DS Techeetah driver Jean-Eric Vergne had to fight hard this time to claim victory in a dramatic & hindered Swiss E-Prix.
With just the New York doubleheader finale remaining in this year's championship, Jean-Eric Vergne could not have asked for a better result in this year's Swiss E-Prix as his hard-fought victory has earned him 28 valuable points (3 extra points for taking the Julius Baer Pole Position), adding his points tally up to a total of 130 points, 32 points clear off his nearest championship rival, Lucas di Grassi (Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler), who has 98 points under his belt. This was also Vergne's third season victory, after Sanya (China) & Monaco. Meanwhile, Mitch Evans (Panasonic Jaguar Racing) pounced on every opportunity to make a move on Vergne and pass him. However, his best efforts were just not enough to surpass the Frenchman, thus crossing the finish line in second. However, Evans couldn't really complain about the results as after his win in the Rome E-Prix, the Kiwi had only managed to collect 6 points in the following three rounds!
Despite home advantage, local hero Sebastien Buemi (Nissan e.dams) failed to grab the top spot as he started and ended the Swiss E-Prix in third place. Incidentally, the top-three finishers started the race in the same order as well. Coming to the race itself, the drama unfolded within opening minutes as Pascal Wehrlein's M5Electro got tangled with Geox Dragon's Max Gunther and went into the wall at the Turn 12-14 chicane, causing an eight-car pile-up and a subsequent 40-minute red flag period. After the long delay and affected cars repaired, racers were set to their original grid positions before the restart.
As the race started again, Vergne made a strong getaway in order to build a good lead. However, Evans was quick to come behind Vergne as both drivers had now left third-placed Buemi behind and were now in a race of their own. It was an ultimate battle of the Attack Mode power surges as Evans used his to attack Vergne at numerous places, while Vergne used his to reinforce his defence.
At the back, Vergne's teammate made good use of his Attack Mode and climbed from eighth place to finish the race in fourth. However, a 22-second post-race penalty took the sheen off all his efforts and demoted him to 14th. The race stewards penalised him for exiting the pit lane when the pit exit light was still Red. Audi's Lucas di Grassi & BMW i Andretti Motorsport driver Antonio Felix da Costa also put up a stellar show as the former managed to climb from 19th to 9th, whereas the latter started his race from 20th position and ended in a respectable 12th.
Mahindra Racing continued on their rocky trajectory through the Swiss round as right before the Wehrlein-Gunther incident, Jerome d'Ambrosio pitched Envision Virgin Racing driver Robin Frijns into a spin, which ended the latter's race immediately. d'Ambriso was penalised during the race for causing the crash.
If Evans' constant pressure building moves weren't enough, Vergne had to drive through heavy rain in the final two laps of the race in order to preserve his lead. Due to rain, the top-four drivers crossed the chequered flag driving bumper-to-bumper, but with Vergne emerging as the winner.
Read more:
2019 Monaco E-Prix: Vergne claims his second victory of the season
2019 Berlin E-Prix: Lucas di Grassi claims second home victory for Audi
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