Sports News | Wehrlein crowned Formula E champion after thrilling final in London

London, July 22 (PTI) Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein held out under relentless pressure from Jaguar’s Mitch Evans and Nick Cassidy to win his maiden Formula E world championship at the season-ending London E-Prix.

The dramatic denouement came on Sunday, with Wehrlein’s triumph exemplifying the intense racing year of Season 10.

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In the season finale, three contenders – Wehrlein, Evans and Cassidy – entered the final round separated by just seven points.

Cassidy, who led the championship going into the weekend, showed remarkable resilience after a disappointing performance in Portland and a challenging qualifying session on Saturday in London.

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He started fifteenth in the first race and eventually finished seventh, before taking pole position for the second race on Sunday morning.

Cassidy led the field as team-mate Evans overtook Maximillian Gunther (Maserati) for second place into Turn 1.

An early Safety Car period allowed Wehrlein to pass Gunther, putting all three title contenders in the top three by lap 6.

Jaguar seemed to dominate and their drivers were battling for the championship.

However, internal tensions arose during Cassidy’s Attack Mode activations, with Evans and Cassidy battling for position and Wehrlein taking advantage of their disagreement.

Oliver Rowland, who had started from ninth, shot up to fourth on lap 29 and passed Cassidy for third, colliding with Gunther, ending Cassidy’s race with a flat tire.

When the Safety Car reappeared, the championship battle was over to Wehrlein and Evans.

With less than eight laps remaining, both Evans and Wehrlein had to activate their remaining Attack Mode boosts.

An invalid attempt during the caution period gave Rowland the lead, but a Safety Car infringement forced him to relinquish the lead to Evans.

The Kiwi’s subsequent Attack Mode activation failed, allowing Rowland to regain the lead.

On lap 34, Evans successfully activated his boost, but Wehrlein’s strategic Attack Mode activation allowed him to overtake him, allowing him to race to the finish without any problems and secure the Drivers’ Title.

Evans was unable to maintain his pace, but again finished second in the championship.

Rowland comfortably took the final win of Season 10, while Wehrlein secured his first title with a seven-point margin over Evans with his second-place finish.

Cassidy finished third in the standings. Despite the setback to the drivers’ championship, Jaguar celebrated their first top-class motorsport title since 1991 by lifting the teams’ trophy.

With a double victory for Jaguar, the British team also won its first constructors’ trophy, narrowly four points ahead of Porsche.

“It feels good. I don’t know what to say, it’s not expected at all. You show up, you have a chance. But I’ve always believed in it. The last couple of weeks, every day before my day started and my day ended, I said: I can do this.

“We can do this. Even in the last few races the performance was not that strong and I struggled a bit with the car and what I felt in the car.

“I said, it doesn’t matter. I saw it. I taught myself every day and I’m just super proud of everyone in the team,” said Wehrlein, a former Formula 1 driver.

Evans was unhappy with the outcome and questioned Jaguar’s strategic choices.

“I want to be happy for the team that won the Teams’ Championship, but I feel like we didn’t play well this weekend and I’m also a little surprised by some of the decisions that were made against me today. There will be a lot of conversations,” he said. 21-07-2024

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from the syndicated newsfeed. It is possible that LatestLY staff has not altered or edited the content.)