Jaguar in Berlin with light and shade: Evans wins, Felix da Costa only 18th after collision with Müller

Jaguar TCS suffered the same fate as Porsche the day before on Formula E Sunday in Berlin: while Mitch Evans won the race, team-mate Antonio Felix da Costa dropped back to 18th place after a collision. The key to the New Zealander's victory: the tactical decision in qualifying to deliberately start the race from the back of the field.

Sunday's race at Tempelhof Airport was another slipstream battle characterised by strategy: The "pack racing" of the Gen3 era has now become a habit in Berlin. Last year, Nick Cassidy in particular demonstrated impressively how you can win the race despite starting from the back. This year, the second race of the double-header in Tempelhof was similar again.

The drivers held back their actual pace for a long time in the race in order to save as much energy as possible. The field was kept close together for a long time until Mitch Evans worked his way up from 17th place after the start and was able to celebrate victory in the end.

Drivers deliberately held back

During the qualifying session, it was already apparent that some drivers, including Evans, held back, did not use new tyres and therefore accepted the start from the back of the grid. This created an advantage for the tyre-eating track surface in the hot conditions of the weekend. It was clear that race victory was possible from any starting position anyway.

Race winner Evans commented on this plan in the post-race press conference: "That was the plan for today. We did it that way because I was already a bit slow over one lap during the whole weekend. Yesterday it was close, but I was already 16th by then. To be honest, I have been really slow on one lap for most of the season and have struggled in qualifying.

Evans: "It was all about patience"

"I then talked to the team about saving the tyres for the race and accepting the start from the back. There was a good chance of that anyway. I don't know if the advantage of the new tyres was that big, but it didn't do any harm. For me, the race was all about patience and taking my first attack mode at the right time."

"From what I heard, my energy advantage was very big," continued the New Zealander. "I wasn't even sure if I had missed the right window at first, but I was confident that the wait would pay off, which is exactly what happened."

This is Evans' 16th win with Jaguar and in Formula E. He extended his own record and remains ahead of Sebastien Buemi and his team-mate Felix da Costa in the all-time leaderboard, both of whom have 14 victories to their name.

"I have known for some time that I would be leaving the team," he explains. "Of course, it was no surprise that it would be announced at some point, but that makes it all the more real. I am still a Jaguar driver and I want to win my first championship. I would love to do that with them. It would be a great story for my last season with the team.

The chance of this happening is greater than ever this season after Evans' victory. He is now in second place in the drivers' standings and has moved to within three points of the championship leader, Pascal Wehrlein.

Puncture for Felix da Costa after colliding with Müller

On the other side of the garage, Sunday did not go so smoothly. In qualifying, Antonio Felix da Costa made it into the duel phase and started from 8th place. After the start, he initially moved into the leading group and stayed in the top 10 after the finish. However, a collision with Nico Müller's Porsche followed a few laps before the finish. The contact destroyed the Portuguese driver's race permanently, as he had to pit with a puncture and dropped back to 18th place, where he ultimately finished the race.

"Today was a tough one to take," said Felix da Costa after the race. "We had the pace, the efficiency, and the strategy to fight at the very front, and for a moment it felt like everything could come together. Unfortunately, the puncture ended our chances, but that’s motorsport sometimes. I’m proud of the performance we showed as a team, and I’m really happy for Mitch and everyone at Jaguar TCS Racing for another win."

The nerve-wracking weekend in Berlin ended with a tense situation in the drivers' championship. There are just eight points between the top three. The action continues in Monaco in less than two weeks' time. The next double-header awaits us there on 16 and 17 May, which should again offer plenty of excitement.