Evans Hangs On For Rome Double Win After Last Lap Dash
Calum Gill 15:15 10/04/2022
Jaguar’s Mitch Evans pulled off a risky attack mode strategy to complete a clean sweep of the Formula E race wins in Rome in an incident-strewn second race that finished with a one-lap shootout.
Evans had stormed from ninth on the grid to win the first race of the weekend on Saturday and he moved into the lead of the second race just after the halfway point. The Kiwi started from fourth and soon picked off the Avalanche Andretti-run BMW of Jake Dennis and the Porsche of André Lotterer. Shortly after Evans moved into second place, the safety car was called to recover Formula 1 convert Antonio Giovinazzi’s stricken Dragon-Penske as the Italian’s miserable home weekend concluded when he stopped on track. On the restart, Evans made his move on polesitter and two-time Formula E champion Jean-Éric Vergne to take the lead of the race.
He was overhauled by Lotterer and the Audi-powered Envision entry of Robin Frijns when they both took attack mode, while Evans waited longer than any other driver to take his attack mode - with only one activation, for eight minutes of extra energy, available in the Sunday race. Evans’s strategy looked particularly risky when the safety car was once again deployed for Alexander Sims’ Mahindra, but fortunately for the Kiwi, the safety car came back in with enough time for Evans to take his attack mode. Once Evans took it, he only dropped to fourth place and quickly cleared Vergne, Frijns and Lotterer to move back into the lead.
Evans also weathered a one-lap shootout at the end of the race which was required when Frijns’ team-mate Nick Cassidy was fed into the wall while fighting for a place in the top six. Evans was able to keep Vergne at bay to secure his second victory of the weekend and complete a sensational weekend for the Jaguar team, who had endured a miserable start to the 2022 season. Vergne claimed second place to move into the drivers’ championship lead, with Frijns completing the podium and Lotterer fourth for Porsche. Saturday’s poleman Stoffel Vandoorne finished in fifth for Mercedes EQ with Mexico E-Prix victor Pascal Wehrlein sixth ahead of Oliver Turvey, who was an exceptional seventh for NIO 333 - the team’s best result since the second race of last year’s season-opener.
The top 10 was completed by ex-title rivals Lucas di Grassi (Venturi) and Sébastien Buemi (Nissan e.dams) and Turvey’s team-mate Dan Ticktum, the latter benefitting from a safety car procedure infringement penalty for fellow rookie Oliver Askew (Andretti). Di Grassi had finished sixth on the road but was demoted by a time penalty for a clash that eliminated Dennis. The Brazilian’s team-mate Edoardo Mortara lost the championship lead after he retired following contact with the wall. Earlier in the race, he’d collided with António Félix da Costa at Turn 4, with the stewards later awarding a penalty to da Costa. Mortara’s DNF drops him to fifth in the points race. Along with di Grassi and da Costa, there was a penalty for reigning champion Nyck de Vries for a collision with Sérgio Sette Camara that stripped the Dutchman of a points finish.
