Bethonie WaringJake Dennis takes the lead of the 2022-23 Formula E championship with victory on the streets of Rome as his title rivals collide.
Dennis led from lights to flag and claimed the victory more than three seconds ahead of second placed Norman Nato.
The only other title contender to finish in the points was Pascal Wehrlein, who came home P7.
The race began with drama when Cassidy and Mitch Evans came together on lap two.
The pair were running second and third at the time. Evans locked up the rear of his Jaguar and span, colliding with Cassidy, who was trying to get side-by-side with Dennis at the time. Evans’ car went over the top of Cassidy as Cassidy took to the escape road.
Both cars would eventually get going, albeit with significant damage to Evans, who made his way back to the pits as the safety car came out.
Jake Hughes and Rene Rast would also take to the pits as the pack had bunched together behind the accident. They suffered only minor damage and were able to get back out again. Evans also briefly returned to the track, but told the team his car was “undrivable” and he had to return to the pits.
With his main title rivals out of the race, Dennis had a relatively simple race. Norman Nato kept him under pressure early on, but damage to the Nissan’s front wing meant he couldn’t keep in touch.
Dennis and Nato took Attack Mode together, and Nato slipped behind Sam Bird. Bird managed to get alongside Dennis at one point, but couldn’t get his nose ahead. He slipped back behind Nato when he took Attack Mode and spent the closing stages of the race trying to find a way past.
Nato defended well, holding up Bird and allowing Dennis to escape up the road. Despite being very limited on energy, Nato held on to take second, 3.105s behind Dennis.
Bird picked up third ahead of Edoardo Mortara, Sebastien Buemi and Maximilian Guenther.
Cassidy spent the race trying to recover from the early incident, but struggled to make overtakes. On the final lap, he attempted a late lunge past Andre Lotterer, only to send both cars into the wall. Cassidy took the chequered flag P14 but ended the race under investigation. He earned a five second penalty but remained 14th.
Pascal Wehrlein started 15th and managed to stay out of trouble, but couldn’t take advantage of the drama ahead of him. He only managed to climb up to P7, ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne and Dan Ticktum. He heads to London mathematically in contention for the title, but is 49 points behind Dennis.
Nico Mueller took 10th in his first back-to-back points scoring finish of the season.
