Cassidy holds off Dennis to move into title contention with win in Berlin

Envision driver Nick Cassidy held off Jake Dennis over the closing stages of another frantic eprix in Berlin to take victory and move into title contention.

Cassidy moved into the lead with around a third of the race remaining and never let go, beating Dennis on the run to the chequered flag by less than a second. Jean-Eric Vergne completed the podium in third.

The two Abt drivers – the team languishing last in the teams’ championship – had secured a stunning front row lockout in a wet qualifying after both Robin Frijns and Nico Muller reached the final, with Frijns beating his team to pole position. Before the race start procedure began, a small group of protesters appeared to invade the grid and attempt to sit in front of the cars. Security took to the track and remove the protesters off the grid, with the start being delayed by a few minutes as a result.

When the lights eventually went out, Frijns led away from team mate Muller, with Sebastien Buemi in third ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne fourth and Mitch Evans fifth. On lap three, both Abt drivers took Attack Mode together for one minute, enabling Buemi to take the lead. He led for a lap before taking his first minute of Attack Mode, which put Vergne out front, before the DS Penske driver followed suit on the next lap, allowing Frijns to retake his lead.

Vergne used his Attack Mode power to pass Muller for third, before Frijns took his second and final Attack Mode on lap six, dropping to fifth place and cycling Evans into the race lead. Evans took his first Attack Mode the next lap which put Vergne into the lead, but Evans managed to rejoin in front of Frijns in fourth place.

At the start of lap eight, Muller repassed Vergne to take the lead on track, before surrendering it back to Vergne when his took his second Attack Mode later in the lap. Muller rejoined ahead of his team mate and gained back second place when Vergne and Buemi both took their second Attack Modes later in the lap. With his extra power, Muller pressured Evans for the lead of the race, but did not have to attempt a pass for the lead as the Jaguar driver took his second Attack Mode mid way through lap ten.

Championship leader Pascal Wehrlein sat in second behind race leader Muller without taking either of his Attack Mode periods. However, he dived to the inside of Muller into the final corner to take the lead before handing it back by taking his first minute of Attack Mode on lap 12.

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Muller fell out of the lead after the leading pack began battling among itself with Buemi emerging with the lead. That did not last long as the two Porsches of Wehrlein and Antonio Felix da Costa passed the Envision driver into turn one to take the lead. Buemi was handed the lead back when Wehrlein took his final attack mode, with Wehrlein moving back into second place.

On lap 18, Buemi gave up the lead after appearing to try and take Attack Mode for a third time despite having already used up his four minutes. That moved Wehrlein back into the lead, with Vergne in second, before Vergne slipped by the Porsche into the first corner at the start of the 21st lap. Buemi suffered front wing damage from contact before his wing appeared to collapse as he crossed the timing line at the end of the lap, forcing him to pit.

The entire field was covered by just over eight seconds with the lead continuing to swap between those sitting at the front as all drivers wanted the benefit of a slipstream to save energy. However, the pack began to settle down after Cassidy moved into the lead soon after overtaking three drivers into turn six, with Jake Dennis now in second place ahead of Vergne in third.

Cassidy remained in the lead and began to pick up the pace with around six laps to go, with Dennis in second holding one-per-cent more usable energy than the leader. But despite his advantage, Dennis was not able to pressure Cassidy for the lead.

Less than half a second separated the pair entering the final lap, with Cassidy crucially able to keep ahead of Dennis on the approach to the key overtaking spots on the circuit. Despite Dennis’s extra energy, Cassidy successfully held off Dennis to take the chequered flag, the 25 points and throw himself into championship contention.

Vergne took the final podium position in third, ahead of Evans in fourth ahead of Da Costa and Maximilian Gunther. Wehrlein finished seventh to retain his championship leader with Stoffel Vandoorne, Muller and Dan Ticktum completing the top ten.

Wehrlein continues to lead the championship with 100 points, with Cassidy now his closest rival, four points behind. The next round at Monaco will take place in two weeks.

Formula E Berlin Eprix race results:

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Car
1	37	Nick Cassidy	Envision	Jaguar I-Type 6
2	27	Jake Dennis	Andretti	Porsche 99X Electric Gen3
3	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	DS Penske	DS E-TENSE FE23
4	9	Mitch Evans	Jaguar	Jaguar I-Type 6
5	13	Antonio Felix da Costa	Porsche	Porsche 99X Electric Gen3
6	7	Maximilian Guenther	Maserati	Maserati Tipo Folgore
7	94	Pascal Wehrlein	Porsche	Porsche 99X Electric Gen3
8	1	Stoffel Vandoorne	DS Penske	DS E-TENSE FE23
9	51	Nico Mueller	Abt Cupra	Mahindra M9Electro
10	33	Dan Ticktum	NIO 333	NIO 333 ER9
11	23	Sacha Fenestraz	Nissan	Nissan e-4ORCE 04
12	11	Lucas di Grassi	Mahindra	Mahindra M9Electro
13	58	Rene Rast	McLaren	Nissan e-4ORCE 04
14	8	Oliver Rowland	Mahindra	Mahindra M9Electro
15	3	Sergio Sette Camara	NIO 333	NIO 333 ER9
16	17	Norman Nato	Nissan	Nissan e-4ORCE 04
17	4	Robin Frijns	Abt Cupra	Mahindra M9Electro
18	5	Jake Hughes	McLaren	Nissan e-4ORCE 04
19	10	Sam Bird	Jaguar	Jaguar I-Type 6
20	16	Sebastien Buemi	Envision	Jaguar I-Type 6
21	36	Andre Lotterer	Andretti	Porsche 99X Electric Gen3
22	48	Edoardo Mortara	Maserati	Maserati Tipo Folgore

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Formula E

• Wehrlein wins second Misano race after Rowland’s last lap heartache
• Da Costa disqualified from first Misano race, handing Rowland win
• Da Costa becomes sixth different winner in six rounds in first Misano race
• Aron and Eriksson to replace WEC-bound Buemi and Frijns at Envision in Berlin
• Guenther wins in Tokyo after Rowland gives up the lead

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