Stoffel Vandoorne wins Monaco E-Prix taking championship lead

Mercedes’ Stoffel Vandoorne won the Monaco E-Prix, securing the Formula E World Championship lead after edging out polesitter Mitch Evans.

For the first time since his Formula 2 days, Stoffel Vandoorne has won on the streets of Monte Carlo, crossing the line in his Mercedes EQ Formula E car to take the win and the World Championship lead.

The Belgian driver started from fourth on the grid, four tenths slower than Jaguar’s Mitch Evans, but benefited from the timing of certain crashes and race leader Pascal Wehrlein’s mid-race retirement.

Evans used Attack Mode to try to catch up to Vandoorne in the final circuits, but the Mercedes pulled away from him. Techeetah’s Jean-Eric Vergne finished third.

As the field made their way around the Monte Carlo streets for the first round, polesitter Mitch Evans took the lead ahead of Pascal Wherlein in second and Jean-Eric Vergne in third. At the start, Sam Bird dropped seven positions, while Jake Dennis gained three.

Over the first ten minutes, the field was rather orderly, with only Nick Cassidy jumping out of the enormous line to be the first driver to assault from towards the back of the field.

Antonio Felix da Costa, who started the race in 11th place, used his initial attack mode to pass Oliver Rowland and Jake Dennis on the next lap when they switched to attack mode. Bird was forced to withdraw from the race when his Jaguar suffered wishbone damage.

Evans was still in front, but Wehrlein began to put pressure on him, taking a half-hearted look to the outside into the harbour chicane. Evans was able to hold off the attacker and keep the advantage.

Vergne was the first of the leaders to switch to attack mode, sliding to sixth behind Lucas di Grassi and Robin Frijns. After Sainte Devote, Vergne passed Frijns for fifth, then passed Di Grassi for fourth at the chicane half a lap later.

Evans finally went into attack mode just before the half-way point, handing the lead to Wehrlein and lowering Stoffel Vandoorne and Di Grassi to third and fourth, respectively.

Wehrlein went into attack mode a lap later, falling just behind Evans in third and handing the lead to Vergne. Despite the fact that both Evans and Wehrlein were in attack mode, the Porsche was able to pass the Jaguar and move into second place, putting pressure on Vergne for the lead.

Wehrlein exploited his extra speed coming out of the tunnel to pass Vergne and take the lead, while Vandoorne relegated Evans to fourth.

As Vergne took the lead, Wehrlein began to slow down near the Fairmont Hotel Hairpin, pulling to the side of the track.

On the following lap, Vergne activated his second attack mode, allowing Vandoorne to take the lead. Wehrlein, however, had come to a halt at the tunnel’s exit, resulting in a temporary Full Course Yellow while the Porsche was recovered.

Following the restart of the session, Oliver Rowland and Andre Lotterer collided as they raced into Sainte Devote, both cars crashing into the barriers, taking Lotterer out of the sport and causing Rowland to withdraw off the track further around the lap.

The Safety Car was deployed, but Vandoorne activated his second attack mode and maintained his race lead, his attack mode time evaporating as he waited behind the Safety Car.

With less than ten minutes of regular time remaining, the race was restarted, with Vandoorne leading Evans and Vergne. Evans was the only driver in the top four positions who hadn’t switched to attack mode yet.

With little over five minutes remaining in the normal race, he did so, sliding to fourth behind Frijns.

Evans took advantage of his superior power to pass Frijns for fourth and then pass Vergne for second a lap later. The Jaguar driver just had a minute of attack mode left to try to capture Vandoorne in the lead, but he couldn’t close the gap to the Mercedes in front.

Vandoorne was able to maintain his lead and use up the extra race time to cross the line with less than 1% of his energy remaining and claim the checkered flag a few seconds ahead of Mitch Evans. With his victory, the Mercedes driver also took the lead in the championship.

Jean-Eric Vergne finished third, ahead of Robin Frijns in fourth, on the legendary Monaco podium. Techeetah’s Da Costa finished fifth, while local team Venturi’s Di Grassi finished sixth. Envision’s Nick Cassidy finished seventh, while Sebastian Buemi finished eighth after pushing up from the back of the grid.

Jake Dennis and Nyck de Vries finished ninth and tenth, respectively, in the points standings.

2022 Monaco EPrix race results