Evans heads Jaguar one-two in Berlin after 23 lead changes

Mitch Evans secured his second consecutive win and Jaguar’s first ever one-two victory in Berlin after a breathless race where the lead changed 23 times.

Evans passed Sebastien Buemi late in the race to take the lead, pulling a small gap to the Envision driver before Sam Bird passed Buemi for second on the final lap. Maximilian Gunther claimed third after beating Buemi on the run to the chequered flag.

At the start, pole winner Sebastien Buemi was immediately challenged by Stoffel Vandoorne who got a great launch off the line but had to back off to avoid being squeezed between Buemi and Sam Bird, who had started alongside on the front row. That allowed fourth-placed Dan Ticktum to sweep around the outside of all of them around the long first corner and through into the lead.

The NIO driver led from Buemi, Bird and Vandoorne. Ticktum and Buemi both activated their first minute’s worth of Attack Mode on lap three, but gained their positions back when Bird and Vandoorne followed suit a lap later. On lap five, Ticktum and Buemi took Attack Mode for the second time in the opening laps for their remaining three minutes, handing the lead back to Bird with Jake Dennis inheriting second. Bird and Dennis would also take Attack Mode soon after, which allowed Ticktum back into the lead.

Bird used the extra power of Attack Mode to move passed Buemi and Vandoorne before slipping past Ticktum on the pit straight at the end of lap eight to take the lead of the race. Vandoorne also followed the Jaguar into second place, but then inherited the lead when Bird appeared to run wide at turn six.

The lead changed hands once again when Edoardo Mortara overtook Vandoorne, before taking Attack Mode, cycling Dennis into the lead for Andretti. However, the race was then neutralised by a Safety Car following a collision back in the pack between Rene Rast and Sergio Sette Camara at the first corner left an unacceptable level of debris on the circuit.

The race restarted on lap 14, with Dennis leading the field from Mortara and Buemi, the highest placed driver with no Attack Mode time remaining, in third. Dennis took his final three minutes of Attack Mode on lap 16, putting Mortara back into the lead, until the Maserati took his Attack Mode on the following lap. This put Jaguar’s Mitch Evans out front, the only driver in the top nine who had not taken any of his Attack Mode approaching the midway point of the race.

Evans lasted one lap in the lead before taking his Attack Mode, dropping him down to fourth. Buemi moved back into the lead, before Maximilian Gunther passed him into turn one to put Maserati back into the lead. Yet again, the lead changed when Gunther took Attack Mode.

Then a heavy crash between Ticktum and Vandoorne on the exit of the second corner destroyed both cars and collected Jake Hughes and Norman Nato in the process. The Safety Car was deployed for a second time, with Evans leading the field after passing Buemi for the lead mere seconds before the race was neutralised.

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The race restarted again on lap 23, with Evans heading Buemi and Gunther. Evans took his final minute of Attack Mode and put Buemi into the lead, before Gunther passed the Envision to retake the lead. Evans used his extra power to move back up, eventually passing the Maserati into turn nine to retake the lead. Team mate Bird soon demoted Gunther to third, before Buemi also moved by to take third place.

Buemi dived down the inside of Bird at turn six to take second place on lap 28, before leaping past Evans at turn nine moments later to take the lead of the race. Buemi’s lead lasted just two laps before he surrendered it to Bird, who had moved by his team mate to take second place.

Bird lost the lead to Buemi at the start of lap 36, with the two Jaguars of Bird and Evans content to sit behind the Envision driver into the closing laps. Both Jaguars put Buemi under pressure on lap 39, with Evans slipping by his team mate into second place before taking the lead from Buemi at the start of lap 40.

Three additional laps were added due to the Safety Car interventions, with Evans, Buemi and Bird all on eight-per-cent of usable energy remaining. Evans began to pull away slightly from Buemi, who came under intense pressure from Bird in third.

Evans held enough of a gap over the final lap to take the chequered flag, with Bird diving past Buemi at turn six on the final lap to secure a first ever one-two victory for Jaguar. Gunther beat Buemi over the line to take the final podium position in third, with Nick Cassidy fourth in the second Envision.

Pascal Wehrlein finished sixth ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne, with Andre Lotterer demoted to eighth after a five second time penalty for causing a collision earlier in the race. Mortara and Oliver Rowland completed the top ten.

Formula E Berlin Eprix race results

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

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