Wehrlein closes Formula E points gap in soggy first Shanghai race

Pascal Wehrlein won a rain-interrupted first race of the Shanghai E-Prix to get his title challenge firmly back on track.

The Porsche driver started from pole and traded places at the front of the pack with Andretti's Jake Dennis and Antonio Felix da Costa, as the race started with a high intensity with rain expected later in the race therefore reducing the need to conserve energy, but a move at Turn 6 on the Jaguar TCS Racing driver all but locked in Wehrlein's victory.

Only the Pit Boost cycle dropped him from the top spot cycled him out of that lead, with a gamble on a later stop from Dennis not paying off. A safety car came out at the end of lap 19 for the rain, which didn't appear too heavy in the first paurt of the lap, but was an absolute deluge around Turn 7.

That destroyed the races of Cupra Kiro's Pepe Marti and Dan Ticktum as well as Citroen's Nick Cassidy who'd gone into Attack Mode just before the race was neutralized, thus losing their one use (it's only a sole use of Attack Mode in a Pit Boost race) of the additional 50kW of power and four-wheel-drive.

When the race resumed on lap 23, Wehrlein dropped the hammer and maintained a gap out in front, eventually crossing the line 1.233s ahead of da Costa.

Dennis finished third with his Andretti teammate Felipe Drugovich fourth having used the high energy consumption phase at the start of the race to make up ground from ninth on the grid.

Nyck de Vries similarly made up ground from far back – with both he and Mahindra teammate Edoardo Mortara starting outside the top-10 for the first time this season – to take fifth ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne and Joel Eriksson, while Mitch Evans faded from second on the grid (his first front row start of the season) to eighth as his struggled with balance issues in his Jaguar.

Maximilian Guenther, an early podium contender for DS Penske, and Porsche's Nico Mueller completed the points scorers.

Mortara, who entered the weekend third in the standings, failed to score, finishing 15th after taking his Attack Mode earlier than most, leaving him vulnerable later on when the rest went for the extra power and four-wheel-drive. He did salvage fastest lap, but finishing outside the top-10, he failed to score from it.

With his win Wehrlein moves from fourth to second in the drivers’ standings – having already moved up to third with his three points from pole – just three off Evans, with five races still to run. Jaguar TCS Racing's lead in the teams' championship has been cut from 30 points to 24, while Porsche's lead at the top of the manufacturers' table increased from 41 points to 55.

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