Mitch Evans has won the first heat of the Seoul ePrix, a key victory to keep the fight for the Formula E title alive until the last race of the year. And it hasn’t been easy on a wet track that has led to a race with a multiple accident at the start and has had very few variables for the rest of the time. Oliver Rowland and Lucas Di Grassi have completed the podiumwhile leader Stoffel Vandoorne finished in fifth place.
Oliver Rowland curdled a bad start that allowed Mitch Evans to position himself as the leader ahead of Lucas Di Grassi. Behind, Edo Mortara gained a position to place fifth ahead of a Jean-Eric Vergne who managed to overtake Stoffel Vandoorne. The Belgian was in any case in the same seventh position that he started. With everything, the race was stopped under a red flag due to a multiple accident in which Norman Nato, Dan Ticktum, Oliver Askew, Oliver Turvey, André Lotterer, Nick Cassidy and Sébastien Buemi hit the barriers. In addition, Nyck de Vries slipped under Buemi’s car.
After removing the eight accident cars, the race restarted 50 minutes later with the sixteen surviving cars, as Nick Cassidy and Norman Nato managed to get back into the pits and out again. Although with the previous background it was easy to have a clean start, the truth is that caution prevailed and there were no changes of position once the Safety Car left the track. In any case, the truce was short-lived and Oliver Rowland overtook Lucas Di Grassi for second place.
Behind, Edo Mortara fell to seventh place by a small touch, an incident that led him to position himself behind Stoffel Vandoorne, with the addition that the Swiss driver received a five-second penalty for making movements under braking. Then, the front runners made use of their first extra power modesalthough on this occasion the passage through the activation zone hardly caused any loss of time, so the positions did not change and Mitch Evans managed to retain the first position without too much trouble.
In fact, the race moved without any variation, beyond Jean-Eric Vergne’s unsuccessful attempt to overtake Jake Dennis for fourth position. All in all, perhaps the most important move in the lead came from the race leader himself, as Mitch Evans managed to activate his second ‘attack mode’ without losing first position. yes it is true that Stoffel Vandoorne managed to snatch fifth place from Jean-Eric Vergne, although this change was not enough for the World Cup leader to secure the title definitively. Then, Pascal Wehrlein overtook Edo Mortara for seventh place.
Although Edo Mortara’s chances of winning the title were diluted by this maneuver, the lethal blow for the Swiss came a couple of laps later. With mechanical problems in his car, Mortara retired and left the fight for the title in a duel to two between Evans and Vandoorne. Battle in the distance, since the last ten minutes of the race began to count down with Mitch Evans in the lead and Stoffel Vandoorne in fifth placemore concerned with stopping Jean-Eric Vergne’s push than with gaining any extra position.
The race was also dying with the accident of Alexander Sims against the barriersa mishap that caused a period of ‘Full Course Yellow’ that resulted in a Safety Car that consumed the remaining time of the race and the additional time that the category adds when there is some type of interruption in the first phase of the race. Mitch Evans secured victory ahead of Oliver Rowland and Lucas Di Grassifollowed by Jake Dennis and Stoffel Vandoorne. A fifth place that does not allow Vandoorne to proclaim themselves champion yet.
Photos: FIA Formula E