Antonio Felix da Costa took his third race victory in a row in a manic second Portland EPrix in which points leader Nick Cassidy failed to score again.
The Porsche driver avoided multiple incidents and collisions to take the lead after a late Safety Car period and win ahead of Robin Frijns.
Jaguar driver Mitch Evans claimed the final podium position in third, to move equal second in the drivers’ championship ahead behind team mate Cassidy, who finished outside the top 10.
At the start, pole winner Jean-Eric Vergne happily surrendered the lead to fall into the pack and save energy, with McLaren’s Jake Hughes becoming the early leader ahead of Nyck de Vries and Frijns.
There was early trouble for championship contender Pascal Wehrlein, who lost his front wing on lap six. The wing dropped off along the back straight where it was collected by Sam Bird’s McLaren, sending him off track and falling to the rear. However, the Porsche driver was able to continue without losing too much performance relative to his rivals.
On lap 13, several cars were caught up in a crunch at the first chicane. Cassidy was among those who required a trip to the pit lane for emergency attention to his damaged car.
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Despite the damage to his car, Wehrlein continued to run towards the front with Porsche team mate Antonio Felix da Costa. With under 10 laps remaining, the Safety Car was suddenly deployed due to the volume of debris littering the circuit.
The Safety Car period allowed Cassidy and many of the cars who had been forced to pit with damage to rejoin the pack. The race restarted at the start of lap 21 with Frijns leading from Da Costa and Wehrlein.
Da Costa assumed the lead at the restart, while Evans passed Wehrlein and Frijns for second. Frijns repassed Evans at the start of the penultimate lap for second, then tried to put Da Costa under pressure on the final lap, but was unable to trouble him. The Porsche driver took the chequered flag and extended his winning streak.
Evans claimed the final podium position in third ahead of Wehrlein in fourth with Vergne behind. Nico Muller took sixth ahead of Norman Nato, Maximilian Guenther and Sebastien Buemi with Jake Dennis taking the final point.
Cassidy’s 12th place meant he failed to score a single point across the weekend but still leads the championship on 167 points. However heading into the season finale double header in two weeks’ time his team mate Evans…
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