Having scythed through the front part of the field in the first half of the race at the Circuito Cittadino dell'EUR having started ninth, Evans forged a 7.5s lead over the battling pair of Robin Frijns and Stoffel Vandoorne, before electing to back off.
At Evans' previous pace, the race was on the cusp of spilling over into a 28th lap had he not backed off - with the extra-lap strategy part of Porsche's ploy to win the previous Mexico City E-Prix having conserved enough energy.
