Mitch Evans took victory at the Formula E Miami E-Prix, beating Nico Mueller and Pascal Wehrlein to victory around the Miami International Autodrome.
Evans came into the weekend with no points on the board, but after a hard fight through the field and a strategic use of Attack Modes and energy saving, the Kiwi came out on top.
The Jaguar driver’s win marked a new record holder with the most wins in the series, hitting 15 career victories in Formula E. Mueller managed to remain consistent throughout the race, keeping himself on the podium with teammate, Wehrlein, close behind.
Drugovich gets ahead
Mueller was starting on pole, with Felipe Drugovich starting alongside. Due to the rain earlier in the afternoon, the grid had a rolling start under the Safety Car. On Lap 4, the Safety Car was called in, and race control announced there would be a standing start.
Mueller made a strong start into the first corner but ran deep into the first corner, allowing Drugovich to take the lead. Unable to make a pass, Drugovich took an early attack mode, giving himself an advantage in the fight for the lead in the early stages.
The Brazilian breezed past the Porsche driver with one minute remaining, and his attack mode began to build a gap.
Mueller and De Vries both opted to adopt attacking modes in response to Drugovich, while further back, Joel Eriksson fought Taylor Barnard for position.
Barnard dropped down to eighth as Mitch Evans, Antonio Felix Da Costa and Eriksson made it past the Brit. The final three drivers in the order, Oliver Rowland, Maximilian Guenther, and Dan Ticktum, were all on the dry tyre setup.
Jean-Eric Vergne took his four-minute Attack Mode, beginning to climb through the order of the final points positions.
The top three managed to break out from the leaders, with Eriksson in the Envision beginning to join the fight for a podium position.
Mueller and Drugovich traded the lead back and forth, but the fight was using their energy faster than the rest of the field, putting Wehrlein and De Vries in a strong position for later in the race.
Fight for the lead
Da Costa made a brave lunge on Mueller on the start-finish straight, taking the lead with just 30 seconds left in his attack mode.
Da Costa’s teammate was down in seventh, with Mitch Evans taking his attack mode on Lap 19. After conserving energy, looking to make some headway through the field. The Kiwi driver made quick work of the drivers ahead of him, ending his attack mode in third and on the tail of Mueller.
De Vries and Wehrlein fought fiercely for fifth place, nearly making contact on Lap 23.
It was another disaster weekend for Dan Ticktum, who came into the pits on Lap 24, trading his dry weather tyre pressure for wet weather, hoping to improve from his position being a lap down.
Evans and Da Costa ran side-by -side into the opening corners of the lap, Da Costa running deep, forcing Evans to push around the outside. However, with more traction, Evans made it past his teammate and into second place.
On Lap 27, Drugovich hit the back of da Costa into turn 13. The contact sent the Brazilian spinning and heading into the pit lane to fix the damage to his Andretti. Da Costa continued but fell back to sixth, struggling for pace.
Evans took the lead from Mueller with a brave move, beginning to build a gap out front. Muller fell back to 1.5 seconds behind the lead by Lap 30.
Pepe Marti was sitting in ninth with both his attack modes left, but with only eight laps remaining, it was a risk to use both before the end of the race.
The final push for positions
De Vries and Wehrlein fought into the opening corners, with Eriksson joining the mix for third place, but as the trio swapped in the first turns around Miami, they came out in the same order by the end. However, Wehrlein activated his attack mode, looking to take the podium position from De Vries.
Evans gap at the lead had grown to 2.1 seconds by Lap 35, with the two Porsches in second and third taking their attack modes, hoping to close the gap.
However, Evans timed his final Attack Mode perfectly, taking six minutes and holding onto the lead. Mueller’s attack would end over a minute before Evans, giving the Jaguar driver a decisive advantage.
There were two added laps following the Safety Car at the beginning as the lap times began to drop again. Evans’ gap to the Porsches grew to over a second as Wehrlein faced a field of drivers with their Attack Modes behind him.
With all but five drivers on the grid using their Attack Modes on Lap 40, the final fight for positions was in full force.
Marti and Buemi were fighting for eighth place, while just ahead, Da Costa and Motara both made light contact fighting for sixth place.
Evans took the chequered flag, claiming victory, putting points on the board for Jaguar, with Mueller and Wehrlein making it a double Porsche podium.
Joel Eriksson had an impressive weekend, the Envision rookie just missing out on the podium, with the Mahindra drivers led by De Vries finishing fifth and sixth.
Buemi made an extraordinary climb from last to take points in seventh, with Da Costa recovering after his contact with Drugovich in eighth and Marti and Dennis rounding out the points.
READ MORE – Nico Mueller takes maiden Formula E pole for Miami E-Prix