Formula E kicked off a double header this weekend, with Round 4 and 5 being held at the Jeddah Corniche circuit in Saudi Arabia.
Mitch Evans and Nick Cassidy were given two 40-minute practice sessions to get their cars into the window for qualifying. Mitch Evans ended up finishing a strong fifth in the first session, with Citroën’s Nick Cassidy finishing in eleventh. Free Practice two resulted in Evans finishing seventeenth and Cassidy twelfth.
The grid was split into ‘Group A’ and ‘Group B’ based on championship position, where current championship leader Cassidy was the first Kiwi to attempt to qualify.
It ultimately wasn’t to be for the Citroën driver, as he would finish seventh in the group and two tenths off the cut line for the duels. Cassidy expressed his unhappiness with his team over the radio toward the end of the session, believing poor track position ultimately cost him a shot at advancing.
Evans also missed out on advancing to the duels after sitting in the top three in the early stages of the session and sitting second with 2 minutes to go. He would be beaten in the dying minutes by DS Penske’s Taylor Barnard by a minuscule 0.001. These results would leave Evans in tenth place, with Cassidy three places behind in thirteenth.
In a very clunky start, the start sequence was delayed. At the same time, marshals removed former world champion Nyck de Vries’ Mahindra from the grid after the car failed to engage drive.
It did not take long for the first full-course yellow to come out, with LOLA’s Zane Maloney being escorted into the close Jeddah walls by Pepe Marti, who subsequently received a penalty. Evans and Cassidy would stay in eleventh and twelfth until the PIT BOOST window opened, where the pace of the race changed to a sprint to the finish.
Evans and Cassidy both cycled to the front whilst other drivers dropped in and out of the pits to use their boost and attack mode. Both would pit on lap 20, with Evans leaving the pits straight into a battle pack, where he managed to jump Porsche’s Nico Muller to move into ninth.
On lap 25, Evans chose to strike by activating his attack mode, with Cassidy following suit by using his extra power on lap 26. This left both drivers in a position to carve through the field, with the kiwi duo being among the last to use their attack boost.
Evans managed to climb up into third at the chequered flag, with Cassidy crossing the line sixth at the end of the race, finishing two seconds off fifth in a close battle pack. Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein was crowned the winner with the fastest lap, and Eduardo Mortara finished second after starting on pole.
After the first race of the double header weekend, Cassidy drops down to second place in the championship, and after a good showing, Mitch Evans enters the top five. The Formula E season continues with Round 5 tomorrow (15th February) at 5 am NZST.
Header Image: Oscar Lumley/LAT Images
