It was a race of strategy and survival during London E-Prix today. Jaguar TCS Racing had the best execution with Nick Cassidy who claimed third consecutive victory for the team — although it was his teammate starting on pole. De Vries and Wehrlein joined the Kiwi on the podium in a race full of incidents, penalties, and pit boost strategies.
Early trouble in the midfield
Evans had a clean getaway from pole, with de Vries tucking into second at the start. But it wasn’t smooth sailing further back. An early incident between Hughes and Günther caused a domino effect — Günther, unable to steer after the contact, inadvertently triggered a pile-up that caught both NEOM McLaren drivers as well as Maloney. The yellow flags quickly turned into a full safety car period to clear the cars.
While Hughes made it back to the pits, the damage to his suspension ended his day early. Just like Günther, he had to retire from the race. The restart saw Evans resume control, calmly setting the pace as teams prepared for the tactical pit boost phase.
Pit boosts and attack mode shuffle the order
As expected, pit boost strategies took center stage from then on. Bird was the first to take the mandatory pit boost on lap 16. Others like Beckmann and Maloney opted to activate their attack modes instead — six and two minutes respectively.
Once half of the field had pitted, Cassidy emerged as the de facto leader of those who had already completed their stops. Meanwhile, de Vries still led the group of drivers yet to pit after using attack mode to overtake Evans. Light contact between Ticktum and Vergne raised eyebrows but thankfully had no consequences.
By lap 25, de Vries took his pit stop for pit boost and rejoined ahead of Cassidy — but with both his attack modes already used. Frijns tried to stretch his stint but ultimately lost out, rejoining in 15th after his own pit boost. Cassidy activated his first attack mode from second place, revealing a more effective strategy than teammate Evans, who was stuck down in seventh.
Collisions and late drama
De Vries defended aggressively against Cassidy, but eventually had to yield on the main straight after they had a slight contact in T10. Just five laps from the finish, chaos struck: Maloney retired, da Costa pitted for a new front wing, and Ticktum took out Evans in a clumsy move. While Evans managed to rejoin, he lost valuable time and positions.
Ticktum himself crashed into the barrier moments later, prompting a second safety car period. As a result, race control added an extra lap to the race, giving remaining drivers a chance to activate any unused attack modes. Frijns was one of the first to capitalize, triggering his on lap 35.
Jaguar TCS Racing’s third win in row
The closing laps were just as chaotic as Mueller brushed the wall, prompting a yellow flag just before the chequered flag. But none of it stopped Cassidy from sealing the win. It delivered the third consecutive victory for Jaguar TCS Racing in the closing stages of the season. De Vries secured second in a solid outing for Mahindra Racing, while Wehrlein rounded out the podium for TAG Heuer Porsche.
In the press conference for the top three finishers, Cassidy was left praising the team:
“The car we had in the practice and the qualifying and the race was really unbelievable, and that’s credit to the team. Super proud to have a race win that is on pace. There is no doubting that Berlin was all about strategy. Shangai was in the wet.“
De Vries admitted the team executed the race perfectly today and Cassidy just managed to built a bigger advantage. Looking at tomorrow’s race, he stayed cautious though:
“I mean, every day is a new day. We are happy with today. We will try again tomorrow.“
For Wehrlein, he was left saddened by the lost chance at the driver’s championship but positive about others:
“Now the driver’s championship is gone, and honestly, doesn’t really matter in the end if you finish second, third or fourth. The focus now is the team’s and manufacturer’s championship and today we made a big step towards those.“