Jakarta E-Prix: Wehrlein wins to get title challenge back on track

Wehrlein moved into the lead of the race early on after passing both Jake Dennis and polesitter Maximilian Gunther, and then held off the duo in the closing laps to clinch his third victory of the season.

Lining up third at the start, Wehrlein made a rapid getaway from the cleaner side of the grid to immediately jump Dennis’ Andretti, before challenging the Maserati MSG of Gunther for the lead on the outside of Turn 1.

Wehrlein smartly backed off at that occasion to consolidate second position but kept the pressure up on his countryman, who had dominated the weekend until that point with the fastest times in each practice and qualifying session.

On lap four of 26, Wehrlein sent his Porsche down the inside of Gunther to take the lead in what turned out to be the race-winning move.

For the remainder of the race, it was Dennis who emerged as Wehrlein’s competitor, having recovered from dropping to fourth at the end of the opening lap behind Stoffel Vandoorne.

On lap 24, Dennis tried to make a move on the inside of Wehrlein into Turn 1 but the Porsche driver covered him off, forcing the Andretti driver to back off.

Over the final 12 laps of the race, Dennis remained within attacking distance of Wehrlein, with Gunther eventually falling behind the duo to turn it into a two-horse race for victory.

Wehrlein eventually managed to resist Dennis in a closely-fought last lap of the race, taking his first victory since the Diriyah double header in January by 0.477s.

Nick Cassidy, Envision Racing, Jaguar I-TYPE 6

Photo by: Gareth Harford / Motorsport Images

Gunther finished over a second off the leading duo in third to claim his first podium of the season, with Vandoorne ending up fourth ahead of DS Penske team-mate Jean Eric Vergne.

Points leader Cassidy climbed from 10th on the grid to finish seventh at the flag on a day where the Jaguar-powered Envision lacked the pace of the frontrunners.

Cassidy was running sixth but dropped to seventh behind the Maserasti of Edoardo Mortara when he took his final attack mode on lap 25.

Antonio Felix da Costa finished eighth in the second of the two factory Porsches, while Robin Frijns picked up his first points finish of the season in ninth for Abt ahead of the leading McLaren of Jake Hughes.

In a repeat of Hyderabad, Sam Bird crashed into Jaguar team-mate Mitch Evans, pitching the Kiwi into a spin and out of the race while battling for position in the lower regions of the top.

Bird also retired from the race late on having originally survived the incident to run ninth, marking a double DNF for Jaguar on a weekend Porsche returned to winning ways.

Jakarta E-Prix: Full race results

Cla	Driver		Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Points
1	Pascal Wehrlein		Porsche Team	36	42'21.995		25
2	Jake Dennis		Andretti Autosport	36	42'22.472	0.477	18
3	Maximilian Gunther		Maserati Racing	36	42'23.408	1.413	15
4	Stoffel Vandoorne		DS Penske	36	42'25.866	3.871	12
5	Jean-Eric Vergne		DS Penske	36	42'26.981	4.986	10
6	Edoardo Mortara		Maserati Racing	36	42'27.582	5.587	8
7	Nick Cassidy		Envision Racing	36	42'27.977	5.982	6
8	Antonio Felix da Costa		Porsche Team	36	42'42.131	20.136	4
9	Robin Frijns		Team Abt	36	42'43.682	21.687	2
10	Jake Hughes		McLaren	36	42'45.351	23.356	1
11	Nico Müller		Team Abt	36	42'45.787	23.792
12	René Rast		McLaren	36	42'46.997	25.002
13	Norman Nato		Nissan e.Dams	36	42'47.157	25.162
14	Dan Ticktum		NIO Formula E Team	36	42'50.819	28.824
15	Lucas di Grassi		Mahindra Racing	36	42'51.490	29.495
16	Sacha Fenestraz		Nissan e.Dams	36	42'52.817	30.822
17	David Beckmann		Andretti Autosport	36	42'53.074	31.079
18	Sergio Sette Camara		NIO Formula E Team	36	42'54.097	32.102
19	Roberto Merhi		Mahindra Racing	36	43'08.657	46.662
20	Sébastien Buemi		Envision Racing	36	43'22.076	1'00.081
21	Sam Bird		Jaguar Racing	36	43'31.067	1'09.072
22	Mitch Evans		Jaguar Racing	33	39'07.961	3 Laps
View full results