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Berlin E-Prix: Da Costa seals Porsche home win after beating Cassidy

The Portuguese driver took his second on-the-road win of the season in Germany, after also winning in Misano before he was disqualified due to a technical infringement, having led the majority of the race.

Cassidy, who took victory in the opening race at the Tempelhof Airport circuit on Saturday, finished second on Sunday having snatched the position away from Nissan’s Oliver Rowland with two laps to go.

Polesitter Jake Dennis initially held the lead off the line but into the fast-sweeping left of Turn 1, fellow front-row starter Cassidy pulled ahead and led the race over the opening three laps.

At the earliest opportunity, Cassidy took his first of two Attack Modes, the total duration just four minutes for the second race of the weekend as all drivers outside the top 10 also took the same strategy.

While events remained frenetic due to the peloton style of racing, maintaining some semblance of track position was noticeably more important in the sequel with both Porsche, Jaguar and Andretti machines occupying the leading positions.

As in the prequel, Maximilian Guenther found himself in the wall on lap 11 having been hit into Turn 2 which lodged his front wing under the Maserati MSG car.

Despite Guenther rejoining before eventually retiring, a three-lap safety car was deployed with racing back under way on lap 14.

Cassidy notably made a move to the front of the pack two laps later, having passed Evans and Wehrlein into the triple left-hand bends to end the lap before surging past da Costa into Turn 1.

The Kiwi held position at the front for four laps before da Costa moved back ahead on lap 21 where he remained for a large portion of the race.

He only conceded the lead to Mitch Evans, who like the first race in Berlin was one of the last drivers to take his final Attack Mode.

This he did on lap 36 of 41, the total duration extended by three laps due to the two safety car periods.

The second had occurred on lap 25 when Norman Nato and Sacha Fenestraz collided into Turn 3, with the latter eliminated and the former handed a 10-second penalty.

As Evans took his second Attack Mode he rejoined battling Cassidy over third, which cost the Kiwi pairing valuable time in their attempts to chase down Rowland and da Costa ahead.

Cassidy surged into third four laps from the end around the outside into Turn 6/7 on Evans, and picked the same spot to move ahead of Rowland a lap later.

But by now da Costa had built a lead of almost one second, an advantage he managed until the chequered flag as he finished 0.691s ahead of Cassidy, with Rowland a further two seconds adrift.

Behind the top three, Evans lost any chance of a podium after running wide at Turn 6, which allowed Pascal Wehrlein and Dennis to move ahead.

The Porsche and Andretti driver eventually finished fourth and fifth having battled hard throughout and which involved several moments of contact.

Evans finished sixth ahead of Maserati MSG’s Jehan Daruvala and Taylor Barnard, the McLaren driver scoring his second points finish of the weekend having moved as high as sixth at one stage.

Envision’s Joel Eriksson secured ninth, while podium finisher on Saturday, Jean-Eric Vergne, claimed the final point in 10th having been one of the last runners to use both Attack Modes.

Race results:

   
1
 - 
4
   
   
1
 - 
2
   
Cla Driver # Laps Time Interval km/h Points Retirement
1 Portugal A. Felix da Costa Porsche Team 13 41

47'55.043

       
2 New Zealand N. Cassidy Jaguar Racing 37 41

+0.691

47'55.734

0.691      
3 United Kingdom O. Rowland Nissan e.dams 22 41

+2.820

47'57.863

2.129      
4 Germany P. Wehrlein Porsche Team 94 41

+4.147

47'59.190

1.327      
5 United Kingdom J. Dennis Andretti Formula E 1 41

+4.548

47'59.591

0.401      
6 New Zealand M. Evans Jaguar Racing 9 41

+4.953

47'59.996

0.405      
7 India J. Daruvala Maserati Racing 18 41

+6.032

48'01.075

1.079      
8
T. Barnard McLaren
8 41

+6.698

48'01.741

0.666      
9 Sweden J. Eriksson Envision Racing 4 41

+7.119

48'02.162

0.421      
10 France J. Vergne DS Penske 25 41

+7.357

48'02.400

0.238      
11 Brazil L. di Grassi Team Abt 11 41

+8.204

48'03.247

0.847      
12 United Kingdom J. Hughes McLaren 5 41

+10.349

48'05.392

2.145      
13 Brazil S. Sette Camara ERT Formula E Team 3 41

+10.403

48'05.446

0.054      
14
P. Aron Envision Racing
16 41

+11.124

48'06.167

0.721      
15 South Africa K. van der Linde Team Abt 51 41

+11.780

48'06.823

0.656      
16 Switzerland E. Mortara Mahindra Racing 48 41

+12.143

48'07.186

0.363      
17 United Kingdom D. Ticktum ERT Formula E Team 33 41

+12.642

48'07.685

0.499      
18 United Kingdom J. King Mahindra Racing 21 41

+16.494

48'11.537

3.852      
19 France N. Nato Andretti Formula E 17 41

+20.851

48'15.894

4.357      
20 Belgium S. Vandoorne DS Penske 2 41

+36.753

48'31.796

15.902      
dnf France S. Fenestraz Nissan e.dams 23 24

+17 Laps

27'50.921

17 Laps     Retirement
dnf Germany M. Gunther Maserati Racing 7 10

+31 Laps

11'15.675

14 Laps     Retirement
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