Evans wins Sao Paulo E-Prix as Jaguar-powered cars lock out podium

Jaguar-powered cars took a clean sweep of the podium at the inaugural Sao Paulo E-Prix. After bouncing back from a string of poor luck, Jaguar TCS Racing’s Mitch Evans took victory in Brazil, with teammate Sam Bird finishing third. Envision Racing’s Nick Cassidy was second, clinching his third podium finish in a row.

Mahindra Racing, along with customer team Abt Cupra, returned to the grid after having to withdraw from the previous Cape Town E-Prix due to rear suspension safety concerns. However, neither team was able to score any points.

• Evans wins, 0.284 secs ahead of Cassidy
• Bird completes podium
• Wehrlein finishes seventh to hold on to title lead

Three-way Jaguar fight for Sao Paulo E-Prix win

Polesitter Stoffel Vandoorne led the race early on. But the new Brazil street track’s layout ended up taking a toll on the leaders, since drivers behind were gaining the advantage of the slipstream effect and conserving a lot more energy.

As the laps went by, Cassidy and Evans broke clear of the field. Behind them, Bird was also making quick progress after rising up from 10th on the grid. The Brit was handed a five-place grid penalty for causing a collision with teammate Evans in the Hyderabad E-Prix. Since he was unable to compete in Cape Town after his qualifying crash, he had to serve the penalty in Sao Paulo.

On Lap 32, Evans made a decisive move on Cassidy to take the race lead. And he held on to take his first victory of the season, with the top three separated by just half a second. “This win has come at the perfect time because we’ve had a tough start and the Jaguar has been quick. To finally get a victory is incredible – Nick [Cassidy] pushed me all the way. This is all down to the hard work of the team; so much work into the strategy, to try and put it together is not easy. So, I’m super happy to get some big points on the board,” Evans said.

Porsche’s Antonio Felix da Costa finished fourth, followed by DS Penske’s Jean-Eric Vergne. Vandoorne’s early laps in the lead left him struggling for energy in the second half of the race and he wound up sixth.

Wehrlein holds on to 2023 Formula E championship lead

Standings leader Pascal Wehrlein had to fight hard to hold on to his advantage; a brush with the wall in qualifying and a three-place penalty for a clash in Cape Town left him starting from 18th on the grid. But he weaved his way through the field to finish seventh, enough to hold on to the championship lead.

He was followed by the McLaren duo of Jake Hughes and Rene Rast, while Envision Racing’s Sebastien Buemi rounded out the top 10.

After the race, Wehrlein still leads the standings with a total of 86 points. Jake Dennis is second overall with 62 points. However, the Andretti driver didn’t score any points in Sao Paulo after clashing with Dan Ticktum. Nick Cassidy is third in the standings, just one point behind Dennis.

Mahindra admits Sao Paulo E-Prix was a ‘difficult weekend'

All four Mahindra-powered cars returned to action at Sao Paulo with modified rear suspension. Since the re-homologation was done for safety reasons, they did not receive any penalties. But neither Mahindra nor Abt Cupra was able to score any points.

Mahindra team principal Frederic Bertrand admitted, “It was quite a difficult weekend for us.”

“We started on a pace which was not necessarily the one we wanted, but we have been able to build up all along the weekend," he further explained. "Qualifying was not at all what we want; a small mistake for Lucas [di Grassi] really ruined his chances of figuring out in a good way. Same for Oliver [Rowland], he had no real good feeling with the car and was not able to get it to the level we wanted.”

“But we were able to recover a lot of positions. Lucas was able to get from P22 to P13, which was a good step. For Oliver, despite a few difficult moments in the race, he was also able to recover four positions from P19 to P15.”

Bertrand added that Sao Paulo was “definitely not the type of weekend we want to have again. But we know that these are the weekends where we are learning a lot and where we are building up the team in the direction we want. Midfield is where we are today, but it’s not where we want to be tomorrow.”

There’s now a four-week break in the calendar before the Berlin double-header, and Bertrand says Mahindra will use this time to focus on testing.

2023 Sao Paulo E-Prix results

Also see:

Da Costa, Porsche win Cape Town E-Prix; Mahindra withdraw from race