Motorsport TechnologyAntonio Felix da Costa won a blockbusting second race of the Jeddah ePrix to set the championship alight.
With victory, Da Costa marked his first win since joining Jaguar Racing at the start of the season.
And with Sébastien Buemi and reigning champion Oliver Rowland finishing second and third respectively, it means the Drivers’ Championship is now led by Pascal Wehrlein with 68 points, followed by Edoardo Mortara with 62.
“This one feels good! Changing teams is a massive workload and there’s a lot of things to learn and new faces and names,” commented Da Costa.
“I’m happy to get this done by race five – we’ve been having good pace but we haven’t been able to capitalise on it so I’m happy to give this one back to Jaguar TCS Racing.
“I knew when I had a little bit of a gap and ATTACK MODE over my rivals that only a big drama could really take this away from us. But you know in racing, it’s never over until it’s over.
“I had all these alarms flashing on my dash and I kept asking: ‘Do I need to manage something?’; ‘Do I need to go slower?’ They told me to acknowledge the alarms and crack on! It was a little bit stressful but it’s a great feeling when you know it’s only up to you to bring this one home, and I’m very happy to do it.”
For veteran Buemi, second represented not only a result to be proud of but for things to come. There is certainly life in the young dog yet.
“I decided to lead the race just to avoid the carnage a little bit, avoid a puncture or damaging the wing,” commented Buemi after the race.
“If you fight for P3 or P4 it’s a jungle out there! If you want to just survive you want to make sure, you’re at the front. You do save a bit less energy and I think DAC did a mega job saving more.
“He was able to go flat out a bit longer than me and that’s why he made that gap. At the end it’s P2 and DAC did a better job. We take those points – yesterday we qualified last, so obviously to be on the podium today is not bad.”
AT MOTORSPORT TECHNOLOGY WE PRIDE OURSELVES IN GIVING BUDDING RACERS THE BEST ADVICE AND INSIGHT – PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT WITH APEX SIM RACING
Fraser Masefield