Nick Cassidy makes it two-for-two in London as tensions between teammate Mitch Evans and Jaguar boil over. 

Race two of the London E-Prix followed an electric qualifying session, which saw Cupra Kiro’s Dan Ticktum take his maiden pole position — the perfect end to what has been the Brit’s strongest season to date.

However, a five-place grid penalty from Saturday’s race meant Ticktum would start from sixth on the grid. Saturday’s race winner, Nick Cassidy, became de facto polesitter, starting ahead of DS Penske’s Maximilian Günther and Mitch Evans.

The battle was on between Nissan and Porsche to see who would take home the Teams’ Championship.

Polesitter Nick Cassidy led the pack into the first corner, with Maximilian Günther hot on his heels. Edoardo Mortara’s race came to an end after just a handful of corners, the Mahindra slowing to a stop with a technical issue.

Lap 4 saw Evans make a move around the outside of Günther, making it a Jaguar 1-2. Meanwhile Ticktum, the fastest man of Sunday’s qualifying session, began to slip down the running order into P8, losing out to the two Nissans.

Going two by two around the corners of the Excel Circuit, things were getting scrappy. The drivers squeezed their way through the turns, with carbon flying at Turn 6 as Nico Müller lost his front wing.

Ticktum was forced to put on Lap 9, picking up a rear left puncture. Moments later, there was contact between De Vries and Rowland, the newly-crowned champion taking damage to the right of his front wing, the carbon clinging on for dear life. Despite the incident, Rowland was running well up in P2.

Norman Nato and Taylor Barnard also came together, coming to a brief stop and triggering Full Course Yellow. While Nato could get going again, Barnard had to head to the pits, bringing his race to an early end. Nato was now in P20 — a blow to Nissan’s Teams’ Championship hopes.

There was plenty of back and forth between De Vries and Rowland, the Mahindra driver diving in to take P2 from Rowland on Lap 15. Müller also fancied his chances on Rowland, eyeing up a move on the new World Champ.

 The scrap ended in misery for Rowland, whose aggressive defence against Müller saw the Nissan driver outbreak himself between Turns 2 and 3. With substantial damage to the both the Nissan and the Andretti, Rowland and Müller’s were forced to retire. The safety car came out as marshalls worked to recover the stricken Nissan.

Between Nato’s incident and Rowland’s DNF, Nissan’s chances at the Teams’ Championship was slipping away in real time — with Jaguar now in contention for the runner’s up place over Nissan.

Racing got back underway on Lap 20, Cassidy leading De Vries into Turn 1. Evans was in P3, but was driving under a five-second time penalty for overspeeding during the Full Course Yellow. Ticktum was also handed a penalty for a safety car infraction, heaping further misfortunate onto the Brit’s race.

Up at the front, the gap between Cassidy and Evans was closing — before team orders came into play, Evans being told to hold position.

Lap 27 saw Sam Bird retire to the pits; disappointing at the best of times, but particularly heart wrenching given the London E-Prix could be the final race of Bird’s Formula E career.

Meanwhile, a frustrated Evans vented over the radio. Over four seconds behind his teammate, the Jaguar driver felt he was receiving little help from the team. “Show me something that proves that you guys know how to manage a race,” said Evans. His race engineer replied, “I’m fighting for you mate.”

 The penalties continued to rain down on the grid, with Jean-Eric Vergne becoming the latest driver to receive a sanction from the stewards — this time, for not following race instructions.

Up ahead, with just two laps to go, Cassidy looked cool as anything. He now had an 11-second gap over Evans. On the penultimate lap, Ticktum was slapped with another five-second penalty.

With a 13-second lead, Cassidy crossed the line in first, making it two-for-two in the city of London; a fairytale ending to his time with Jaguar. De Vries finished in P2, profiting from Evans’ penalty, which dropped the Jaguar driver down to P5. Sebastien Buemi rounded out the top three, whilst Cupra Kiro’s David Beckmann took his first point of the season after finishing in P10.

As the curtain closed on Season 11, it was all smiles in the Porsche garage as they clinched both the Teams’ and Manufacturers’ Championships. Nissan, after a tough race, ended the battle in third, Jaguar beating them to second thanks to Nick Cassidy’s back-to-back wins.

Image courtesy of Fiercely Electric / @fiercely_fe

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