Techeetah driver Jules-Eric Vergne secured his second Formula E win of the season in the 2019 Monaco e-Prix. The driver started the race on ...
Techeetah driver Jules-Eric Vergne secured his second Formula E win of the season in the 2019 Monaco e-Prix. The driver started the race on pole and managed to convert it into a victory but not before a late charge from Nissan e.Dams' Oliver Rowland, while Venturi driver Felipe Massa bagged his first podium in the electric racing series. Coming I fourth was Mahindra Racing's Pascal Wehrlein, who was pushed to fourth in the opening lap and couldn't climb the order till the chequered flag.
The Monaco e-Prix started with Vergne in the lead with Wehrlein coming close to pass the Techeetah driver. However, the Mahindra driver ran wide at Sainte-Devote in the early stages dropped behind Rowland and Massa. The top order remained that way for the remainder of the race as the leaders started to detach from the rest of the field. Vergne built a lead over two seconds but only to be caught up by Rowland. The latter made a late charge for the top spot and attempted to pass Vergne at Turn 3 on the penultimate lap. However, Vergne fended off the attack to cross the chequered flag with a lead of 0.201s.
Meanwhile, Massa was in one of his best races of this year and claimed his first-ever Formula E podium finish. That said, the Venturi did survive a contact from Wehrlein who was attempting for the podium as well. Massa crossed the flag 1.261s off the race leader, with Wehrlein following suit by a gap of 0.238s. Former Formula E champion Sebastien Buemi of Nissan e.Dams finished fifth, ahead of BMW's Antonio Felix Da Costa who took the spot after teammate Alexander Sims moved aside halfway into the race. Sims though is under investigation for using more power than allowed and is currently at P15.
Jaguar Racing's Mitch Evans finished seventh after dropping out of the top 10 early in the race, but managed to recover to P7 on the penultimate lap after overtaking Virgin Racing driver Sam Bird. The latter developed a puncture and was eventually classified at P17.
Audi driver Daniel Abt finished at P8 and is also under investigation after an incident with NIO's Oliver Turvey. The last two points were taken by Techeetah's Andre Lotterer who finished at P9 after starting in 20th place, while Alex Lynn of Jaguar Racing after running higher in the order in the early stages but lost his front right wheel cover after making contact at half distance. HWA AG's Stoffel Vandoorne finished in 11th place followed by Dragon's Jose Maria Lopez.
Mahindra's Jerome d'Ambrosio finished at P13 followed by HWA driver Gary Paffett in 14th place. Lucas di Grassi of Audi was one of the first casualties in the race and crashed into the wall forced by Sims who was trying to pass Sam Bird. Also a casualty of the crash was pre-race points leader Robin Frijns of DS Virgin Racing who was pushed into the barrier.
The multitude of crashes have changed the points order in Formula E driver standings at the end of the Monaco e-Prix. Vergne now leads the points table with a five point lead over Andre Lotterer, while Frijns' DNF has pushed him to third. With four races left in the championship, the races are only going to get more exciting from hereon.
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