Da Costa scores double Formula E victory in Portland E-Prix

Da Costa backed up his wins in Berlin and Shanghai with another success in Saturday’s opening race at the Oregon parkland track in the #13 TAG Heuer Porsche 99X Electric. In the following day’s second race, da Costa again executed a superb performance to score his fourth win of the 2023-24 season from second on the grid and significantly boost his championship chances in the process. Meanwhile, Pascal Wehrlein scored more important points in his title pursuit in the #94 TAG Heuer Porsche 99X Electric with 10th place on Saturday and fourth on Sunday. It means that Wehrlein has reduced the gap to championship leader Nick Cassidy from 25 points to just 12 ahead of the season finale in London, with da Costa rising from seventh place to fourth with his double win. He is now just 33 points behind Cassidy. In the teams’ standings, the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E team remains second but with a reduced deficit thanks to a combined haul of 63 points across the Portland weekend.

Story of the Races

Both Portland races featured many position changes due to the track's extreme energy-saving requirements, with numerous different drivers cycling into the lead. In Saturday's first encounter, da Costa was in the leading group virtually throughout the 27-lap race, hitting the front of the pack on laps 14 and 15 before dropping back to benefit from the slipstream of other cars and consume his energy more efficiently. As the race entered its closing stages, da Costa settled into second position behind the Jaguar of Cassidy but lost a position to Cassidy’s team-mate Mitch Evans with three laps to go. However, da Costa was safe in the knowledge that Evans had picked up a five-second penalty for avoidable contact earlier in the race and, on the penultimate lap, Cassidy suffered a spin and dropped down the order - promoting Evans to the lead ahead of da Costa. The pair crossed the finish line in that order, but the penalty for Evans meant that da Costa was promoted to victory, 0.415 seconds ahead of Envision Racing’s Robin Frijns.

Wehrlein endured a more difficult race but still took an important point, which was all the more crucial considering championship leader Cassidy failed to score. In the second race, both da Costa and Wehrlein featured in the leading group throughout, both surviving contact that left their respective cars with front wing damage. By the time the safety car was deployed on lap 18 of 27, da Costa was up to second place behind Frijns, with Wehrlein running in third place. When the safety car pulled in on lap 21, da Costa immediately made use of a 2% energy advantage to pounce and take the lead, and from there he was able to dictate the pace for the remaining laps to score another memorable victory. Wehrlein meanwhile had suffered more significant front wing damage in an earlier collision and couldn’t quite keep up the pace after the safety car period and had to settle for fourth place, coming out on top in a close battle with Jean-Eric Vergne.

More points at Portland for Andretti

Porsche customer-supported team Andretti claimed more valuable points in both Portland races, with Jake Dennis finishing sixth in the first race on Saturday and Norman Nato coming home seventh on Sunday. Nato in fact had been fastest of all in qualifying on Saturday, but a 10-place grid penalty for a full-course yellow infringement meant he would start 11th. The Frenchman finished 13th after enjoying a spell in the lead of the race. Dennis also was one of many drivers to lead a lap on Saturday en route to sixth, which he backed up with 10th place on Sunday despite suffering damage in an incident that meant he had to come into the pits. The British driver remains in title contention in seventh place in the standings heading to London. The final round of the 2023-24 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship will take place at ExCeL London, which hosts another double header on July 20-21.