Nyck de Vries took victory in a last-lap dash to the finish in the second Tokyo E-Prix, as the championship order was reshuffled with just one round remaining.
A late red flag after a multi-car crash meant the final result was decided by just one racing lap, with the Mahindra driver leading from the restart to the chequered flag.
Citroen’s Nick Cassidy was second ahead of Andretti driver Jake Dennis, who now leads the championship after a torrid weekend for title rivals Mitch Evans and Pascal Wehrlein.
As the London double-header finale will pay out a maximum of 58 points, nine drivers remain in with a mathematical chance of the title.
Title contenders going into London finale
1 Jake Dennis - 146
2 Mitch Evans - 144
3 Pascal Wehrlein - 141
4 Oliver Rowland - 132
5 Edoardo Mortara - 116
6 Antonio Felix da Costa - 113
7 Nick Cassidy - 104
8 Nico Mueller - 100
9 Nyck de Vries - 94
With mixed conditions heading into the race, the result was largely decided late on as those who had set their tyre pressures for the wet faded and their dry-pressure rivals forged ahead.
De Vries had lined up fifth, and was running in the midfield for much of the race. But a well-timed late Attack Mode saw him blast up the order to take the lead from Oliver Rowland on lap 28.
Rowland was then second, but his final Attack Mode deployment came too late, dropping him off the podium as Cassidy and Dennis surged ahead.
The Andretti driver had looked in close contention for second, if not victory, when the late pile-up came on lap 32.
Early leader Edoardo Mortara turned Envision’s Joel Eriksson into the wall, blocking the track and causing a concertina effect which also trapped Jaguar driver Antonio Felix da Costa.
After a brief red flag, action resumed with a rolling start, led by De Vries, with Cassidy and Dennis behind.
That remained the order across the line, with Rowland in fourth and Citroen’s Jean-Eric Vergne in fifth.
Evans, already out of the points, stopped on the last lap with suspension damage, while Porsche driver Wehrlein was 15th to also score no points.
With Dennis’s podium on Saturday, he now heads to the season finale in London with a two-point lead to Evans, with Wehrlein a further one point behind in third.
Race results
1 Nyck de Vries 1h01m13.217s
2 Nick Cassidy +0.683s
3 Jake Dennis +0.958s
4 Oliver Rowland +2.662s
5 Jean-Eric Vergne +2.960s
6 Norman Nato +3.430s
7 Sebastien Buemi +3.799s
8 Nico Mueller +4.194s
9 Taylor Barnard +4.702s
10 Max Gunther +5.140s
11 Felipe Drugovich +5.604s
12 Zane Maloney +6.049s
13 Lucas Di Grassi +6.349s
14 Dan Ticktum +6.826s
15 Pascal Wehrlein +8.375s
16 Antonio Felix da Costa +8.535s
DNF Mitch Evans
DNF Edoardo Mortara
DNF Joel Eriksson
DNF Pepe Marti
from The Race https://ift.tt/dBsMoTA
No comments: