Nick Cassidy Claims Opening New York City E-Prix Victory Despite Crashing

Nick Cassidy took his maiden FIA Formula E World Championship victory in amazing circumstances as a heavy rain shower saw the leading drivers hit the wall.

The Envision Racing driver was leading the race when the rain came, and he, second placed Lucas di Grassi and fourth placed Stoffel Vandoorne all aquaplaned heading into turn six. 

Other drivers also got caught up in the melee including championship leader Edoardo Mortara, Pascal Wehrlein and Sébastien Buemi as conditions became impossible. 

Buemi hit the back of Wehrlein on the run to turn six after being another to aquaplane, with the Tag Heuer Porsche FE Team driver then stopping at the exit of the turn and was hit from behind by Jaguar TCS Racing’s Sam Bird and Avalanche Andretti FE Team’s Jake Dennis.

Cassidy, ROKiT Venturi Racing’s di Grassi and Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team’s Vandoorne all took big hits into the barrier and into each other, although all three were able to get out of their cars under their own power as the red flags flew in New York.

Robin Frijns was the only driver of the leading quartet to get through the turn unscathed, but with the red flags flying and race failing to resume, he was ultimately classified third as his team-mate Cassidy was given the win despite being back in his garage.  This was because the race was called due to the barrier at turn six needing too much repair work to be undertaken.

Cassidy had started the race from pole position and got a good getaway to hold onto the lead, while fellow front row starter Vandoorne lost places to di Grassi and Buemi.  The battle at the front was primarily between Cassidy and di Grassi, with the two switching places a couple of times during the attack mode uses.

Di Grassi attempted to attack Cassidy for the lead using his Fanboost but failed to get the job done, and Vandoorne took advantage the next lap to use his own Fanboost to jump into second.  However, di Grassi was far from done and regained the position into turn one, a move that also allowed Frijns through into third.

Mortara used his attack mode late to make gains to climb from ninth on the grid to finish fifth, although he ended up with damage to his car after aquaplaning into the wall when the rain fell.  He ended up ahead of Buemi and Wehrlein, while Dennis, Bird and Nyck de Vries completed the points scorers.

Mitch Evans was flying in the second half of the race but was forced to settle for eleventh when the race was called ahead of Nissan e.dams’ Maximilian Günther, while André Lotterer was thirteenth in the second Porsche.

The DS Techeetah team had a nightmare afternoon as Jean-Éric Vergne finished only eighteenth, while team-mate António Félix da Costa retired with left-rear tyre damage just prior to the rain shower.

Sérgio Sette Câmara failed to start the race after crashing in Qualifying, while his Dragon/Penske Autosport team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi retired with damage after getting involved in a first lap clash that involved Vergne and Evans.

New York City E-Prix Race 1 Result