Da Costa controls second Shanghai race as Cassidy extends championship lead · RaceFans

Antonio Felix da Costa took his second win in three races after leading the bulk of the second Shanghai Eprix to win ahead of Jake Hughes.

The Porsche driver led the final third of the race to win by a second from the McLaren driver with Norman Nato third.

Championship leader Nick Cassidy took fourth, extending his points advantage over Pascal Wehrlein, who failed to score.

Sunday’s race was a tamer affair than Saturday’s lively opener. Where the field was bunched together over the opening phase of yesterday’s race, Sunday’s saw more single-file running.

Antonio Felix da Costa shared the early lead of the race with Stoffel Vandoorne and Norman Nato, while pole winner Hughes sat in fourth ahead of Cassidy and Mitch Evans in their Jaguars. After half distance, Da Costa assumed the lead and looked to dictate the pace.

The Porsche driver managed to pull a couple of car lengths ahead of Hughes as Nato ran in third. Da Costa had enough energy to keep his speed up over the closing laps while preventing Hughes from being able to challenge him. He took the chequered flag just under a second ahead of Hughes to claim his second official race victory of the season.

Hughes took his first podium finish in second with Nato claiming his first podium of the season in third. Championship leader Cassidy took fourth despite a broken front wing, with Jaguar team mate Evans in fifth. Vandoorne finished ahead of DS Penske team mate Jean-Eric Vergne in sixth, while Maximilian Guenther, Robin Frijns and Oliver Rowland completed the top ten.

Wehrlein fell well down the order after he suffered a puncture when clipped by Sam Bird’s McLaren exiting the opening sequence of turns. Bird was the race’s only retirement as he was later involved in a second accident at the final chicane with Nyck de Vries, which sent the Mahindra spinning towards the back of the pack.

With Wehrlein failing to finish in the points, Cassidy’s championship advantage has grown to 25 points with four races remaining. Evans is now third, ten points behind Wehrlein with Rowland a single point behind.

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Race result