Formula E: Da Costa wins second Berlin race, Cassidy extends championship lead

Porsche driver Antonio Felix da Costa took a brilliant victory in Sunday's race of the Berlin E-Prix double-header weekend. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo reports on the second Tempelhof race from the paddock.

The second race of this weekend’s Berlin double-header was two laps shorter, and drivers had two minutes fewer of attack mode. It all meant that the field was expected to be able to push harder in today’s 38-lap race.

Ahead of the race, the race control also confirmed a 40-place grid penalty for ERT driver Daniel Ticktum after his team changed the gearbox and MCU in his car. As he was unable to serve the penalty, he was also handed a ten-second stop-and-go penalty.

Having taken pole position in the morning, Jake Dennis had a good getaway, but Nick Cassidy managed to sneak by as the pair approached Turn 1. The Kiwi was eager to take his first attack mode early which meant that he dropped down to P3.

With drivers adamant to get through their attack modes, Dennis and Pascal Wehrlein also took their extra 50kW of power. As soon as he ran out of his first attack mode, the German elected to go through the attack zone for second time.

In the meantime, Antonio Felix da Costa took the lead, but he quickly lost it as he went for an attack mode.

Despite some impressive pace in the early part of the race, Maserati’s Maximilian Guenther endured disaster again as he lost his front wing due to a contact with an Andretti car.

He stopped on track, and safety car was deployed. However, Guenther managed to get back going again, but the damage meant that he was forced to pit and retire from the race for the second successive time.

Until the safety car interruption, Nissan driver Oliver Rowland was able to climb up the order by eleven positions, mirroring his yesterday’s race.

There was another safety car interruption as Sacha Fenestraz and Norman Nato came to blows. The Andretti driver was eager to overtake the Nissan racer, but he crashed into the car of Fenestraz, who went into the walls.

Because of the stricken Nissan, the safety car was deployed for the second time.

The race went green once again on Lap 29, with da Costa heading Rowland, Cassidy, Evans, Dennis, Wehrlein, Vergne, Hughes, Daruvala and Barnard.

Dennis and Wehrlein were involved in a long battle which saw the Andretti driver nudge the back of the Porsche. The incident caused some damage to the front wing of Dennis, albeit he was able to continue.

At the sharp end of the field, Evans held on to the lead, but da Costa sneaked by finally. The Kiwi still needed to go through the attack zone, and he rejoined the action in fourth place after taking his second and last additional power mode.

Using the extra 50kW of power, Evans made it by his team-mate Cassidy.

In the meantime, FIA Formula E race director Scot Elkins confirmed that the race would be extended by three laps due to the safety car interruptions.

As the race approached its final stages, da Costa managed to pull away by some 1.3 seconds while the two Jaguars Evans and Cassidy were fighting hard for P3. Yesterday’s race winner elected to overtake Evans to try to chase down Rowland.

The Kiwi managed to close in on the Nissan driver relatively quickly, and went by Rowland on the penultimate lap. Despite his impressive pace in the dying stages of the race, Cassidy was unable to catch race leader da Costa, who was given some breathing space earlier due to the duels behind.

The Portuguese driver kept his composure and scored the win from 10th place on the grid. Cassidy crossed the finish line second with Rowland completing the podium in the second Berlin race.

His win in race one and his second-placed finish in race two meant that Cassidy left Berlin with a monster 45-point haul and the standings lead - 140 points to Wehrlein's 124. Rowland sits third on 118.

In the Teams' Championship, Jaguar TCS Racing sit on top on 237 points with TAG Heuer Porsche second on 183.