RND 4- Sao Paulo E-Prix

Free Practice 1-
Mitch Evans started his Sao Paulo weekend in the best way possible, as the Jaguar TCS Racing driver topped the first free practice session of the weekend.

The Jaguar team come into the weekend as the favourites after dominating the race result here last season. The British manufacturer achieved their first 1-2-3 result here as a powertrain supplier, and will look to replicate it again.

This 2.93km street circuit is home to the longest straight in Formula E, and will certainly be a prime overtaking spot.
ERT’s Dan Ticktum was using the session to find the limits, going off at the entry into the first chicane and having to rejoin the track down at Turn 3 where ATTACK MODE is.

With halfway through the session, Stoffel Vandoorne was fastest on track. However, track evolution meant the times kept tumbling. Edoardo Mortara of Mahindra Racing went second just 0.028s off Mitch Evans. Ticktum slot into third with less that two minutes to go.

Free Practice 2-
NEOM McLaren’s Sam Bird topped the timesheets for the second and final free practice in Sao Paulo, as the grid prepare for qualifying. The Brit, who stood on the podium here last year, set a time of 1:12.773s in a session that was impacted by a red flag.

Jaguar TCS Racing’s Mitch Evans also suffered an unlucky mechanical issue which limited the running time for him. Team Principal, James Barclays confirmed that the problem was with the car’s front driveshaft but the team were quick to try and fix it.

Maximilian Guenther went quickest 10 minutes into FP2, but despite the German’s rapid pace he will be starting toward the back of the grid as he picked up a 20 place grid penalty for changing his gearbox before FP2.

Double waved yellows were waved with nine minutes of practice left to go, after Edoardo Mortara received a warning on the steering wheel of his Mahindra Racing telling him to stop the car.
The six time race winner pulled his car over to the side off the track just after Turn 3, and brought out the red flags as his car needed to be recovered.

The session did get back to green flag racing for the last minute, but left no time for setting fast laps. Instead, the grid completed some practice starts ahead of the race.

Qualifying-

TAG Heuer Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein managed to grab a second Julius Baer Pole Position of the season, beating DS Penske’s Stoffel Vandoorne but just 0.002s – the second closest pole margin in Formula E history.

It was a dramatic session for the Jaguar powertrain cars, with Evans being the highest placed car in fourth. Nick Cassidy, who leads the championship, failed to make it through to the Duels and will start ninth, with both Envision cars down in 17th and 18th.

DS Penske had a very strong qualifying, as Vandoorne starts second and Jean-Eric Vergne just behind him in third. A great result for new Deputy Team Principal Phil Charles.

Nico Muller made a surprise appearance in the Duels, but an earlier incident meant he wasn’t able to make it to the track in the Quarter finals.

Maserati’s Maximilian Guenther will start from the back of the pack due to the grid-drop penalty mentioned earlier – the German’s penalty also incurring a stop/go penalty on the race.

The full top 10 are- P1: Wehrelin, P2: Vandoorne, P3: Vergne, P4: Evans, P5: Bird, P6: Mortara, P7: Muller, P8: Da Costa, P9: Cassidy and P10: Dennis.

Round 4-

Sam Bird sealed one of the most dramatic victories in Formula E history in the Sao Paulo E-Prix Round 4, with a stunning final lap move on former teammate Mitch Evans to secure NEOM McLaren’s first victory in the World Championship and his first with the team.

Wehrlein started sharply to lead with Vandoorne following as you were into Turn 1 in second, with Evans jumping Verge for third. Porsche’s da Costa made a demon launch, gaining two spots to sixth off-the-line and defending hard from Mortara’s Mahindra to hold that spot over lap 1.

The lead group squabbled constantly as each looked to maximise their energy consumption while keeping pace with leader Bird. Evans had briefly took third before losing it at Turn 1 on lap 6 to Wehrlein.

A Safety Car was required for the recovery of a rogue Andretti front wing as Nato hit Di Grassi as the pack squeezed through the first chicane. The Brazilian also lost his front wing while standings leader Cassidy gave the front of his car a nudge into the same corner at the start of lap 8.

More lead changes happened once green flag conditions continued, as Da Costa and Evans hit the front then dropped back into the mix with their second attack mode activations- but Jake Dennis had been quietly working his way through from 10th at the start to lead on lap 12.

Lap 16 saw a huge moment, with Drivers’ World Championship leader Cassidy’s three-race podium streak coming to an end as the Jaguar driver smashed into the wall through Turn 9 as he slid wide at speed – his front wing falling loose beneath his front wheels.

Through the clamour before the Safety Car, Bird managed to retake the lead and had half a percent of usable energy in hand over Evans, now in second.
Lap 20, saw the green flag fly again with Bird leading Evans, Wehrlein, Dennis, Da Costa, Vergne, Rowland, Vandoorne, Guenther and Buemi in the top 10.

As the laps ticked down, Bird and Evans continued to hold the advantage. Despite Dennis in third, keeping 1.5% usable energy in hand, his car was running too hot to capitalise.
Inside the final seven laps, including three added on for those periods under the Safety Car, Evans appeared to have done enough with a move around the outside of Bird at Turn 3 for P1.

However, the McLaren driver was not done. He could not resist a last-ditch manoeuvre on his old teammate. Bird went all the way around the outside of Turn 10 is last chance to make something stick and hung on to take the inside line and the lead into Turn 11, steering to the win with Evans just half a second back.

The full top 10 are- P1: Bird, P2: Evans, P3: Rowland, P4: Wehrlein, P5: Dennis, P6: Da Costa, P7: Vergne, P8: Vandoorne, P9: Guenther and P10: Buemi.

We don’t have to wait too long till the next race, as it’s less than two weeks away on the 30th March and we head to Japan for the Tokyo E-Prix!