Back in time with a new leader / System E

Three series were present in the sixth round of the Formula E season. First, that there was a new winner again. Second, Nissan’s Oliver Rowland is suddenly the championship leader with his fourth consecutive podium finish, at least for 24 hours. And third, that in Maserati’s home race, Max Günther is now the only driver to score points in all races of the season – for because Pascal Wehrlein only crossed the finish line in 17th place after contact with the enemy and the early pit stop. The German-Austrian finished fourth and missed the podium by just 0.7 seconds.

The fast “Round the World” course in Misano, named after the motorcycle star Marco Simoncelli who died in an accident, produced one of the most amazing races of the classic electric formula. Because the lead change in closed field did not happen every lap, but almost every corner. “It was important to be strategically ahead at the right time and do it with good energy management. “We managed to do that,” said da Costa happily after his second FE victory as a Porsche driver (after Cape Town last year).

You can also see relief in the lovely 32-year-old after a tough few weeks. Although he claimed he wasn’t worried about his cockpit because of Nico Müller’s “secret test” for Porsche, Costa’s reaction to the track couldn’t have come at a better time. And so he said in a good mood: “I had a lot of fun out there. Everyone has ups and downs, nobody is perfect. Now I hope for more victories.”

Despite Wehrlein’s clean sheet, there was still more to cheer about for Porsche, as defending champion Jake Dennis in the Andretti customer team finished third on the podium and is now second in the World Championship behind Rowland and ahead of Wehrlein. Da Costa moved up to seventh place. “We had a better drive and a better strategy,” explained a satisfied Dennis.

The big disappointment was for Jaguar: Mitch Evans was always fighting for pole position after three points, but in the end he could no longer participate in the fight for the podium. Sixth place even behind the incredibly fast Dan Ticktum (ERT) was not what the New Zealander expected. His teammate Nick Cassidy, like Wehrlein, had to change the front row early and was not classified. His rival Jean-Éric Vergne received a five-second penalty for the collision and dropped back to seventh place.

The seventh race of the season follows on Sunday in Misano, as aAll Formula E 2024 races live on ServusTV (starting at 2:50 pm). In Austria on the linear channel ServusTV and on the streaming platform News TV On (here also qualifying from 10.20 am). In Germany, ServusTV broadcasts linearly on DF1 and digitally on ServusTV On, df1.de as well as via speedweek.com and ServusTV Motorsport on MagentaTV. Daniel Goggi and expert Daniel Abt comments.