Cassidy seizes championship lead with second straight victory in Monaco

Nick Cassidy benefitted from two late Safety Cars to hold off Mitch Evans, secure his second successive Formula E win in Monaco and seize the championship lead.

In a frantic encounter of the type which has become familiar in Formula E’s ‘Gen3’ era, Cassidy rose from ninth on the grid, overtook Evans for the lead, then held off pressure from the Jaguar driver after a late Safety Car restart to win.

The drivers took the chequered flag under Safety Car conditions again after a late crash. Evans finished second with Jake Dennis taking the final podium spot for Andretti.

Sacha Fenestraz had originally taken pole position by beating Jake Hughes in the qualifying duels final, only for the front row positions to be reversed when Fenestraz had his time deleted for a technical infringement in the final. That put Hughes onto pole and the McLaren driver held his lead as the lights went out at the start of the race.

Hughes led Fenestraz, Norman Nato and Dan Ticktum, the latter jumping from fifth to fourth ahead of Maximilian Guenther. The opening laps were spent with Hughes leading the entire field in a single long train, none of the leading drivers daring to attempt a pass around the narrow, twisting street circuit. Andre Lotterer became the first retirement at the end of the opening lap, spinning into the wall after side-by-side contact with Rene Rast’s McLaren out of the final corner, Anthony Noghes.

Cassidy started to make progress through the field, moving past Evans and Ticktum to take third place. Hughes became the first of the leaders to take Attack Mode on lap seven, dropping from the lead of the race to fourth. That promoted Fenestraz into the lead, before he took Attack Mode on the next lap, emerging ahead of former leader Hughes.

By now Cassidy was leading ahead of Nato, but they took Attack Mode on the next lap which promoted Ticktum into the lead. Over the next few laps, Evans and Jake Dennis took Attack Mode while Fenestraz activated it for a second time, ending up in third place by the time his fourth and final minute of extra power had expired.

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At the end of the cycle of Attack Modes at the midpoint of the race, Cassidy emerged with the lead ahead of Dennis with Evans third having just taken three minutes of Attack Mode. With the extra power available to him, Evans passed Dennis under braking for the harbour chicane to take second place, before driving clean around Cassidy at the end of the next lap with his last few seconds of Attack Mode.

After leading for a couple of laps, Evans surrendered the lead to Cassidy at the start of lap 18, putting the Envision driver back out front. The leaders continued to run in a train until the damaged Nio car of Ticktum made contact with Guenther heading up the hill after Sainte Devote, leaving the Maserati stopped on the side of the road at Casino Square.

The Safety Car was deployed for a handful of laps, with the race resuming at the start of lap 25, Cassidy leading away from Evans, Dennis and Fenestraz. Cassidy absorbed pressure from Evans behind, but Evans was denied the opportunity to attack the Envision driver for the lead in the final laps as a clash between Sam Bird and Nico Muller at Sainte Devote left the Abt driver stranded on the circuit, leading to the Safety Car being deployed for a second time.

With only two laps remaining, the race finished under Safety Car conditions. Cassidy duly completed the final two tours to lead the field over the line and take his second consecutive victory. Evans finished second with Dennis completing the podium in third.

Fenestraz took fourth for Nissan, with Ticktum holding onto sixth despite a damaged car. Jean-Eric Vergne was seventh ahead of fellow Formula E champions Sebastien Buemi and Stoffel Vandoorne. Sam Bird took the final point in tenth for Jaguar.

The win for Cassidy sees him jump clear into the lead of the championship, 21 points ahead of Pascal Wehrlein. Dennis moves up to third on 96 points, with Evans now close behind him on 94.

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2023 Monaco Eprix race results

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Car
1	37	Nick Cassidy	Envision	Jaguar I-Type 6
2	9	Mitch Evans	Jaguar	Jaguar I-Type 6
3	27	Jake Dennis	Andretti	Porsche 99X Electric Gen3
4	23	Sacha Fenestraz	Nissan	Nissan e-4ORCE 04
5	5	Jake Hughes	McLaren	Nissan e-4ORCE 04
6	33	Dan Ticktum	NIO 333	NIO 333 ER9
7	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	DS Penske	DS E-TENSE FE23
8	16	Sebastien Buemi	Envision	Jaguar I-Type 6
9	1	Stoffel Vandoorne	DS Penske	DS E-TENSE FE23
10	10	Sam Bird	Jaguar	Jaguar I-Type 6
11	94	Pascal Wehrlein	Porsche	Porsche 99X Electric Gen3
12	48	Edoardo Mortara	Maserati	Maserati Tipo Folgore
13	11	Lucas di Grassi	Mahindra	Mahindra M9Electro
14	4	Robin Frijns	Abt Cupra	Mahindra M9Electro
15	3	Sergio Sette Camara	NIO 333	NIO 333 ER9
16	13	Antonio Felix da Costa	Porsche	Porsche 99X Electric Gen3
17	58	Rene Rast	McLaren	Nissan e-4ORCE 04
18	17	Norman Nato	Nissan	Nissan e-4ORCE 04
19	51	Nico Mueller	Abt Cupra	Mahindra M9Electro
20	7	Maximilian Guenther	Maserati	Maserati Tipo Folgore
21	8	Oliver Rowland	Mahindra	Mahindra M9Electro
22	36	Andre Lotterer	Andretti	Porsche 99X Electric Gen3

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