Jaguar’s Nick Cassidy and Porsche’s Antonio Felix da Costa picked up a win each at the Berlin E-Prix, with the new track layout at the Tempelhof Airport delivering plenty of drama. The double-header also saw Mahindra score its first points of the season, while Maserati’s Jehan Daruvala collected his best Formula E result so far.
- Jaguar’s Cassidy wins Race 1, leads championship
- Porsche’s Da Costa wins Race 2
Cassidy’s late-race charge
Cassidy started the first race from ninth on the grid and at one point even slipped down to 21st place. As the peloton-style race saw two separate Safety Car periods and several position swaps, Jaguar got the strategy right.
Having climbed up the order, Cassidy made his race-winning move on Lap 43 of 46, overtaking both Oliver Rowland and Jean-Eric Vergne to take the lead. He then pulled a 4.651secs lead over second-placed Vergne, while Rowland completed the podium.
Da Costa takes third win at Berlin
The second race was another frenetic affair and da Costa held the lead through both Safety Car periods. Jaguar’s Mitch Evans moved to the front of the field on Lap 31, but he still had one of his two mandatory Attack Mode boosts to use in the final stages. With eight laps to go, da Costa pulled off a move late on the brakes into the hairpin, forcing Evans into outbraking himself wide. He crossed the line 0.691secs ahead of Nick Cassidy to secure his third win at Tempelhof. Rowland picked up a double podium finish, with a P3 result.
More points for Daruvala
Daruvala qualified P7 for the first race, but was handed a 20-place grid penalty for a gearbox change. This demoted him to P22 on the grid, but since he couldn’t serve the full-grid penalty, he also had to serve a 10-second stop-go penalty at the end of Lap 1.
The Indian driver staged a strong recovery and was running in the top 10 when he picked up front wing damage, forcing him to pit for repairs. He eventually finished 17th.
Daruvala bounced back in the next race, climbing from P13 to P7 after overtaking Taylor Barnard on the last lap. “I’m very happy to achieve my best result of the season so far. Overall, we’ve shown a lot of progress this weekend and I feel like I’m taking good steps forward,” he said.
“In the end, we were rewarded for our hard work with seventh, which we can be happy about. I’m looking forward to continuing the season in Shanghai with this momentum, and hopefully, we can score even more points in China.”
Mahindra scores first points
Mahindra Racing’s Edoardo Mortara secured pole position for the first race, but ended up with car damage in the closing laps. Nevertheless, he managed to finish P8, securing Mahindra’s first points this season.
A puncture in the second race denied him the chance to score any more points. On the other side of the garage, Jordan King stood in for Nyck de Vries, who was racing at the 6 Hours of Spa over the weekend. He finished P12 in the first race and P18 in the second race.
2024 Formula E championship standings
Cassidy leads the championship, 16 points ahead of Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein. Rowland is third overall, six points behind Wehrlein.
Formula E will now head to Shanghai for another double-header on May 25 and 26.
Dipan Sur
