Pascal Wehrlein has one hand on a second Formula E crown after crushing the opposition in Saturday’s opening race of the London E-Prix at the ExCeL.
The Porsche driver controlled the race from pole to win by six seconds from Jake Dennis, who had arrived in the capital at the head of the standings, with Antonio Felix da Costa taking third for Jaguar. Wehrlein now leads the Andretti man by five points with 29 still available, and with Mitch Evans and Oliver Rowland scoring only meagre points in the lower reaches of the order, Sunday’s finale is effectively a two-horse race.
Porsche had set the tone long before lights out. Both factory cars reached the final qualifying duel, where Nico Muller backed off in the last sector to hand pole to his team-mate, while Dan Ticktum, a winner last time out in Tokyo, lined up his customer Kiro Porsche on the second row alongside Evans.
It was a dream grid for Wehrlein, who had predicted on Friday that team orders would play a part in the title fight. Sure enough, he swept into Turn 1 unchallenged after an unusually tidy ExCeL start and was three seconds up the road by the end of the opening lap.
Muller plays the perfect wingman
Behind him, Muller’s job was to bottle up Evans and the chasing pack, a task the tight indoor-outdoor layout made easy. An increasingly irritated Evans branded the Swiss driver’s defending “dodgy”, and his afternoon was not helped by laps seven and eight running under yellows after Zane Maloney’s Lola picked up terminal damage in contact with Edoardo Mortara’s Mahindra.
Evans rolled the dice when the pitstop boost window opened around lap 17, stopping immediately and using clean air to take Attack Mode a lap later. He cleared Muller on lap 19 for net second and briefly looked poised to leapfrog Wehrlein, who had yet to stop.
Then the race turned. Lucas di Grassi speared into the Turn 9 barrier on lap 21, and the resulting caution gifted Wehrlein and much of the field a cheap stop. The 2025 champion emerged with his lead intact, Evans’s gamble was ruined, and the Jaguar driver was soon repassed by Muller and left scrapping just to stay in the top 10.
Wehrlein cruised clear as the podium fight raged behind. Dennis took third from the battling pack on lap 28, claimed second from Ticktum soon after, and da Costa followed him through to settle the rostrum.
Ticktum faded to seventh in a scrappy four-way brawl with Sebastien Buemi, Mortara and Taylor Barnard, but was promoted to sixth when Mortara was penalised for their late Turn 1 clash. Evans, Nick Cassidy and Rowland completed the top 10.
The title will be settled on Sunday in the ExCeL’s farewell before the London E-Prix moves to Brands Hatch for the Gen4 era. UK viewing details are on the official Formula E site, with full timing on the championship’s results page.
