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Wehrlein declared winner after wild Miami E-Prix finish
Norman Nato won the Miami E-Prix at Homestead-Miami on the road, but wasn’t classified as the winner after a red flag caused havoc for teams’ Attack Mode strategy.
Nissan's Nato, who started on pole, passed Pascal Wehrlein on the exit of the final turn on the last lap, with Wehrlein’s TAG Heuer Porsche team telling him not to “do anything silly,” anticipating Nato’s penalty.
The race began at a slow pace, with the track’s long straights putting a premium on energy saving. That meant that there would be a typical tense finish as drivers go from saving to pushing in the final laps.
But as the race was entering that phase, it was red flagged with six laps to go after Maximilian Guenther was edged into Jake Hughes by Sebastien Buemi at the chicane. Hughes and Guenther ended up in the wall, with Mitch Evans running into the back of the stricken pair.
The stoppage came as or just before most of the field was going for their final Attack Mode activations, and ended up causing chaos for strategy and put some drivers in unavoidable positions that left them open to penalties.
At the halt, Antonio Felix da Costa, Edoardo Mortara, Jean-Eric Vergne, Buemi, Guenther, and Evans were all in the midst of their final Attack Mode uses, which ran down during the stoppage.
A number of others, however, still had to use theirs. Among those were Robin Frijns, Taylor Barnard, Sam Bird, Nato, and his Nissan teammate Oliver Rowland who had 6m left and subsequently had not enough time to eventually fully use their Attack Mode usage, with there only being four laps to run after the race resumed.
They were all hit with 10s penalties post-race, resulting in Wehrlein taking the win, ahead of Lucas di Grassi, who took a remarkable first podium for Lola in Formula E. Antonio Felix da Costa finished third, having had a victory bid denied amid the red flag drama.
Da Costa was a fixture in the top three for the first stanza of the race, as everyone managed their energy usage and proceeded at a relatively slow pace. At the same time, Wehrlein was diligently working his way through the field after starting 12th on the grid.
Wehrlein moved to the lead on lap 16 as da Costa slipped into the Attack Mode activation zone, a lap after the German, and the two went on to control the race from the front. A brief safety car on lap 18 after Nyck de Vries stopped at Turn 3 ought to have helped Porsche's case, allowing them to push to the end, but the red flag on lap 20 meant nothing was certain.
Da Costa was using his final Attack Mode at the time of the red, and with that countdown not pausing, he ran out of the additional power and four-wheel-drive as a result. Wehrlein meanwhile had 4m remaining, was able to take it as the race resumed, and with 13 others also going into the activation zone, he didn’t miss out by having to take the off-line route.
When all the penalties were shaken out, di Grassi and da Costa were elevated from sixth and seventh to the podium behind Wehrlein, with Nico Mueller and Edoardo Mortara completing the top five.
On-the-road winner Nato was classified sixth, ahead of Dan Ticktum and Frijns, who had finished third on the road. Dennis took ninth, with Zane Maloney 10th to complete a landmark double-points day for Lola Yamaha Abt.
With third, da Costa moves back into second in the points, with Rowland's advantage at the top trimmed to 15 points. Wehrlein's win moves him up to third, while a point-less weekend for Taylor Barnard drops him from second to fourth.
TAG Heuer Porsche sits top of the Teams' championship, 25 points ahead of Nissan which led going into the weekend. Nissan – represented by the factory team and NEOM McLaren – still tops the Manufacturers' standings, with Porsche (TAG Heuer Porsche and Andretti) overtaking Stellantis (DS Penske and Maserati MSG Racing) for second.
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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