Bethonie WaringNick Cassidy takes his second career Formula E victory ahead of Jake Dennis in the second Berlin E-Prix of the weekend.
Wet conditions from earlier in the day had cleared by the time the grid formed for the eighth race of the 2022-23 season.
After a strong start from the Abt drivers, the pair couldn’t hold on in a race where nobody wanted to lead.
The first half of the race featured plenty of overtaking and side-by-side action, as most of the field tried to avoid leading the race. Following behind another car would allow them to use less energy. As in race one, Attack Mode was used almost immediately as pole sitter Robin Frijns and team-mate Nico Mueller tried to move out of the race lead. That shuffled Sebastien Buemi to the front of the field, until the Envision driver dived for Attack Mode at the next opportunity.
Vergne was now shuffled to the front and stayed there as Mueller and Buemi closed back into P2 and P3. The top seven or eight cars were nose to tail or side by side throughout the first half of the race, and Nick Cassidy soon found himself at the back of that group. Once within the group, it wasn’t long before he was shuffled forwards, as other drivers tried to not lead.
Cassidy’s first Attack Mode use put him just behind his team-mate in a tight move that almost resulted in contact. But Buemi continued to push forward and hit the front while his team-mate was still in the middle of the group.
At this point, it was Buemi leading Pascal Wehrlein, Antonio Felix Da Costa, Vergne, Cassidy and Mitch Evans, but that order didn’t remain static for long.
Wehrlein briefly took a turn at the front of the order before Buemi was shuffled forward again. Buemi ran wide and through the Attack Mode activation despite the fact he had already used both his Attack Modes and dropped back to P6.
Wehrlein was back at the front and stayed there for a few laps as the order settled a little. dy moved up to sixth, just ahead of his team-mate. The two made slight contact, with Buemi suffering damage to his front wing. The wing ended up under his Envision car and he was forced to pit for a change.
Buemi wasn’t the only driver to suffer front wing damage. Though the race wasn’t hit by a safety car or full course yellow, Sam Bird and Andre Lotterer both had to pit for new front wings after separate incidents. Edoardo Mortara also had to pit with body work damage and couldn’t finish the race.
Cassidy began the move forward, despite possible damage to the rear left of his car. He came through to the lead late in the race and broke away slightly from Wehrlein and Jake Dennis behind.
The two early championship rivals battled on track, with Dennis coming out in second. Dennis closed the gap to Cassidy, but ran out of time before he could attack and had to settle for second.
Wehrlein was shuffled further back on the final lap, dropping down to seventh by the chequered flag.
Vergne came through to third, ahead of Evans and Da Costa.
Maximilian Guenther once again avoided the drama to climb up through the field. The Maserati driver had started at the back of the grid but managed to climb as high as fifth at one point. He fell back to P6 and held the fastest lap for most of the race, before being beaten by Buemi late on.
Wehrlein took seventh ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne, who couldn’t quite get engaged in the lead battle. Nico Mueller held on at the front of the field for the first half of the race, and finished ninth to take Abt’s first points of the season. Team-mate Robin Frijns took 17th. Dan Ticktum completed the top 10.
