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.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
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…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at RaceFans…