Formula E

Formula E in London: Wehrlein defeats Evans in Saturday's race and takes the world championship lead!

Timo Pape

Timo Pape

Paddy McGrath / Spacesuit Media

Pascal Wehrlein won Saturday's Formula E race in London, taking the lead in the world championship just before the season finale! In a thrilling E-Prix, he defeated his direct title rival Mitch Evans, who finished second. Nick Cassidy was only seventh. Sebastien Buemi completed the podium, partly because Max Günther, who was in second place shortly before the end, retired with a technical defect. The title fight is completely open again ahead of the finale.

At the start, everything went smoothly at first: pole-sitter Mitch Evans easily defended his lead against Sebastien Buemi, who had to defend against Pascal Wehrlein. Despite a good start, the latter suddenly had Norman Nato next to him. The two drove side by side for several corners until Nato finally prevailed and took third place. The first accident occurred in turn 10: Jake Dennis attacked Robin Frijns, who was driving in front of him, and sent him into the TecPro barrier. He received a 10-second time penalty for the action shortly afterwards.

The steering on Frijns' Envision broke on impact, causing him to roll out across the track - unfortunately for Sam Bird: the McLaren driver was blocked by Frijns and had no chance to avoid him. As a result, he dropped to the back of the field through no fault of his own. The safety car came out onto the track. Bad luck for Nico Müller as well: The ABT driver suffered a puncture and had to come into the pits. However, the safety car meant that he only dropped back to 13th position in his last race for ABT Cupra. Sergio Sette Camara also had to pit early and dropped back a long way.

Race lap 5 continued at race pace. There were no attacks at the restart. Antonio Felix da Costa worked his way up to sixth place. Directly behind him, there was an accident between Jean-Eric Vergne and Dennis. Just a few seconds later, there was another crash. This time Oliver Rowland and Felix da Costa collided. Both suffered damage and dropped to the back of the field - the end of their title hopes! Felix da Costa came straight into the pits and retired from the race with damaged steering.

Dennis & Cassidy clash

With Rowland, Felix da Costa and Vergne, three of the seven remaining title contenders were out of the championship battle within a matter of seconds. Almost unnoticed in the chaos, Buemi overtook Evans and took the lead at the London E-Prix. Due to the many accidents, the order of the top 10 had changed significantly since the start. The leading duo were followed by Wehrlein, Nato, Nyck de Vries, Max Günther, Edo Mortara, Sacha Fenestraz, Jehan Daruvala and Vergne after ten of 37 planned laps.

Dennis continued to stand out with his very aggressive duel behaviour on the narrow track. There were various contacts. On lap 12, he attacked championship leader Nick Cassidy in attack mode and literally rammed him from eleventh place. "He just crashed into me! Please report this to race control," an angry Cassidy radioed to his Jaguar team. Vergne also complained about Dennis afterwards: "What a bloody idiot!" A short time later, Dennis received the next time penalty for the collision with Vergne, this time five seconds. Rowland also received a time penalty for the collision with Felix da Costa.

There was less action at the front during this phase: Buemi continued to lead ahead of Evans and Wehrlein. Meanwhile, Günther had improved to fourth place - and had already completed both attack modes. On lap 16, the lead changed hands once again as Buemi picked up his attack mode. He returned to the track ahead of Wehrlein - putting Evans back in front. But only for one lap, because Evans then also drove through the attack zone and dropped back behind Buemi. Wehrlein, on the other hand, had not yet completed one of his two attack modes and therefore had an energy advantage.

Wehrlein overtakes Evans

Cassidy received the next sideways hit on lap 20, this time from Stoffel Vandoorne. He hit the TecPro barrier with his left rear, but did not sustain any damage. At the end of the lap, something also happened at the front: Wehrlein overtook Buemi in turn 19 and took second place! The German now took up the pursuit of his direct championship rival Evans. On lap 22, he went on the attack and overtook him under braking before turn 1. Wehrlein now in the lead, with one per cent more energy!

The German now went full throttle and immediately set the fastest lap, but Evans stayed on - after all, Wehrlein had to drive through the attack zone twice more. He did this for the first time on lap 23 and had actually pulled out enough of a lead to stay just ahead of Evans. Evans now also went into his second attack mode in order to be able to attack Wehrlein after his boost phase. The fans witnessed a thrilling duel for the race win!

The battle for the podium was also a hot one: Because Buemi still had to drive through the attack zone, Günther took third place. The German in the Maserati was thus on course for a podium, although Buemi was now applying pressure with a performance advantage. Wehrlein had then pulled out enough of a lead to venture into the attack zone for a second time. Once again it was very close, and once again Wehrlein managed to stay in the lead - frenetic cheering in the Porsche pits!

Problems for Evans, then also for Günther

Evans suddenly lost a huge amount of pace - apparently due to energy! While Wehrlein was able to pull away by more than five seconds at lightning speed, Günther fought his way up to Evans and finally overtook him on lap 30! Meanwhile, Nato crashed in turn 1 and damaged his front wing, but was able to continue.

Fenestraz had pushed him to the outside under braking - revenge for the collision between the two in Berlin? Fenestraz later received a 5-second time penalty for the accident. On lap 32, race control ordered the safety car onto the track for the second time to collect debris - bad news for Wehrlein, whose lead was thus gone.

The safety car came back out on lap 33. Then suddenly Günther also slowed down with a mechanical problem and eventually rolled out - drama for the German in 2nd place, who dropped to the back of the field! Race director Scot Elkins initially waved the yellow flags because of the stranded Maserati, but then called a full-course yellow. Daruvala in the second Maserati also had to come into the pits for repairs after colliding with Vergne. Meanwhile, the race length was increased from 37 to 39.

Wehrlein stays cool and is suddenly title favourite

In lap 37, the race finally resumed at race pace. In first place, Wehrlein still had a small energy advantage over Evans, whose pace had now normalised again. He was followed by Buemi and de Vries. The top four had pulled away a little on the final lap, but there were no more attacks. As a result, Wehrlein took his third win of the season and the championship lead ahead of the season finale on Sunday! Evans finished second and Cassidy seventh in the end.

Wehrlein starts Sunday's race as the title favourite with 180 points. Just three points behind him, however, is Evans (177), who secured the bonus point for the fastest race lap shortly before the end. Cassidy is in third place with 173 points. The three-way championship battle could hardly be tighter! The remaining four drivers, who still had a mathematical chance before the race, withdrew from the title race on Saturday. Jaguar has a 36-point lead over Porsche in the teams' standings.

The final race of the season takes place in less than 24 hours. Once again, Formula E will start its final race of 2024 at 6 pm (CEST)!

Results & lap times

Championship standings (drivers & teams)

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