Mitch Evans, who started 7th on the grid, has just scored his 5th podium of the season by finishing 3rd place at round 14 of the Berlin E-Prix. Nick Cassidy struggled with pace in qualifying and the race by starting and finishing identically in 14th.
The already tightly contended championship just got even tighter at the top with the current championship leader Nyck de Vries having his high hopes shattered after a devastating puncture ruined his race early on.
The Dutch driver ducked into the pits to change the affected tyre and came out last place. He ended up well outside of the points finishing a lap behind the leaders.
But that was all the better for Kiwi Mitch Evans who, from the start, quickly made his way up the pack and into a fighting position for the last podium spot.
The Jaguar Racing driver started 7th but quickly made it up to 6th after the 1st lap. Making a fantastic confident move around the outside of Swiss driver Buemi. He then slowly chipped away at the drivers in front making it up to 5th.
Once 16 minutes plus one lap were remaining in the race, Evans decided to use his ‘Attack Mode’ which is an extra 35kw boost of the power given to the driver once they take the outside line coming into turn one. The attack mode is supposed to be a slight disadvantage in terms of the racing line but the added power certainly helps with overtaking.
In the Berlin E-Prix the normal ‘Attack Mode’, which consists of two 4 minute boosts, was replaced with an 8 minute long doubly long period of extra battery power.
Evans said “… i think we timed it perfectly” in the post race interviews claiming that he needed to use some excess energy in the early stages to make the overtakes up into 5th but the added power gave him the opportunity to bring home the 3rd place trophy.
Evans sat in 4th place until the last 10 minutes when he closed right up behind French Driver Nato. Evans was seen looking up the inside and it was obvious he was hungry for the last podium position.
He made his move stick on the exit of the hairpin with a slick switch back move getting past on the inside. He was not out of danger from there, with four other drivers behind all trying to move their way into the higher points scoring spots.
But it did not faze the Kiwi as he kept his podium spot with his continued strong pace and fantastic defensive driving.
As for Nick Cassidy, his race started well as he moved up the order into 11th early on. But the Kiwi fell all the way down to 18th at the mid point of the race as all of the drivers around him activated their ‘Attack Modes’ and picked up the pace.
Cassidy was one of the last two drivers to activate the extra 35 kw power boost which eventually did help the Kiwi claw his way back up to where he started in 14th. Cassidy failed to gain any more championship points and moved down to 11th in the standings but is still in contention for the championship if he pulls off a win tomorrow.
The 15 point gain for Evans saw him move up into 4th in the driver’s championship and he is now only 5 points off the top spot. Another big scoring race will be crucial tomorrow for his individual championship drive and also his team, who moved to the top spot today after Evan’s valiant drive.
In his post race interview Evans said: “… we had strong pace all race long. We activated the extended boost at just the right time … I just hung on there at the end. Roll on tomorrow!”.
Qualifying for the 2nd race (final round) is tomorrow morning Berlin time which will be critical for the final race of the season. Mitch is in with a fantastic chance of winning the whole championship now and another podium tomorrow could see him be the Formula E world champion!
All featured images sourced from: jaguarracing.com
