Evans wins Jakarta E-Prix, no points for Mahindra Racing

Mitch Evans won the inaugural Jakarta E-Prix after pulling off a late-race lunge on Jean-Eric Vergne. With this, the Jaguar TCS driver has secured his third race win of the 2022 Formula E season – adding to his double victories in Rome – to further close in on the championship leaders.

Unfortunately, Indian squad Mahindra Racing endured another difficult race, and did not collect any points in Indonesia.

• Evans wins ahead of Vergne and Mortara
• Vandoorne’s lead slashed to five points
• 12 points cover top four drivers in championship

Evans beats Vergne

It was Vergne who started the race from pole position, ahead of his DS Techeetah teammate Antonio Felix da Costa, with Evans starting third. Just one lap in, the Safety Car was brought out as Mahindra’s Oliver Rowland stopped on track due to a damaged wheel.

The restart played out in Evans’ favour as da Costa locked up and ran wide at Turn 7. There were diverging strategies out at front, with Evans taking his two Attack Modes later than Vergne. This allowed him to chase down Vergne in the closing stages of the race.

With less than 10 minutes remaining, Evans caught Vergne off-guard at Turn 7 with a bold move down the inside to take the lead. All of this also allowed Venturi’s Edoardo Mortara to close in,forcing Vergne to switch his focus on defending his position.

It was a tight finish with the gap between the top three being less than a second – Evans taking victory, ahead of Vergne and Mortara.

Vandoorne holds on to championship lead

Da Costa was fourth, ahead of Mercedes-EQ’s Stoffel Vandoorne, with the latter making three crucial passes in the race to wind up fifth. This sees him hold on to his championship lead, but his lead over Vergne, who is right behind him, is just five points.

Mortara is a further seven points off the lead (with 114 points), while Evans (with 109 points) is 12 points behind Vandoorne.

No points for Mahindra Racing

After a couple of difficult races, Mahindra Racing showed improved pace at the previous round in Berlin. This prompted team principal Dilbagh Gill to comment that the team has started unlocking its potential. However, they couldn’t continue this form in Jakarta.

Despite setting quick laps in practice, qualifying didn’t go well for the team as both Alexander Sims and Rowland did not make it to the duels. Then, in the race, Rowland was out on the opening lap itself after his car's tyres detached.

Sims, who qualified 20th and finished 15th, admitted that his performance was dictated by his poor form in qualifying. “This meant we started too far back to do anything significant in the race,” he said. But he’s looking at the positives, pointing out that the team “did a decent job to manage the temperature of the battery and tyres” and the race also gave them the chance to collect some crucial thermal data ahead of the Marrakesh E-Prix on July 2, which promises to be another hot race.

2022 Jakarta E-Prix results

Also see:

Vandoorne explains Formula E’s changing race approach

Mexico E-Prix was a wake-up call for Jaguar: Mitch Evans