Race report

Formula E Diriyah ePrix II

Diriyah E-Prix: Cassidy scores first win for Jaguar, moves into points lead

Nick Cassidy took his first win for Jaguar in the second Diriyah E-Prix, holding Robin Frijns at bay to also claim the lead in the Formula E standings.

Stefan Mackley

Edited: Jan 28, 2024, 9:33 AM

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Nick Cassidy, Jaguar TCS Racing, 1st position, celebrates victory on the podium

The Jaguar driver, who had finished third in the opening race in Saudi Arabia, took the lead as early as lap five having started third on the grid.

He retained his position at the head of the field even when taking both his Attack Mode activations before managing the remainder of the 36-lap to head home Envision’s Frijns and Nissan’s Oliver Rowland.

Polesitter Rowland initially launched well of the line at the start but bogging down in the second phase of acceleration allowed fellow front row stater Frijns to pull alongside and take the lead into the opening turn.

The Nissan driver lost a further position to Cassidy on lap four as he took the first of his Attack Mode activations and began to gradually drop away from the leading pair.

This allowed Frijns to relinquish the lead to Cassidy a lap later after taking Attack Mode but only drop to second, as Cassidy began to increase the pace at the head of the field in order to build a gap to the Dutchman behind.

Cassidy had built up a 1.6s advantage to Frijns which would likely have been enough to retain the lead when taking his first Attack Mode, but he maintained the same gap as Frijns took his second activation at the same time on lap seven.

When Cassidy took his final Attack Mode on lap 13, he comfortably retained the lead having built a gap of almost 2s before he began to slow his pace and back Frijns into the chasing pack.

This was headed by Rowland, McLaren’s Jake Hughes, DS Penske’s Stoffel Vandoorne and the second Nissan of Sacha Fenestraz, with the top six having taken both Attack Mode activations by half distance.

Behind, Mexico City E-Prix winner Pascal Wehrlein was making good progress after starting 10th, overtaking Sam Bird on the exit of Turn 19 after the McLaren driver had tried to make a move on Jean-Eric Vergne ahead.

Bird would pull into the pits the next time round after hitting the wall and damaging his suspension, while Wehrlein made short work of Vergne, passing the DS Penske driver into Turn 1 to move into seventh.

Further back, race one winner in Diriyah and reigning champion Jake Dennis struggled to make progress from his starting position of 14th.

Shadowing Mitch Evans, the Jaguar driver having started one spot ahead on the grid, the Andretti driver moved ahead as the Kiwi took his second Attack Mode.

Back at the front, Cassidy managed his pace over the second half of the race, his lead never more than a few tenths of a second yet he never faced a serious test from Frijns or Rowland behind.

Behind the podium finishers the order remained unchanged in a race which settled down as Hughes headed Vandoorne, Fenestraz, Wehrlein, Vergne and Maserati MSG’s Maximilian Guenther.

Dennis finished 10th on-the-road as well as claiming the fastest lap, but he was handed a five-second penalty for passing Evans under yellow flags.

This was after Evans had gone to take his Attack Mode, the caution flags out after Maserati MSG’s Jehan Daruvala had pulled off the track due to a brake failure.

The decision dropped Dennis to 12th, while his team-mate Norman Nato and ERT’s Sergio Sette Camara were also handed 5s penalties for the same offense.

Diriyah E-Prix - Race results:

Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info

Driver Info

Main Information Additional Data

Cla Driver # Laps Time Interval km/h Points Retirement 1 New Zealand N. Cassidy Jaguar Racing 37 36

43'51.868

2 Netherlands R. Frijns Envision Racing 4 36

+1.192

43'53.060

1.192 3 United Kingdom O. Rowland Nissan e.dams 22 36

+1.875

43'53.743

0.683 4 United Kingdom J. Hughes McLaren 5 36

+2.931

43'54.799

1.056 5 Belgium S. Vandoorne DS Penske 2 36

+3.397

43'55.265

0.466 6 France S. Fenestraz Nissan e.dams 23 36

+4.598

43'56.466

1.201 7 Germany P. Wehrlein Porsche Team 94 36

+4.816

43'56.684

0.218 8 France J. Vergne DS Penske 25 36

+5.195

43'57.063

0.379 9 Germany M. Gunther Maserati Racing 7 36

+5.709

43'57.577

0.514 10 United Kingdom J. Dennis Andretti Formula E 1 36

+6.240

43'58.108

0.531 11 New Zealand M. Evans Jaguar Racing 9 36

+6.866

43'58.734

0.626 12 Switzerland E. Mortara Mahindra Racing 48 36

+10.116

44'01.984

3.250 13 Switzerland N. Müller Team Abt 51 36

+14.462

44'06.330

4.346 14 Portugal A. Felix da Costa Porsche Team 13 36

+17.960

44'09.828

3.498 15 Netherlands N. de Vries Mahindra Racing 21 36

+19.295

44'11.163

1.335 16 France N. Nato Andretti Formula E 17 36

+20.235

44'12.103

0.940 17 Brazil S. Sette Camara ERT Formula E Team 3 36

+21.564

44'13.432

1.329 18 Brazil L. di Grassi Team Abt 11 36

+25.639

44'17.507

4.075 dnf United Kingdom D. Ticktum ERT Formula E Team 33 32

+4 Laps

41'33.940

4 Laps Retirement dnf India J. Daruvala Maserati Racing 18 25

+11 Laps

30'55.484

7 Laps Retirement dnf United Kingdom S. Bird McLaren 8 22

+14 Laps

27'34.329

3 Laps Retirement View full results

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