Sam Bagnall/Motorsport Images
Da Costa takes tactical win in first race of Misano E-Prix
Antonio Felix da Costa won the first race of the Misano E-Prix doubleheader to make it six different winners from six races so far in the ABB Formula E season.
The TAG Heuer Porsche driver took the lead with two laps to go, moving up the inside of Nissan driver Oliver Rowland at Turn 5, with both benefiting from a battle for third between Jean-Eric Vergne and Jake Dennis behind them that allowed the lead pair to break away.
Da Costa and Rowland’s breakaway came towards the end of a race which nobody wanted to lead -- Misano’s long straights are not ideal for energy saving and regen was needed to get to the finish. That produced close pack racing for much of the 28 laps -- which, consequently, resulted in multiple instances of contact.
Vergne was central to two instances that, colliding with Jaguar TCS Racing’s Nick Cassidy on lap six -- which ended up with him getting a five-second penalty, making his eventual fight for third with Dennis somewhat needless -- before being hit by Pascal Wehrlein a lap later as the field slowed for Turn 5.
Both Cassidy and Wehrlein had to pit for new front wings during the race, while Sam Bird also had to box to rectify a suspected puncture, which naturally dropped all three out of contention after having spent time at the front of the field. Cassidy and Bird eventually retired, while Wehrlein wound up 17th.
Da Costa’s win was timely, coming amid speculation surrounding his future in Porsche’s Formula E lineup. It was his first victory since Cape Town in February of last year. For Rowland, second was his fourth consecutive podium finish and while he’s yet to win a race, he heads into Sunday’s second Misano race with the championship lead.
Dennis’ third place came after he started 18th on the grid, and after he’d tagged the pit wall on the way to the grid which resulted in his team needing to change the rear light on his car prior to the race start.
The Andretti driver took full advantage of his Porsche powertrain’s superior efficiency to carve though the field. He finished ahead of Maserati MSG’s Max Guenther, while Dan Ticktum took a superb fifth in the notoriously inefficient ERT, which is his best result in Formula E and ERT’s first top-five since Sergio Sette Camara finished fifth in Hyderabad last year.
Sette Camara added seventh to ERT’s haul, behind polesitter Mitch Evans, to cap off the team’s first double points finish since the second race of the Rome E-Prix in 2022. After his penalty, Vergne took eighth, ahead of Norman Nato and Stoffel Vandoorne.
Sacha Fenestraz, Lucas di Grass, Nico Mueller, and Sebastien Buemi -- who vaulted from the tail end of the top-10 to the race lead on the first lap -- finished outside the top 10, with McLaren’s Jake Hughes 15th after being unable to properly overcome a grid penalty for qualifying without his fire extinguisher armed. Nyck de Vries finished 16th, ahead of Wehrlein, with Robin Frijns the last of the finishers.
Joining Cassidy and Bird in retiring was Jehan Daruvala and Edoardo Mortara, who didn’t even make it to the end of the first lap after getting an error message on his dash.
Dominik Wilde
Dominik often jokes that he was born in the wrong country – a lover of NASCAR and IndyCar, he covered both in a past life as a junior at Autosport in the UK, but he’s spent most of his career to date covering the sliding and flying antics of the U.S.’ interpretation of rallycross. Rather fitting for a man that says he likes “seeing cars do what they’re not supposed to do”, previously worked for a car stunt show, and once even rolled a rally car with Travis Pastrana. He was also comprehensively beaten in a kart race by Sebastien Loeb once, but who hasn’t been?
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