Mitch Evans and Nick Cassidy fought back from a tough qualifying, in a race that ended under safety car.
The Kiwis started the race back in the pack after a difficult qualifying session.
Evans looked strong through the qualifying session before making contact with the wall on his final lap, which saw him miss out on progressing to the next stage of qualifying, ending the session 16th.
Cassidy made contact with the wall in the earlier FP3, suffering damage, that forced him to miss qualifying and start from the back of the pack in 22nd. A penalty for Sergio Sette Camara promoted Evans and Cassidy to 15th and 21st respectively.
Though both Kiwis started back in the field, they were able to move forward through the race. Cassidy spent much of the race followed by Evans teammate Sam Bird, before the pair began trading places late in the race, with Cassidy crossing the line behind Bird in 17th.
Around the halfway mark in the race the four drivers in the lead pack Lucas di Grassi, Nyck de Vries, Edoardo Mortara, and Robin Frijns were caught in their own battle, letting the five-car pack behind close up. Much of the second half of the race, saw the top ten cars fighting for position.
After starting the race from pole position, de Vries made contact with Jean-Eric Vergne, the pair were able to continue in the race with Vergne going on to finish sixth, though de Vries dropped to the back of the train of cars, falling to ninth after the incident, going on to lose another place by the end of the race to cross the line 10th.
Evans spent the race steadily moving through the feild before gaining two positions just prior to the safety car was brought out.
The safety car made a late appearance when Alexander Sims stopped out on track, after making contact with the wall. Officials weren’t able to clear the track with enough for the race to get back to green flag condition, leaving it to finish under the safety car.
Cassidy and Evans head into the next round of the championship at Mexico February 12, 10th and 14th in the championship.
Main image: Jaguar TCS Racing
