Antonio Felix da Costa converted pole position into his first victory of the 2021-22 Formula E season, seeing off Stoffel Vandoorne, who became the new championship leader in New York City.
The DS Techeetah driver was able to keep kept Vandoorne just behind him n the closing stages of a thrilling second race at the Brooklyn Street Circuit.
A late yellow flag stopped Vandoorne from passing Da Costa in the closing lasp, as a pile-up at Turn 6, which involved Jean-Eric Vergne, Lucas di Grassi and Oliver Askew.
Despite Vandoorne having 1% more energy than da Costa, he held on to collect his and Techeetah’s first win of the year, continuing his turnaround after a difficult start to the campaign.
Da Costa held his pole off the start despite pressure from fellow front-row starter Alexander Sims, but the Mahindra driver looked more concerned by the cars behind him and thus tried to stick with the Portuguese driver.
Andre Lotterer had a dreadful start from third, and dropped into the midpack and allowed Vandoorne to jump into third at Turn 1.
The leading duo picked up their sole eight-minute attack mode activations on lap 12, with Vandoorne instructed to do the opposite of Sims, which allowed the Mercedes driver to secure the lead for a lap.
Vandoorne then picked up attack mode on the following tour, dropping back to third, but he continued to stick with the frontrunners along with team-mate Nyck de Vries.
But having lost a little ground to da Costa, Sims was then under heavy pressure from Vandoorne who, after a few aborted efforts, finally made his way past.
Mitch Evans collected a hard-fought third place, recovering from a shoulder-barge from de Vries and a subsequent huge slide after hitting a bump in the road on the run to Turn 6 – which he miraculously saved.
