Mitch Evans has revealed he was “just hoping to see the checkered flag” after shocking victory within the Formula E season opener in Sao Paulo from last place on the grid.
The Jaguar driver was affected by powertrain problems over the weekend, which stopped him in the primary free rehearsal and prevented him from completing a lap in qualifying.
Starting last on the streets of Sao Paulo, where Evans won in 2023 and finished second last season, the Kiwi made rapid progress within the 35-lap race, which was accompanied by two red flags.
“It was crazy,” said Evans, who became the primary driver in Formula E history to win back-to-back.
“When I lined up at the beginning, my foremost hope was to see the checkered flag because we had some problems on the track within the last two days, which obviously prevented me from qualifying and cutting one in every of the practice sessions short, so there was definitely some concern.
“But when the race started, I had to forget about it and hope that everything would be fine on this side.”
Race winner Mitch Evans, Jaguar TCS Racing pumps his fist in celebration
Photo: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images
Evans was contained in the top 10 on just the second lap and took advantage of the impressive performance of Attack Mode, the 350kW activation that prompts all-wheel drive in the brand new Gen3 Evo cars.
Like teammate Nick Cassidy, Evans activated his second attacking mode later than the others and after the primary red flag, which provided a transparent strategic advantage over his opponents.
“This [the start] I modified my race really quickly because I used to be beginning to get into the center group and commenced specializing in optimizing the race much more,” Evans said.
“When the fellows began using attack mode, it was discovered how much progress people were making, so I just desired to try to be smart. I followed my gut a bit and timed all the pieces quite well.
After overtaking Cassidy at the beginning of the twenty ninth lap to take the lead, a second red flag was raised through the next tour following a collision between Cassidy and Wehrlein, which resulted within the latter being airborne and brought to hospital for precautionary tests.
Four laps to the flag, Evans drove defensively to overtake Porsche's Antonio Felix da Costa, in addition to the 2 McLarens of Taylor Barnard and Sam Bird, who had more energy in reserve.
“I probably thought it was over on the last corner of the last lap,” Evans added. “The whole race was very unpredictable and it was the last 4 laps with this guy [da Costa] respiration down your neck, you don't know what might occur.
“It would have been nice to have had a quieter end to the race, but we did it, so I think that's what counts.”
In this text
Be the primary to know and subscribe to email updates with real-time news on these topics
Subscribe to news notifications
