Pascal Wehrlein wins the first race at Jakarta E-Prix

Jake Dennis was beaten by Pascal Wehrlein in the last laps to take the first of two races in Jakarta’s Formula E doubleheader.

Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein easily prevailed over Maserati’s Maximilian Guenther and Avalanche Andretti’s Jake Dennis in the Gulavit Jakarta E-Prix on Saturday.

Dennis came in just under a second behind the winner of the race, but he was furious over what he perceived to be the winner’s excessively aggressive defending, which the stewards decided was not deserving of further review.

With his third victory of the year, Wehrlein closes the gap on championship leader Nick Cassidy to just two points. Maximilian Guenther finished third for Maserati.

When the lights went out, pole-sitter Guenther was pushed for the lead by Wehrlein, but he was able to hold off the Porsche. Stoffel Vandoorne finished third in the sister DS Penske as Jake Dennis finished fourth, and Jean-Eric Vergne finished fifth.

Wehrlein took the lead at the beginning of lap four after squeezing past the Guenther into turn one. Vandoorne was the first of the leaders to use his first segment of extra power, choosing a full six minutes’ worth, which moved him behind teammate Vergne. The drivers had a total of eight minutes in Attack Mode for the race.

On lap 6, Wehrlein gave up the lead by using his first two minutes of Attack Mode, but Vergne gave his teammate back a spot by using his whole six minutes on the same lap. Guenther gave Wehrlein the lead back on the following lap by activating Attack Mode for six minutes, and when Wehrlein’s power boost ran out, Guenther started to apply pressure on the Porsche.

Guenther regained the lead after Wehrlein used his second phase of Attack Mode to finish the six remaining seconds, dropping behind Vandoorne into third place. Wehrlein regained second place when Vandoorne took his second Attack Mode.

Later, when Gunther took his final Attack Mode, Wehrlein regained the lead. Dennis rose to third place by overtaking Vandoorne into turn one while still on the course. Cassidy nearly crashed out while attempting to overtake Vergne for seventh from a distance into turn one just after the halfway point.

He just lightly touched Vergne’s car’s rear, but he was still able to keep going without suffering any harm. Ahead, Dennis accelerated and passed Guenther into the first turn to move into second place. Dennis put a lot of pressure on Wehrlein to take the lead as they entered the first turn, but Wehrlein was able to hold off Dennis along the main straight.

After the race, Dennis criticized the leader’s defence, which gave Gunther and Vandoorne behind him the chance to make speculative bids for second place. Dennis, however, managed to withstand the push from behind and maintain second place.

The four leaders kept running sequentially as the laps dwindled; they were content to preserve energy and hold off on an attack until the last few laps. The yellow flags were momentarily displayed at turn one when Mitch Evans, a championship contender, was struck in the rear by Jaguar driver Sam Bird, sending him spinning and forcing him to withdraw for the second race this season.

Wehrlein was still in charge at the front. The Porsche driver maintained composure and completed the final laps while using less energy than the competitors, taking the checkered flag and winning his third race of the year and consolidating the points standings at the top of the championship.

Dennis finished in second position with Gunther rounding out the podium less than 0.5 seconds later. Edoardo Mortara, driving the second Maserati, finished sixth. The two DS Penske drivers Vandoorne and Vergne finished third and fourth.

Jake Hughes, Antonio Felix da Costa, Robin Frijns, and Jake Hughes made up the top ten, with Hughes earning the tenth and final point after making contact with Bird in the closing laps. Cassidy finished seventh to maintain his two-point lead in the title.

Jakarta Eprix race results