Formula E: Evans heads Jaguar one-two in Monaco E-Prix

Mitch Evans sealed victory in the 2024 Monaco E-Prix, leading home his team-mate Mitch Evans. F1Technical's senior writer Balázs Szabó reports on the Monte Carlo round.

Starting from pole position, Porsche driver Pascal Wehrlein had a great launch off the line, holding on to his leading position into Turn 1. However, there were a few contacts behind the German driver with Mahindra racer Nyck de Vries losing a part of his front wing.

On Lap 3, Wehrlein elected to take his first attack mode which saw him drop down the order to P5. As a result, Stoffel Vandoorne found himself on top of the field with Mitch Evans and Nyck Cassidy following suit.

The next lap saw Sette Camara touch Sebastien Buemi’s car, sending the Swiss driver into the barriers at exit of the hairpin turn. The Brazilian driver could carry on, but it took a while until Buemi could rejoin the action. Porsche driver Antonio Felix da Costa was also involved in the melee, although he could also carry on, albeit in P18.

On the same lap, Edoardo Mortara hit the wall at the Swimming Pool corner. His crash was the result of a duel between himself and Daniel Ticktum which lasted multiple corners. The Mahindra driver was squeezed out of position at the Chicane, before Ticktum drew alongside through Tabac. Mortara caught a bucket of understeer approaching the fast Swimming Pool chicane, and crashed into the walls with some force.

The safety car was deployed to clear the debris and repair the walls with the interruption lasting four laps.

On Lap 10, Vandoorne went through the attack zone, with Evans taking over the lead from the Belgian driver. On the next tour, reigning champion Dennis made contact with Robin Frijns in the Tunnel. The incident saw Dennis suffer damage to his front wing which required a pit-stop, demoting the Andretti driver to the back of the pack.

The middle of the race saw Jaguar drivers Evans and Cassidy leading from the DS Penske pair of Vandoorne and Vergne. The two teams played a brilliant strategy game with the attack zones.

First, Cassidy slowed down to let Evans build up a three-second gap which enabled the race leader to take an attack mode without losing a position. He then let Cassidy go by with the latter starting to build up a gap to have enough of a margin to go through the attack zone for the second time.

The next laps saw the DS Penske pair work together through the attack mode activations to hold track position behind the leading Jaguars and in front of the championship leader Wehrlein.

On Lap 25, Nico Mueller was tagged by McLaren’s Jake Hughes at Rascasse with the incident requiring another Safety Car interruption. As a result, Race Director Scot Elkins elected to extend the race distance with two laps due to the two SC periods.

After the race was restarted, Evans controlled the dying stages of the race, heading Cassidy home from Vandoorne and Vergne. Wehrlein finished in P5 ahead of Oliver Rowland and da Costa with Sacha Fenestraz, Guenther and Norman Nato completing the point-scoring positions.

Commenting on his race win, Evans added: “We knew it was going to be a tough race, we knew it was going to be all about the strategy around the ATTACK MODEs Nick and I started side by side, that kind of helped things as the race evolved. We had a rough game plan going into the race, but I really owe this win to Nick, he really helped me when it mattered. I helped him when it mattered as well, but I am the one that has come out on top. I really appreciate the team player he was today.”

“Obviously, we discuss all potential scenarios, but you know, the majority of the time you get on track the race happens completely differently. So the way it turned out, yeah, I think it was as expected.”

Despite only taking P5 in Monaco, Wehrlein find himself on top of the standings on 102 points with an extended lead. Cassidy sits second on 95 points, with Dennis six points further back, now third. Just 14 points split first and fourth in the Drivers' table.

Jaguar TCS Racing top the Teams' running on 172 points to TAG Heuer Porsche's 128.