Race recap: Da Costa secures inaugural win in Cape Town E-Prix

After a P13 start, Tag Heuer Porsche’s Antonio Felix Da Costa charged through the field in a dominating performance to secure his first win of 2023.

• Tag Heuer Porsche’s championship leader, Pascal Wehrlein, became the first retirement of the race with a broken front suspension after he made contact with Envision’s Sebastien Buemi on the opening lap.
• Maserati was slapped with a double DNF after Edoardo Mortara was forced to retire on the opening laps and Maximilian Gunther made contact with the barrier on lap 21.
• Mahindra Racing and ABT Cupra withdrew their cars from the race during the qualifying session due to safety concerns.

It was a great start from the maiden pole sitter Nissan’s Sacha Fenestraz while Gunther got a relatively poor getaway from lights out, and was immediately under threat from Envision’s Nick Cassidy.

Despite Cassidy’s best attempts, into the first corner, Gunther managed to hold off the New Zealander’s advances to maintain second on the corner exit.

The yellow flag was quickly brought out before the first lap had ended after both Envision’s Sebastien Buemi and Porsche’s championship leader, Pascal Wehrlein, made contact at turn 10. Buemi was quickly able to return on track safely while Wehrlein was forced to retire.

The race was quickly suspended down to a full course yellow due to Wehrlein’s stranded Porsche being positioned in the run-off area at turn 10. As the course went to FCY, Fenestraz suddenly slowed his Gen3 which allowed Gunther to take the race lead. The German was later under investigation for overtaking under FYC.

It was quickly found that Wehrlein had outbroken himself into the corner when the contact was made with Buemi’s rear.

The collision spun Buemi around into the outside barrier which allowed the Swiss driver to quickly get back into the race. However, the contact had destroyed Wehrlein’s front left suspension and forced the German to retire.

The full course yellow was soon upgraded to a safety car.

As the track marshals worked to remove the stranded Porsche Gen3 from the circuit, it was also found that Maserati’s Edoardo Mortara had retired from the race.

The session finally went back to green conditions with Gunther at the helm at the end of lap five. With a decent enough jump on the pack, at the restart, it allowed the Maserati driver to go into the first corner without any threat from Fenestraz behind.

On lap eight, several drivers such as DS Penske’s Stoffel Vandoorne and both Andretti drivers Jake Dennis and Andre Lotterer were the first to jump through the attack mode sensors to obtain the extra amount of power. These three drivers soon created a flurry of activity through the attack mode sensors as drivers quickly went offline to activate their allowance.

Jaguar’s Mitch Evans was forced to drive through the pit lane, on lap 11, as the Briton was deemed to have used too much power. Eight laps later, Dennis was given his own drive-through penalty for not respecting the minimum tyre pressures.

Although Porsche’s Antonio Felix Da Costa started the race back in P13, by lap 20 the Portuguese driver was found in fourth place behind – new race leader – Envision’s Nick Cassidy Gunther, Fenestraz and Gunther who were in first, second and third respectively.

On lap 21, as the top three raced down towards the braking zone of turn one, Gunther slapped his rear-right tyre off the barrier. The contact damaged the rear suspension of Gunther’s Gen3 and the German driver quickly pulled off to the side of the circuit to retire.

Due to the stranded Maserati, race control opted to deploy another full course yellow to allow track marshals to extract the Gen3 car.

Just as the circuit went to FCY, Fenestraz opted to activate his last round of attack mode which dropped the German driver down from P2 to P4 in the order. Da Costa moved up to second place ahead of DS Penske’s Jean-Eric Vergne who was third.

The race soon went back to green flag conditions on lap 22 of 30.

Two laps later, Da Costa slipped around the outside of Cassidy, down the fast right-hander of turn eight, and cemented the race lead in the braking zone of turn nine. After Cassidy lost the race lead on lap 25, Vergne quickly found an opportunity to demote the New Zealander down into third place.

After a push lap, Da Costa managed to take his final minute of attack mode on lap 25. However, the Portuguese missed one of the three sensors on his initial attempt which forced the Porsche driver to conduct another push lap.

After a handful of push laps, on lap 28, Da Costa finally managed to take the attack mode but he lost track position – and the race lead – to Vergne behind him. It wasn’t long before Da Costa retained the race lead after he completed a similar move, on lap 31 – the first of two added laps, on Vergne as he did on Cassidy on lap 25.

Podium:

1. Antonio Felix Da Costa, Porsche 
2. Jean-Eric Vergne, DS Penske
3. Nick Cassidy, Envision

That’s it for the article; Race recap: Da Costa secures inaugural win in Cape Town E-Prix!

What do you think of Antonio Felix Da Costa ? Let us know in the comments!

Read more Formula E here:

• Cape Town E-Prix: Mahindra and ABT Cupra withdraw due to safety concerns worries
• Cape Town E-Prix: Fenestraz secures inaugural Julius Baer Pole
• Hyderabad E-Prix: Penske wins dramatic inaugural race
• Diriyah E-Prix Race 2: Wehrlein secures the double in Saudi Arabia
• Diriyah E-Prix: Sam Bird tops first practice
• Formula E Diriyah E-Prix Preview

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Kamron Kent

Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.

I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

Kamron Kent

Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.