Evans back in Formula E title race after Rome victory, Cassidy new championship leader after P2 finish

Thanks to his victory and the maximum possible points haul of 29 points in Saturday's race at the Hankook Rome E-Prix, Mitch Evans is back in the thick of the fight for the world championship. His main rival is compatriot Nick Cassidy, who regained the championship lead with his second-place finish. But also Max Günther impressed at Maserati's home race with a strong third place.

After the extreme slipstream battles of Portland with more than 400 overtaking maneuvers, the Formula E drivers had to deal with a classic street circuit again on their return to the Italian capital. On the Jaguar "paradise track", the package of the British big cats once again proved to be very competitive.

"The last few years here have been pretty special," Jaguar factory driver and race winner Mitch Evans told German TV station ProSieben. "But my fourth win today, the third in a row, is pretty special too. It was a difficult race - actually it was two races in one. I'm super happy to have scored the maximum points: Not much more was possible. I was only able to reduce the gap to Nick a little, but that's better than nothing. Hopefully I can repeat at least half of that tomorrow."

Cassidy: 2nd place "something like damage limitation"

Regardless of his podium, Evans' compatriot Nick Cassidy thinks that "it's a tough day for Envision and for Jaguar - we lost two cars in a violent crash. It feels really strange to have finished 1st and 2nd at the same time. For us it's a pretty good result, a good day for the championship. From 9th on the grid, I didn't expect to finish second. It's something like damage limitation."

"I'm looking forward to analyzing the race and seeing how we can catch Mitch," the Envision driver continued. "He was faster than us in the race today. That's something we'll be working on."

 

 

 

 

 

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Max Günther "didn't expect a podium"

"It's a great feeling to make it onto the podium right away with Maserati at our first home race. Unbelievable!" said a delighted Max Günther after the race. "It's been a tough weekend so far. We had some problems that we hope we can fix for tomorrow. We'll have to look at that today."

"We had a good qualifying and in the race we did a really good job," the German continued. "I'm really happy about this podium. It's a bit more difficult to overtake here. So it was clear that energy management was crucial. We were aiming for the top 5, but then to even be on the podium is not something I expected."

While Nick Cassidy takes the overall lead with his second place in Rome, Mitch Evans moves closer to the top and is now third in the championship. But Günther also made up significant ground: thanks to his fourth podium finish of the current season, he is now sixth overall, just ahead of and tied on points with Antonio Felix da Costa.