Evans dominates for Mexico City E-Prix victory
Mitch Evans has produced one of the most dominant displays in Formula E to claim victory at the Mexico City E-Prix for Panasonic Jaguar Racing as Sam Bird crashed out from second place in the closing stages.
The New Zealander stormed into the lead from second place on the grid by barging by pole-sitter Andre Lotterer going into the first corner and rarely looked troubled as he comfortably held a gap over the chasing pack throughout the race.
Mitch Evans has produced one of the most dominant displays in Formula E to claim victory at the Mexico City E-Prix for Panasonic Jaguar Racing as Sam Bird crashed out from second place in the closing stages.
The New Zealander stormed into the lead from second place on the grid by barging by pole-sitter Andre Lotterer going into the first corner and rarely looked troubled as he comfortably held a gap over the chasing pack throughout the race.
Despite a race of high attrition and one early safety car period caused by a crash for Nico Muller, Evans kept his cool at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez to take an impressive win by over four seconds from Antonio Felix da Costa.
The win hands Evans the Formula E world championship lead by a single point from Alexander Sims.
Da Costa profited by applying pressure on Sam Bird in the closing stages which forced the British driver into a mistake as he crashed at Turn 3. The Portuguese driver duly took up second place having produced a stunning overtake on Sebastien Buemi earlier in his late-race charge.
Buemi held on for third place to score his first points of the season for Nissan e.dams ahead of defending Formula E champion Jean-Eric Vergne in fourth place for DS Techeetah.
Sims produced a strong recovery drive as he bolted from 18th place on the grid to finish in fifth place for BMW I Andretti Motorsport.
Stoffel Vandoorne crashed out battling Sims for fifth place on the penultimate lap to wreck his strong race for Mercedes and he drops from the championship lead to fourth in the standings.
The heavy rate of attrition also saw Lotterer suffer damage on the opening lap which sent the Porsche driver backwards through the pack before further damage saw the German shown the black and orange technical flag on Lap 12 that effectively took him out of the race.
Nyck de Vries crashed out on Lap 19 while battling in the front-running group, collecting Virgin Racing’s Robin Frijns in the process, which sent the Dutch driver out of the points.
The brutal race at the front allowed Lucas di Grassi to take sixth place for Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler having seen off Oliver Rowland in the Nissan.
Edoardo Mortara (ROKiT Venturi Racing), James Calado (Panasonic Jaguar Racing) and Pascal Wehrlein (Mahindra Racing) completed the points places.
Formula E heads to Morocco in two weeks for the fifth round of the 2019-2020 season.
