Rome E-Prix: Dennis wins as Evans/Cassidy collide

The Andretti Autosport driver took a lights-to-flag victory having never been headed from pole during the 24-lap contest, but only after resisting intense early pressure from Nissan’s Norman Nato and Jaguar’s Sam Bird who completed the podium. 

Bird’s team-mate Evans was forced to retire after colliding with fellow Kiwi and championship leader Cassidy at Turn 7 on the second lap as the pair ran in tandem behind Dennis. 

The Jaguar driver locked the rear axle under braking and ran into the back of Cassidy, which launched Evans into the air and then barrier as Cassidy took to the escape road. 

The safety car was deployed to remove debris, with both Evans and Cassidy rejoining at the back of the field. 

After stopping for a new front wing Evans, who had taken victory in Saturday’s opening Rome E-Prix, rejoined for two more laps before retiring in the pits. 

Envision Racing’s Cassidy, who entered the race two points ahead of Dennis in the standings, never recovered and finished 14th after contact with Andretti’s Andre Lotterer on the final lap at T14 which is under investigation. 

Once the safety car had headed to the pits following the Evans and Cassidy crash, Dennis led from Nato, Bird and Dan Ticktum, with Nato making small contact on the back of the Andretti machine three laps later into Turn 17 which damaged his front wing. 

Mitch Evans, Jaguar Racing, Jaguar I-TYPE 6 (Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images)

The damage meant Nato struggled to match the pace of Dennis for the remainder of the race, which proved critical in the closing laps. 

Bird moved ahead shortly after Nato suffered the damage and pressured Dennis hard over the following laps, with his strongest effort coming on lap 12 into the 90-degree left of Turn 7. 

Unable to find a way past, Bird dropped back behind Nato after activating his final Attack Mode on lap 18. 

Although with significantly more energy over the final laps, Bird was unable to find a way past Nato as the pair finished three seconds behind Dennis. 

The Maserati’s of Edoardo Mortara and Maximilian Gunther claimed fourth and sixth respectively having shadowed the leaders throughout, as Envision’s Sebastien Buemi finished between them. 

Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein took seventh having started down in 15th, as Stoffel Vandoorne (DS Penske), Dan Ticktum (NIO 333) and Nico Muller (Abt Cupra) completed the top 10. 

Cla	Driver		Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h	Points
1	Jake Dennis		Andretti Autosport	24	45'04.323
2	Norman Nato		Nissan e.Dams	24	45'07.428	3.105	3.105
3	Sam Bird		Jaguar Racing	24	45'07.956	3.633	0.528
4	Edoardo Mortara		Maserati Racing	24	45'08.680	4.357	0.724
5	Sébastien Buemi		Envision Racing	24	45'09.327	5.004	0.647
6	Maximilian Gunther		Maserati Racing	24	45'09.726	5.403	0.399
7	Pascal Wehrlein		Porsche Team	24	45'15.909	11.586	6.183
8	Stoffel Vandoorne		DS Penske	24	45'16.274	11.951	0.365
9	Dan Ticktum		NIO Formula E Team	24	45'16.886	12.563	0.612
10	Nico Müller		Team Abt	24	45'17.636	13.313	0.750
11	Jake Hughes		McLaren	24	45'18.830	14.507	1.194
12	Antonio Felix da Costa		Porsche Team	24	45'22.357	18.034	3.527
13	René Rast		McLaren	24	45'25.352	21.029	2.995
14	Nick Cassidy		Envision Racing	24	45'32.798	28.475	7.446
15	Jean-Eric Vergne		DS Penske	24	46'30.946	1'26.623	58.148
16	Sacha Fenestraz		Nissan e.Dams	23	46'34.025	1 Lap	1 Lap
17	Andre Lotterer		Andretti Autosport	23	43'35.296	1 Lap
18	Sergio Sette Camara		NIO Formula E Team	23	43'48.004	1 Lap	12.708
19	Robin Frijns		Team Abt	18	35'13.022	6 Laps	5 Laps
20	Roberto Merhi		Mahindra Racing	12	24'56.735	12 Laps	6 Laps
21	Lucas di Grassi		Mahindra Racing	12	25'34.526	12 Laps	37.791
22	Mitch Evans		Jaguar Racing	4	12'15.688	20 Laps	8 Laps
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