Porsche’s Wehrlein reigns supreme in Jeddah E-Prix Race 1

Pascal Wehrlein dominated his 100th Formula E start to win the first race of the Jeddah E-Prix ahead of polesitter Edoardo Mortara and Mitch Evans.

The Porsche driver was brought into contention right away with a poor start by Mortara, who lit up his rear wheels at the start and was swamped by a gaggle of cars before Turn 1. He first took the lead on lap 15 after passing Norman Nato who'd held the point for 10 laps, but after pulling away, the Nissan man fell back to the pack to save energy.

Three laps later, Wehrlein pitted from the lead and emerged in 10th, but crucially in clear air allowing him to maintain his pre-pit advantage for when he'd cycle back to the front.

Heading into Attack Mode on lap 19, Wehrlein was able to pick off those ahead of him and passed DS Penske’s Maximilian Guenther for fifth a lap later, what would turn out to be the net lead once everyone had completed their mandatory Pit Boost stops.

After his disastrous getaway from the grid, Mortara was still able to stay in the top five after the start and after pitting a lap later than Wehrlein, also left it late to use his Attack Mode to fire his way back to the front, but with Wehrlein in a class of his own out in front, the best result the Mahindra driver could manage was second, 2.677s adrift of Wehrlein.

Mitch Evans finished third for Jaguar TCS Racing after starting 10th. Again, it was a late, post-pit Attack Mode for him that led to a late surge. He finished ahead of Porsche's Nico Mueller and his teammate Antonio Felix da Costa, with Nick Cassidy sixth, him and his Citroen teammate Jean-Eric Vergne split by Envision Racing's Sebastien Buemi.

Jake Dennis and Taylor Barnard completed to points scorers for Andretti and DS Penske respectively, having faded late after pitting earlier than most of the top-10.

Guenther, an early race leader – having jumped from second on the grid to first ahead of Mortara at the start – faded to 11th by the race end for Porsche, ahead of Cupra Kiro’s Dan Ticktum, who finally got his first race finish of the season, and Nato who inexplicably faded to 13th having led 10 laps early on.

Reigning champion Oliver Rowland finished 17th, dropping one spot from his lowly starting position, while Joel Eriksson was the last of the finishers in 18th after overshooting his pit box in what was his first Formula E race with Pit Boost.

Zane Maloney was the sole retiree, sustaining left-front suspension damage after being squeezed by Pepe Marti at Turn 7, who was himself battling Vergne. The incident necessitated a full course yellow for one lap, then a single lap of safety car running which led to the race being extended from its intended 31 laps to 32.

Nyck de Vries failed to make the start, being pushed off the grid with no power in his Mahindra.

Wehrlein’s win was the ninth of his career and was consolidated by the fastest lap. It gives him the championship lead with a 16-point lead over Nick Cassidy. Mahindra overtakes Citroen for second in the teams’ standings, but sits 50 points behind Porsche, with Porsche continuing to lead the manufacturers’ table, but Jaguar moving up to second ahead of Stellantis, 44 points adrift of Porsche.

The second race of the Jeddah E-Prix takes place on Saturday, with a start time of 8:05pm local time (12:05pm ET). There will be no Pit Boost stops in Saturday’s race, thus there will be the usual eight minutes of Attack Mode split over two uses rather than the single use of six minutes seen today.

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