muscled his way into podium contention by the midway point having qualified 11th.
Vergne then utilised Gunther’s energy management woes to blitz by the BMW I Andretti man, aided by the attack mode speed advantage.
Gunther was attempting to save as much usable energy as possible to launch a late-race challenge.
Thus, in the dying stages of the race, Gunther challenged Vergne, making amends of his earlier battery management strategy to have more usable energy than Vergne into the final lap.
Ultimately, Vergne was powerless to stop Gunther from overtaking him with two corners left.
Their battle had left da Costa some 11 seconds in the clear, while Vergne just narrowly held on to make it two DS Techeetah cars on the podium, finishing two tenths clear of Nissan’s Sebastien Buemi.
Mitch Evans fought his way from last to sixth by the chequered flag. Though the Kiwi leaves Marrakesh second in the standings, 11 points shy of new championship leader Da Costa.
The next round of the championship is the Rome E-Prix on April 4.
