Dennis leads Andretti 1-2 in spicy Sanya E-Prix

Andretti’s Jake Dennis and Felipe Drugovich avoided trouble in a chaotic Sanya E-Prix to convert a front-row lockout into the team’s first-ever 1-2 finish.

The pair controlled the field early on in the 39 lap race, blocking out third place starter Mitch Evans of Jaguar TCS Racing as he tried to move forward. That allowed Cupra Kiro’s Dan Ticktum, another driver who started on the second row of the grid, but it was Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein who got up there first, splitting the Andrettis at Turn 9 on lap 7, then passing Dennis for the lead on the run to Turn 11 a lap later. Meanwhile, Evans got by Drugovich for third.

Wehrlein had overconsumed to get to the front, however, and by lap 10 Dennis was back to the front. Citroen’s Nick Cassidy, who'd started 6, patiently sat out of the early lead battle, but after taking his first Attack Mode on lap 11, surged to the front.

There he battled Edoardo Mortara, the Mahindra driver carrying significant front wing damage after earlier contact with Oliver Rowland. Wehrlein used his first Attack Mode – a two-minute use – on lap 16 to rejoin the lead conversation, while Dennis and Drugovich had maintained position near the front of the field and similarly used their extra power and four-wheel-drive allowances to return to the front.

They were the lead pair again when the race was red flagged on lap 19 following a pile-up at Turn 9.

Evans – who a lap earlier survived heavy contact from Ticktum at Turn 7 – was looking to pass Lola Yamaha Abt’s Zane Maloney at the hairpin when he was tagged from behind by Envision Racing’s Sebastien Buemi. The resulting concertina also collected Pepe Marti, who was hit from behind by teammate Ticktum, and Jaguar’s Antonio Felix da Costa.

After a brief pause to clear the track, Dennis once again got away from the second standing start well, while Drugovich had to again resist pressure from behind, this time from Wehrlein.

Rowland immediately went for his second Attack Mode and was in the lead two lap later.

Da Costa entered the red flag period with both of his Attack Modes remaining, and put them to good use to emerge as a victory contender, but a five-second penalty for moving under braking on Norman Nato put paid to any chances of a third victory of the season.

Nato crashed out on lap 27 after being tagged by Wehrlein at Turn 3, an incident that resulted in a five-second penalty for the Porsche man, taking him out of winning contention too. With that incident bringing out the first of two full course yellows – the second being after Nato’s Nissan teammate Rowland went into the wall at Turn 4 on the penultimate lap – the race was as good as done, aside from a brief green flag dash on the final lap.

Behind the two Andretti drivers, Marti finished third for his second podium in three races, making it two rookies and three customer Porsche powertrains on the podium. The Spaniard recovered not only after being caught in the lap 19 incident, but he was in Attack Mode at the time the red flag came out, negating any advantage he should have enjoyed at that point.

Fourth went to da Costa, ahead of DS Penske’s Maximilian Guenther who, like da Costa, had both of his Attack Modes left at the time of the red flag.

Nyck de Vries was sixth for Mahindra, fading late on after a podium looked a possibility, while Porsche driver Nico Mueller, Jean-Eric Vergne of Citroen, DS Penske’s Taylor Barnard and Lola’s Lucas di Grassi – who started the race with a 10-second stop-and-go-penalty for component changes, which he served on the first lap of the race – rounded out the points scorers.

After his penalty was applied, Wehrlein finished 14th, with Ticktum the last of the finishers in 15th, a strong day derailed by the collisions he was caught up in.

Championship leader Evans failed to finish, retiring on the final lap while a lap down and carrying damage from the earlier incidents, while Cassidy and Mortara – whose emergency stop was triggered by debris much like Nico Hulkenberg in the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix last weekend – were also among the retirements.

With the top four in the championship all failing to finish, the gaps at the top remain the same with Evans holding a 19-point lead over Rowland and Mortara a further six points back. Dennis' win, however, vaults him from eighth to fifth in the standings, 34 points off the lead with six races remaining.

Jaguar TCS Racing's lead at the top of the teams' standings has grown by six points to 30 over Porsche, while Porsche's strong customer performance means its manufacturer lead has gone from 12 points to 38.

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