Mitch Evans has taken a thrilling podium in the Principality of Monaco in the ninth round of the Formula E season, while Nick Cassidy has had an impressive recovery to finish in the top ten after a disappointing qualifying.
Qualifying
Both Evans and Cassidy featured in Group B of qualifying and headed out early to start their laps. Evans topped the timesheets with a 1.28.761, +0.028 ahead of former Formula E champion Nyck de Vries. It was a harder qualifying for Cassidy as he finished the session in ninth, +0.815 behind compatriot Evans. Both Citroen cars lacked pace in qualifying with Cassidy’s teammate, Jean Eric-Vergne also being eliminated.
In the duel stages, Evans faced Joel Erikkson from Envision Racing in the quarter finals, where the Kiwi comfortably beat the Swede by over two tenths. However, in the semi-finals, Evans lost to de Vries, with the Mahindra driver pipping the Kiwi by just over a tenth. Dan Ticktum took pole over de Vries, which meant he would be starting the twenty-nine from pole.
Race
When racing kicked off, Evans was temporarily able to climb up into third place but soon found himself back in fourth after Max Gunther got past him into the hairpin. Evans soon reported over the radio that he may have a suspected puncture, but chose not to enter the lane as he continued circulating.
Cassidy sat down in the sixteenth row, looking to climb forward as he trailed Andretti’s Jake Dennis. It was starting to become chaotic at the front as the top six cars were side by side heading through the hairpin on lap four.
As drivers traded positions lap by lap, Evans sat in fifth by lap ten. Cassidy, struggling for pace, was lingering down in eighteenth.
Strategies started to split on lap fifteen as drivers cycled into the lane. Evans headed into the lane first and activated his attack boost soon after. By this time, he had climbed up to second on strategy, sitting just behind de Vries. de Vries and Evans had split on strategy to pole sitter Ticktum, choosing to take their attack boosts early and run away from Ticktum, and it was clear Ticktum’s race win may be slipping away.
Cassidy was able to extend his stint and headed into the pit lane on lap twenty, emerging in sixteenth place. There was a bit of in-team controversy at Jaguar as da Costa held up Evans on lap twenty-two while Evans trailed de Vries with attack mode.
A spicy battle between Evans’ teammate da Costa and Ticktum boiled over with two laps to go, as da Costa hit the iconic left-hand wall exiting the tunnel, ripping his wheel off the car and putting him out of the race. However, Ticktum was deemed at fault for the incident, and the Brit received a drive-through penalty after the race.
A brief period of green-flag racing occurred on the final lap after the full-course yellow. De Vries and Evans were both streaks ahead of the field, so would not be challenged, but Cassidy was able to recover from twelfth on the restart to ninth at the flag.
Evans came home in second place, banking championship points and also moving into the championship lead with 116 points. De Vries took his first victory since returning to Formula E, ahead of Evans and rookie Pepe Marti. After Cassidy’s hard-fought recovery to ninth, he now sits in sixth overall.
Formula E racing is straight back into it as qualifying kicks off at 8:40pm NZST tonight.
Header Image: Simon Galloway
