Photo: Formula E (Simon Galloway)

Jakarta e-Prix: Wehrlein takes victory ahead of Dennis

Pascal Wehrlein has won the Jakarta E-Prix!

The German driver has taken his third win of the season to claw back some of the points he’s lost behind the lead of the Championship. He only sits two points behind leader Nick Cassidy after this race.

It was an intense start as pole-sitter Maximillian Günther held his lead into turn one as second-placed Jake Dennis went wheel-to-wheel with eventual winner Wherlein. The Andretti driver dropped down to not just third, but fourth place as Stoffel Vandoorne got ahead of him.

It only took four laps for the lead to change hands when Günther was passed by Wehrlein into turn one, a popular spot for overtakes in Jakarta. Before long, the frontrunners were all battling for that top spot as they went into attack mode. Vandoorne would eventually take over in the lead of the race after Wehrlein dropped back to use his second stint of attack mode.

Meanwhile, championship contenders Nick Cassidy and Mitch Evans found themselves in a not-so-helpful seventh and ninth place by the end of lap 13, whilst both McLaren drivers continued to struggle outside of the points in 11th and 13th respectively.

After a disappointing start to proceedings, Dennis found his way past Vandoorne with a move up the inside. On lap 21, he was back up to where he started in second place and started to chase down Wehrlein. Nick Cassidy attempted the same move as Dennis on lap 2 but, the Envision driver would make contact with DS Penske driver Jean-Eric Vergne to hinder his race.

Before long, there was a mighty fight for the lead between the top four drivers Wehrlein, Dennis, Günther and Vandoorne but no driver could seem to find their way past another, the Jakarta streets proving difficult to make a move. The Porsche driver held his own ahead of eventual podium-standers Dennis and Günther though, and built a healthy gap to them after the titanic battles for his place.

With what looked like a clean race for every driver, disaster struck for the Jaguar team with just four laps remaining,  after Sam Bird took out teammate Evans into turn one, the latter rolling into the barriers to finish his race. With the standings the way they are, Evans needed every point he could get from this race, so Jakarta will be one to forget for both him and the Jaguar team.

The top three would remain the same until the chequered flag, with Wherlein dominating the end of the race ahead of second-placed Jake Dennis and third-placed Maximillian Günther.

Formula E returns tomorrow and we’re back in Jakarta for Round 11. It will sure be an interesting battle for the win after today’s action.

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