Envision Racing’s Nick Cassidy took his maiden Formula E victory in the opening race of the New York City E-Prix while DS TECHEETAH‘s Antonio Felix da Costa won the second race to secure his first victory in Season 8 of the motorsport championship for electric cars.
The first race at the Brooklyn Street Circuit was swept in with heavy rain and storm, causing multiple collisions and forcing a red flag, bringing the race to a premature end with seven and a half minutes remaining.
Cassidy, who started from pole position for the first time, led the race through both Attack Mode activations, finishing ahead of Lucas di Grassi (ROKiT Venturi Racing) and teammate Robin Frijns. Championship leader Edoardo Mortara of ROKiT Venturi Racing, started ninth on the grid after having missed out on the Duels in qualifying, worked his way up with a late second Attack Mode to finish fifth.
As the rain left pools of standing water in the braking zone to Turn 6, Cassidy, Vandoorne (Mercedes-EQ), di Grassi, and Mortara, aquaplaned straight on and into the wall. More drivers fell foul in impossible conditions as the race was brought to an early conclusion with a Red Flag.
The Flag meant the race result was decided on countback with finishing positions defined based on the lap prior to the one in which the stoppage was called, as per article 41.9 of the FIA sporting regulations. The ruling meant the race win went the way of Cassidy, with di Grassi and Frijns rounding out the podium.
In the second leg of the double-header at the Big Apple, da Costa led from the start to Chequered Flag, his first victory of the season. Vandoorne came home second in Round 12 of the championship to move ahead of Mortara at the top of the Drivers’ World Championship standings.
A third-place finish for Mitch Evans of Jaguar TCS Racing also closed the gap on Mortara to five points after he was limited to 10th place and a single point. A braking problem in Qualifying had marooned Mortara to P21 on the grid.
Mitch Evans wound up third, holding on to a mid-race half-spin as he tried to break into the top. Evans hit a bump in the Turn 6 braking zone and caught a huge sideways slide to keep it out of the wall and drop to fifth. By the Chequered Flag, he had fought his way back to third, with Sims following home in fourth for Mahindra Racing.
With four more rounds to go, Vandoorne leads the Drivers' World Championship, with an 11-point margin over prior leader Mortara. Evans is five points further back in third with Jean-Éric Vergne unable to score, the Frenchman sits 27 points shy of the top. Mercedes-EQ is top of the Teams' running, ten points up on DS TECHEETAH and ROKiT Venturi Racing.
The next stop for the Formula E Championship is the London E-Prix double-header on 30th and 31st July. The unique event has an outdoor/indoor track running through events venue ExCeL London.