Vergne on the limit as he holds off Cassidy for Hyderabad win

Jean-Eric Vergne holds off Nick Cassidy to win the inaugural Hyderabad E-Prix. 

Vergne was on the limit of usable energy on the final lap, while Cassidy had 10 times as much as the DS Penske driver, but he offered no opportunity for Cassidy to come through. 

Pole sitter Mitch Evans held onto the lead from Vergne early on. Vergne, Sebastien Buemi and Sacha Fenestraz were all close behind the Jaguar Racing driver. As Buemi pulled alongside Vergne for second, Evans dived off line to take Attack Mode, promoting Buemi to the race lead.  

Evans briefly dropped back to fourth. He managed to reclaim third from Fenestraz but couldn’t move back ahead of Buemi or Vergne when the new leaders took Attack Mode. 

Evans’ race suddenly came to an early end a few laps later when he was hit from behind by team-mate Sam Bird. Bird had been running sixth, with Fenestraz separating the pair. As they came to the hairpin, Bird tried to dive up the inside of Fenestraz but couldn’t stop the car in time and collided with Evans. Fenestraz and Maximillian Guenther had nowhere to go, dropping them both down the order. 

Buemi now led the race, but lost the lead to Vergne while the DS Penske driver had Attack Mode. As Buemi took his second Attack Mode, he slipped back to foruth, behind Cassidy and Jake Dennis. 

Cassidy spent the remainder of the race on Vergne’s tail. A brief safety car, brought out when Jake Hughes stopped on track, neutralised running, but Cassidy resumed the attack as soon as the track turned green. 

Despite Cassidy having considerable more energy than Vergne, Vergne left no opportunities for Cassidy to take advantage of. He held off the Envision driver to finish just 0.4s. 

Sebastien Buemi took the chequered flag third havign held off Jake Dennis and Rene Rast, but he was handed a drive through penalty for over power, dropping him down to P15. 

Rast hit the back of Dennis while battling, damaging the rear body work of Dennis’ car and leaving Rast with front wing damage. Both dropped down the order, promoting Antonio Felix Da Costa to fourth.  

After a drama free race, Da Costa and team-mate Pascal Wehrlein claimed third and fourth, with Sergio Sette Camara climbing up the order to finish fifth. 

Oliver Rowland finished sixth for Mahindra in the team’s first home race, while Stoffel Vandoorne, Andre Lotterer and Edoardo Mortara completed the top 10.