Mitch Evans pips Wehrlein to win Shanghai E-Prix

Jaguar’s Mitch Evans pulled off a bold last-lap overtake around the outside of Pascal Wehrlein to win the first race of the Shanghai E-Prix.

Jaguar’s victory in Shanghai E-Prix opener with Mitch Evans was tempered by team tactics that left its championship leader Nick Cassidy clearly disgruntled and with a reduced points advantage of 13 over Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein.

Evans, fifth in the championship and 43 points behind his team-mate pre-race, was Jaguar’s lead runner throughout, having qualified third while Cassidy started only 10th.

Racing around a shortened layout of the Shanghai International Circuit which cuts from turn nine on the grand prix circuit back onto the pit straight, the opening race of the weekend saw the entire field once again compressed into a large single pack.

Pole winner Jean-Eric Vergne was one of several leaders over the opening half of the race, which saw the two Porsches of Wehrlein and Antonio Felix da Costa eventually move to the front of the field together.

While Evans was up front battling primarily the Porsches through the cagey first three-quarters of another ‘peloton’-style race of cars running side by side conserving energy, Cassidy stayed in the midfield until the closing stages and had 1-2% more useable energy remaining than the other frontrunners by the time he made his way into the lead pack.

Eventually, with under ten laps remaining, the field began to spread out. Wehrlein established himself as the leader, with the Jaguars of Mitch Evans and Nick Cassidy pressuring both him and Da Costa in the top four. Jake Dennis was one of the last drivers to take his second Attack Mode and used the extra energy to join the battle for the lead, slotting into third place.

In the closing laps, Wehrlein continued to lead with the two Jaguars moving to be his major competition. Heading into the last lap of the race, Evans swept around the outside of the Porsche into turn one to take the lead, with Wehrlein coming under heavy pressure from Cassidy with his higher energy level.

Evans pulled clear to take the chequered flag, while Cassidy fumed over Wehrlein’s last-lap defensive tactics. Oliver Rowland finished fourth for Nissan, with Da Costa in fifth and Dennis in sixth.

Pole winner Vergne finished in seventh, ahead of Nyck de Vries, Sebastien Buemi and Stoffel Vandoorne, who claimed the final point in tenth after Maximilian Guenther was hit with a ten second post-race penalty for causing a collision. Nissan driver Edoardo Mortara pulled into the pits and into retirement just after the halfway mark with damage to the front of his car, the only driver who failed to finish.

The race result keeps Cassidy on the top of the championship on 155 points heading into the second race of the weekend on Sunday, but with Wehrlein reducing his lead slightly to 13 points.

2024 Formula E Shanghai E-Prix Results