Evans wins inaugural eTrophy race

APAC driver Simon Evans managed a faultless drive to win the inaugural Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy race in Saudi Arabia.

With wet weather in the desert cancelling qualifying, Evans’ fastest lap in Friday’s free practice put him on pole for the series opening race, with Rahal Letterman Racing’s Bryan Sellers starting alongside him.

Sellers challenged Evans off the line, but the New Zealand racer managed to hold on and were joined by Sergio Jimenez in a three-car train for the lead for most of the race.

Neither of the top two drivers made a mistake through the majority of the race, and the positions at the top of the order remained the same until the penultimate lap. Jimenez dived up the inside of Sellers and pushed his way through to claim second, giving Evans a little breathing room as he approached the chequered flag.

Having managed a sub 0.5s lead throughout the race, Evans finished 0.816s ahead of Jimenez to take the first eTrophy victory.

Sellers couldn’t come back at Jimenez and had to settle for P3.

In the first half of the race, Caca Bueno and Stefan Rzadzinski had stayed with the top three, but a small slide for Bueno gave Rzadzinski half a chance at an overtake. The TWR Techeetah driver took it and the pair made contact, but Bueno was able to hold onto the position.

The contact caused a problem for Rzadzinski and he fell backwards through the remainder of the race. Finishing last and more than a minute behind the race leader.

Bueno took fifth ahead of guest driver Alice Powell, who performed two impressive overtakes to move up from her P7 starting position.

A brush with the wall in free practice put Katherine Legge on the backfoot, with the Rahal Letterman Racing driver starting ninth. She made a strong start to climb up the order, finishing P6 ahead of Am-class winner Bandar Alesayi.

Ahmed Bin Khanen, Wang Tao, Yaqi Zhang and Celia Martin completed the order.

Photo by Jaguar Racing Media