Frustrating results for Kiwi Formula E duo

Nick Cassidy and Mitch Evans have finished a disappointing 13th and 15th in the second leg of the Valencia E-Prix overnight.

A tricky qualifying session left the Kiwi duo starting towards the rear of the field, and neither were able to maximise their pace in the race.

Given Evans’ strong championship position, he was made to qualify in group one, which were greeted by damp track conditions.

The challenging conditions were highlighted by the fact that the fastest in group one, Pascal Wehrlein, started 13th.

Evans posted the 16th best time in qualifying, but was dropped to 19th after a penalty for his role in a collision with Sergio Sette-Camara yesterday.

Cassidy also had a frustrating session. 

Comfortably the quickest in his group, Cassidy made an error coming onto the main straight, which massively hurt his lap time.

Adding salt to the wounds, Cassidy’s time was then deleted for track limits, leaving him starting 23rd.

Both showed moments of promise during the race, with Evans scything his way to ninth at one stage.

However, Jaguar decided to run a cautious strategy after yesterday’s farcical finish. Thus, Evans fell back to 15th as he conserved energy late in the race.

“Our pace was good today but some of the strategy calls didn’t work out in our favour,” Evans said. 

“We were really compromised a lot with the drying track conditions in qualifying. It’s nothing too major to worry about so we’re going to go away, take these learnings and focus on a clean run in Monaco.”

Cassidy made headway from his lowly starting position, eventually working his way up to 13th by the chequered flag.

Though ultimately, neither of the Kiwi duo walk away from the race with points next to their name.

The race was won by rookie driver Jake Dennis for BMW.

Dennis was masterful in his control of the race, conserving energy at the right time as well as keeping a lengthy train of cars behind him at bay.

Alex Lynn, who was running second for most of the race, was tipped into a spin by Norman Nato, gifting Dennis a two-second advantage.

Andre Lotterer benefited from Nato’s clumsy mistake to inherit second, though he was not able to reel in Dennis.

Lynn rounded out the podium after Nato was dealt a five-second time penalty for his troubles.

Championship-wise, Nyck de Vries continues to lead the points race.

Evans holds onto fifth, 18 points adrift of de Vries. Cassidy, meanwhile, sits 17th after his fourth-place finish yesterday.

The next round of the Formula E world championship will be on the streets of Monaco on May 8.