John N
Stoffel Vandoorne became a Formula E winner for the first time at the Monaco E-Prix. He rose from fourth on the grid to take the lead of the race, using his clean solid air pace to his advantage after Pascal Wehrlein retired from the front of the field with a mechanical problem. The Mercedes pulled away out of the reach of Evans, who used Attack Mode to try and chase down Vandoorne in the final laps. Jean-Eric Vergne claimed third place for Techeetah.
At the start of the race, polesitter Mitch Evans led from Pascal Wherlein in second, with Jean-Eric Vergne behind them in third as the field made their way around the Monte Carlo streets for the first time. Sam Bird lost seven places at the start, while Jake Dennis managed to gain three.
For ten minutes, the field ran relatively orderly over the opening laps, but then Nick Cassidy stepped out of the queue to be the first driver to take attack mode from near the back of the field. Antonio Felix da Costa took his first attack mode from 11th place, using it to pass Oliver Rowland and Jake Dennis once they took attack mode on the following lap. Bird retired from the race shortly after reporting wishbone damage on his Jaguar.
Out in front, Evans was leading, with Wehrlein in second, thinking about how to get by the man in front. Wehrlein tried a half-hearted look outside into the harbor chicane, but Evans held him off and kept the lead. Vergne was the first of the leaders to take attack mode, dropping from third to sixth behind Lucas di Grassi and Robin Frijns.
He charged past Frijns for fifth up the hill after Sainte Devote and then passed Di Grassi for fourth at the chicane later. Evans eventually took his first attack mode just before half distance, gifting the lead to Wehrlein dropping behind Vergne in third. Vandoorne and Di Grassi did the same a lap later. Wehrlein took his first attack mode a lap later, only just falling behind Evans in third and allowing Vergne into the lead.
Despite both Evans and Wehrlein benefiting from attack mode, the Porsche passed the Jaguar to move up into second place and immediately began pressuring Vergne for the lead. Coming out of the tunnel, Wehrlein used his extra speed to drive around Vergne into the lead of the race, while Vandoorne demoted Evans down to fourth.
Suddenly, Wehrlein began slowing approaching the Fairmont Hotel Hairpin, pulling to the side of the track as Vergne took the lead of the race. Vergne took his second attack mode on the following lap, allowing Vandoorne into the first position. But Wehrlein had come to a stop at the tunnel’s exit, causing a brief Full Course Yellow while the Porsche was recovered.
After the session restarted, Oliver Rowland and Andre Lotterer collided while fighting into Sainte Devote. Both cars clattered into the barriers, putting Lotterer out on the sport and forcing Rowland to pull off the circuit further around the lap. The Safety Car was deployed, but Vandoorne took his second attack mode and managed to retain the lead of the race, his attack mode time draining away as he sat behind the Safety Car.
The race restarted with under ten minutes of regulation race time remaining, with Vandoorne leading Evans and Vergne. Evans was the only driver in the top four positions yet to take his second attack mode. He eventually did with just over five minutes of standard race time remaining, dropping to fourth behind Frijns.
Evans used his greater power to first drive around Frijns into fourth before doing the same to Vergne for second a lap later. The Jaguar driver had only a minute of attack mode remaining to try and catch Vandoorne in the lead but could not bridge the gap to the Mercedes out front.
Vandoorne managed to hold his advantage and use up the additional race time to cross the line with less than one percent of energy remaining and take the chequered flag, a handful of seconds ahead of Mitch Evans. The Mercedes driver also secured the championship lead with his victory.
Jean-Eric Vergne took the final place on the famous Monaco podium in third, ahead of Robin Frijns in fourth. Da Costa took fifth for Techeetah, with Di Grassi in sixth for local team Venturi. Nick Cassidy took seventh for Envision, with Sebastian Buemi moving up from the rear of the grid to finish in eighth.
Jake Dennis and Nyck de Vries rounded out the points positions in ninth and tenth, respectively.
