Cassidy leads Envision Racing to a maiden Championship victory in London

Nick Cassidy’s victory in the Formula E season finale in London secured the maiden championship title win for his Envision Racing team.

Nick Cassidy’s faultless performance in the rain-soaked and postponed Formula E finale in London on Sunday not only brought the Kiwi a race victory but also made a significant contribution to Envision Racing’s first-ever Teams’ World Championship win in the sport.

Cassidy seized control from the get-go, dominating the race from lights to flag to claim his fourth victory of the year despite the extremely dangerous wet conditions. With a sizable advantage over Mitch Evans of Jaguar and freshly crowned FE world champion Jake Dennis, Cassidy crossed the finish line first.

In a wet race that was significantly delayed, Cassidy took the pole and dominated all 38 laps. He beat Evans by less than five seconds as Jake Dennis placed third. By a margin of 12 points over Jaguar, the outcome gave Envision the teams’ title.

The final race of the season would decide the teams champion after Jake Dennis of Andretti won the opening race on Saturday. Going into the final race of the year, Nick Cassidy secured the pole position over Mitch Evans, giving Envision a three-point lead.

The London track was soaked after rain, but the interior was naturally dry. Scot Elkins who is the race director, abandoned an earlier attempt at a standing start in favor of starting the race behind the Safety Car so that drivers could evaluate the weather.

The race was eventually red flagged while under the Safety Car in order to give marshals time to try and clear some of the water. A second attempt was also abandoned due to worries about visibility.

The race ultimately started with a rolling start at the start of what was officially lap eight following a 90-minute delay, with Cassidy in the lead followed by Evans and Norman Nato. Dennis started in fourth, Stoffel Vandoorne in fifth and Sebastian Buemi in sixth place ahead of Sam Bird. Regardless how difficult it was to drive in the rain, drivers were able to keep their cars away from the barriers.

On the ninth lap, Evans took the first Attack Mode while Nato took his in third. On the next lap, the leader Cassidy and Dennis both chose to engage their first Attack Mode stints. Dennis chose to do so for six minutes, while Cassidy chose for two. On the following lap, Nato entered his second six-minute Attack Mode after falling behind Dennis and moving up to fourth.

Evans utilized his last session to surge over seven seconds clear of Dennis while Cassidy used the remainder of his Attack Mode to extend his lead over Evans. After pitting with a possible issue with his DS Penske, Jean-Eric Vergne dropped to the back of the field.

In light of the terrible weather, the field was uncommonly spread out, with the two leaders gradually drawing away from the rest of the field.

Buemi passed Bird’s Jaguar for sixth place into the first curve, with hopes of winning the teams title getting boosted. However, in the lead, Evans recorded a new fastest lap of the race to close the gap to the leader to just two seconds as the pair started collecting lapped traffic.

Four extra laps were added to the 34-lap race as there were so many laps behind the Safety Car at the beginning of the race. Evans was unable to catch Cassidy, who extended his lead over the Jaguar to more than four seconds.

Envision won the race as a team when Cassidy crossed the finish line at the conclusion of lap 38. Evans finished in second place after failing to apply any pressure to his rival during the race.

Dennis claimed the drivers championship title after he finished third to set a new record for most podium finishes in a season with 11. Nato finished fourth in his farewell race for Jaguar, ahead of Vandoorne, Buemi, and Bird in seventh.

Nico Muller finished eighth with Dan Ticktum taking points for Nio in ninth ahead of Pascal Wehrlein who rounded out the points in tenth.

Formula E London Eprix Round 16 race results