It was a one-two-three for Jaguar powertrains after an enthralling race which was nail-biting all the way to the chequered flag.
Defending champion and polesitter Stoffel Vandoorne flew off the line as the lights went green to leave the rest of the grid behind. There was chaos into turns one and two with Sébastien Buemi (who would eventually DNF on lap two) going into the rear of Günther’s Maserati and Norman Nato damaging his front wing along with Edoardo Mortara whose damage was more terminal.
It was a terrific recovery drive from championship leader Pascal Wehlein who had already made up eight places by lap three. The same couldn’t be said for the Nissan drivers who were both out of the race by lap eight, with Sacha Fenestraz bringing out the safety car on that lap itself. There was then a cascade of overtakes following the restart with the order constantly chopping and changing every lap.
On lap fourteen, there were four cars battling for first place with Nick Cassidy, Mitch Evans and António Félix da Costa fighting for the same piece of track throughout, but Jake Dennis would DNF and bring out the double yellows to make it interesting. Cassidy would be the new leader at this stage for the Envision team.
The safety car came out again on lap eighteen with the race hanging firmly in the balance. Cassidy and Vandoorne used their attack mode immediately and were side by side on the run down to turn four. The gap between the former and Evans was less than a second during the final laps, with Bird’s third place anything but confirmed during a battle with Vandoorne.
It was a frenetic ending and last laps with the top three nose to nail through every corner, but Evans was the one who took the checker for his maiden win of the season!