Jake Dennis takes a 24-point Formula E world championship lead into the season-closing London double-header after main rivals Nick Cassidy and Mitch Evans collided in his wake in Rome race two.
Third-place qualifier Norman Nato had got between front row duo Dennis and Cassidy with a bold first-lap move, but by the end of that lap he had already been elbowed back to fourth by Cassidy and Evans.
Then as Dennis and Cassidy went side by side into the tight Turn 7 left-hander on lap three, Evans was caught out by how quickly the leaders slowed, braked abruptly and locked his Jaguar’s rear wheels, sending him sliding sideways into his two title rivals ahead.
He slightly clipped Dennis’s Andretti Porsche then went right over the top of Cassidy’s Envision Jaguar, sending the 2024 factory Jaguar team-mates down the escape road together. Fellow title contender Pascal Wehrlein, both McLarens and Jean-Eric Vergne all sustained varying degrees of damage in the traffic mess behind.
OH NO!!!!! 🤯
Mitch Evans goes into the back of Nick Cassidy and ends up ON TOP of the Envision Racing driver!
Both drivers escape unhurt – thank goodness for the halo!@Hankook_Sport #RomeEPrix pic.twitter.com/NnvJdmf1l4
— ABB FIA Formula E World Championship (@FIAFormulaE) July 16, 2023
Cassidy continued but could only progress from 19th to 14th, colliding with Dennis’s team-mate Andre Lotterer on the final lap, while Evans rejoined after pitting for repairs but soon had to retire his “undriveable” car. It got even worse for Evans after the race as he was handed a five-place grid penalty for London where he now needs a miracle to win the title.
As Dennis then led from Nato – who sustained some wing damage clipping his rival on lap six – Sam Bird in third place in the remaining works Jaguar held a clear energy advantage over both.
He cleared Nato and mounted attack after attack on Dennis, whose neat defensive driving always kept the Jaguar at bay and kept the pack backed up too.
Nato got second back when Bird took his first attack mode one lap before the Nissan took its second and lost time repassing Sebastien Buemi. Despite that energy edge, Bird couldn’t get back past Nato as he claimed the works Nissan team’s first podium of the Gen3 era and in almost two years, while Dennis escaped to win by 3.1 seconds.
It’s his first actual race win since the season opener in Mexico, though he’s had another seven podiums in the interim.
The Maseratis of Edoardo Mortara and Maximilian Guenther in fourth and sixth sandwiched Buemi.
Wehrlein progressed from 15th on the grid to seventh but now only has a very remote mathematical championship chance.
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Keyword: Dennis wins after title rivals collide in second Rome E-Prix