Antonio Felix da Costa converted an inherited pole position into his first victory of the Formula E season in the second New York EPrix.
Da Costa secured his first win of the season by holding off Stoffel Vandoorne for the majority of the race, with Mitch Evans overtaking Alexander Sims in the closing laps to take the final podium position.
Saturday’s race winner Nick Cassidy had made it a clean sweep of pole positions in qualifying earlier in the day, however he was dropped to the back of the grid after he was hit with a 30-place grid penalty for using his fifth battery of the season – one more than the four permitted by the regulations.
That left Antonio Felix da Costa on pole with Alexander Sims alongside him on the front row and Andre Lotterer in third. But when the lights went out, Lotterer jumped the start and then stopped, eventually pulling off his grid while he was swamped by the front of the field, dropping down to ninth place. Da Costa easily held the lead from Sims in second and the two Mercedes of Stoffel Vandoorne and Nyck De Vries behind.
Despite a lock up into turn one in one of the early laps seeing him run wide, Da Costa continued to lead the initial phase of the race, with a train of cars following close behind him. Just under 15 minutes into the race, De Vries became the first of the front runners to take his one and only Attack Mode. De Vries held fourth, with Sergio Sette Camara also taking Attack Mode from sixth.
On the next lap, leaders Da Costa and Sims both activated their Attack Mode, handing the lead to Vandoorne. It only lasted one lap before Vandoorne took his Attack Mode, handing the lead back to Da Costa, before slotting back into third place behind Sims but ahead of team mate De Vries.
A mistake from De Vries at turn five before the long back straight give Mitch Evans a run and the Jaguar driver pulled alongside the Mercedes and passed to the inside of the left hander of turn six to claim fourth place.
After the leaders’ Attack Modes had expired, Vandoorne began pressuring Sims for second place, passing the Mahindra to move up a place into turn six. Behind, Evans tried to challenge De Vries for fourth along the back straight, but De Vries defended to the inside, causing Evans to bounce over a large bump on the circuit and almost lose control of his Jaguar. Somehow, Evans managed to avoid the walls and continue, not losing a position but dropping off the back of De Vries.
Da Costa continued to lead ahead of Vandoorne with…
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