Bethonie WaringPascal Wehrlein holds off Jake Dennis to win the Jakarta E-Prix.
Wehrlein moved to the front of the order during the Attack Mode stages and held onto the position through the closing stages of the race, despite pressure from Jake Dennis behind.
Maximilian Guenther held onto the lead after starting from pole while Wehrlein slotted into second. The top three initially broke away slightly from the rest of the pack, taking turns to lead as they moved through Attack Mode.
When the Attack Mode stage had ended, it was Wehrlein who led Guenther, with Stoffel Vandoorne in third and Dennis close behind in fourth.
It didn’t take Dennis long to find a way past Vandoorne, leaving the DS Penske driver to battle with Nick Cassidy for P4. He then passed Guenther and closed onto the back of Wehrlein.
An attempted move by Dennis almost cost him second as Guenther was able to come alongside the Andretti driver, but Dennis managed to hold onto the position. The fight briefly allowed Vandoorne to enter the mix again, but the top three began to pull away again in the closing stages of the race.
Dennis kept the pressure on Wehrlein, but the Porsche driver didn’t put a wheel wrong and came home 0.477s ahead.
The victory moves Wehrlein back to second in the championship standings, just two points behind Nick Cassidy.
It was a difficult race for Cassidy, who was only able to qualify 10th. He made up a few positions in the opening stages of the race and used the Attack Mode stages to close onto the lead fight. The hard work was undone, though, when he attempted a late lunge at Vandoorne and made contact with the DS Penske driver. It sent Cassidy into a half spin and dropped him down the order, with Cassidy eventually coming home P7.
Team-mate Sebastien Buemi also had a race to forget. A slow get away dropped him to the back of the field off the line, and damage to his front wing while attempting an overtake kept him at the back of the field.
Despite some small contact, there were no safety car interventions during the race. The only incident to bring out the yellow flags came in the closing laps, when Sam Bird made contact with the rear of team-mate Mitch Evans. Evans was sent into a spin and left stranded at the side of the road. Bird also dropped down the order with a problem at the final lap. The incident was covered with double waved yellows and, while it elimiated a potential overtaking opportunity, the race was allowed to continue.
At the front of the order, Guenther picked up his second podium of the season in third, ahead of Vandoorne and Jean-Eric Vergne. A sixth placed finish for Edoardo Mortara made it Maserati’s best race of the year.
Cassidy came home seventh ahead of Antonio Felix Da Costa and Robin Frijns, who picked up his first points of the season. Jake Hughes completed the top 10.
