(Motorsports news) Jean-Eric Vergne (DS PENSKE) held off Nick Cassidy for an astonishing win in the inaugural Hyderabad E-Prix Round 4, with the DS PENSKE driver fending off the Envision Racing pair of Nick Cassidy and Sebastien Buemi over the line, although TAG Heuer Porsche’s Antonio Felix da Costa ultimately took third after the Swiss was penalised post-race and was given a drive through penalty which meant that he ultimately finished 15th in the race.
The Frenchman returned to winning ways in Formula E after winning in Rome in Season 7 and he won the first Hyderabad Eprix in some style. Vergne made a very good start but was behind pole sitter Mitch Evans but he found his way to the front of the pack on Lap 15 as the double Formula E champion swept by Buemi at the hairpin after the two Jaguars of Mitch Evans and Sam Bird collided into each and removed one another from the equation two laps prior.
That moment saw the British driver Sam Bird make a lunge on the dirty side of the track on Sacha Fenestraz (Nissan) but he couldn’t get his car stopped in time and in doing so he collected his teammate Mitch Evans who was running third at the time, pitching the Kiwi’s car into a spin and sending both into retirement. The unlucky Fenestraz tumbled down the order in the race where a podium was possible and for the Jaguar team a double podium looked like a possibility for them.
After that incident, Vergne led the way but had his mirrors full of two green Envision Racing machines as the chequered flag drew closer. Nick Cassidy had managed to gather up an extra four percentage points of usable energy on Vergne coming into the closing stages of the race but the former Formula E champion used every trick in the book to keep him at bay and cross the line first as it would surely be one of his best wins in his career. The race certainly lived up to its expectation as it will live long in the memory of India the fans in front of a sold-out crowd of over 25,000 people.
Porsche’s da Costa took the final place on the podium in his 100th race as the Season 6 champion started the race in 13th place. Teammate Pascal Wehrlein crossed the line fourth after fighting his way through the order from 12th on the grid and he still leads the Formula E World Championship with a 18 point lead over Jake Dennis. The Andretti driver had to retire after Rene Rust of Mclaren racing crashed into him. Sergio Sette Camara kept his race clean and climbed through the pack to produce NIO 333’s best result since Berlin, Season 4.
It was a disappointing race for Mahindra Racing as Oliver Rowland made a move for the podium on Buemi not aware of the impending penalty of the time with just a lap to go, ultimately it didn’t work out and saw him shuffled to sixth. Nevertheless it was Rowland’s first points of the season at Mahindra’s home race. Norman Nato got TAG Heuer Fastest Lap while Porsche took a 23-point lead over Avalanche Andretti in the Teams’ World Championship. Next race will be again a Formula E’ debut to South Africa in Cape Town on 25 February for Round 5 of Season 9.
Also read: Vergne tops Hyderabad E-Prix, Mahindra complete homecoming with points finish
