"Not exactly comfortable, but it worked" - Mitch Evans storms from last grid place to record Formula E win

Mitch Evans is the surprise winner of the Sao Paulo E-Prix. The Jaguar driver started from 22nd and last place on the grid and drove to victory. With 13 victories in the electric series, he equalled the record of Lucas di Grassi and Sebastien Buemi. After the race, he was surprised by the result himself.

"What a wild race," summarised Evans after his victory. "When lining up in the grid, I was first of all hoping to see the chequered flag. I had some issues on the track over the last two days, which prevented me from qualifying and cutting one of the practice sessions short."

"But, once the race started, I just had to forget about it," he said. "I caught ten cars in the first two laps. That really changed my race quickly, because I was starting to get in the midpack. I decided to shift my focus to try and optimise the race even more."

When the first drivers activated attack mode, Evans' strategy changed again. "It was quite eye opening how much progress people were making," he says, referring in particular to his team-mate Nick Cassidy. The latter was immediately ahead of Evans in midfield when he activated his first attack mode and then moved into the lead within one and a half laps.

"That result is so unexpected"

The New Zealander also benefited from the two suspensions of the race, even if these had very different effects. In particular, the standing restart after the first red flag meant that Evans had to invest a lot of energy. Fortunately for him, the race director decided not to carry out a standing restart after the second interruption.

"The red flags were very different," he describes. "On the first one, energy level dropped a lot. (After the second,) in the last few laps, the energy target was just high enough for me to hold out - not exactly comfortable, but it worked."

"Obviously, 25 points is a massive surprise. That result is so unexpected on the back of what happened in qualifying," he admits. "But I'll take it. It's been a good track for me, it's my second win. I'm pretty happy."

Evans is therefore travelling to the next race in Mexico City as the championship leader. By contrast, his main rivals in last season's championship battle, Pascal Wehrlein, Nick Cassidy and Oliver Rowland, failed to score any points in the Sao Paulo race.