Porsche power dominates in Sanya E-Prix with customer success

Though the works team was out of luck in the end, having been in the thick of the victory fight, Porsche customer teams had a hugely successful day on the series’ return to the venue.

Andretti drivers Jake Dennis and Felipe Drugovich converted their 1-2 in qualifying to a 1-2 finish in the race, though their route there was far from as straightforward as that may imply.

Unfortunately, a post-race five-second penalty for Drugovich for causing a collision with Wehrlein demoted him to fifth place.

Pepe Martí came through from the back of the field to join them by taking third for Cupra Kiro, but was promoted to second by Drugovich’s penalty.

Although a penalty took factory driver Pascal Wehrlein out of the points-scoring positions, he was far from the only championship contender to face dramas so remains firmly in contention for the drivers' title, while his team-mate Nico Müller claimed seventh.

Season 10 champion Wehrlein remains fourth in the drivers' championship just 27 points behind leader Mitch Evans, while Dennis is also now in the title hunt in fifth place in the standings after his second win of the season.

The story of the race

In searing temperatures and amid very high humidity on the Chinese island of Hainan, the Porsche-powered drivers took control early on.

Andretti’s front row duo Dennis and Drugovich were quickly joined in the lead pack by Wehrlein and Cupra Kiro's Dan Ticktum.

Before the early attack modes started to shuffle the pack around, the quartet made it an all-Porsche top four, with Wehrlein and Dennis both having spells in the lead.

Ticktum's victory chance ended when he lost ground in an incident with Jaguar driver Evans and was later caught in a multi-car traffic jam that caused a red flag.

Both Cupra Kiro cars sustained damage in that pile-up, but the other four Porsches filled the top four positions at the restart with the two Andretti cars ahead of the works pair.

Müller had also used an early attack mode to pull himself into contention, having qualified mid-pack.

Wehrlein's chance of converting his strong form into victory ended when he picked up a penalty for an incident with Nissan driver Norman Nato, while Müller was vulnerable in the final laps having taken his final attack mode earlier than many others.

That meant the two works Porsche dropped back to seventh and 14th in the final results.

Despite being briefly edged back during the varying attack mode strategies, the Andretti duo timed their final attack modes perfectly to move back to the front.

The result would have been the Andretti Porsche team's first ever Formula E 1-2, with Dennis taking his second victory of the season and Drugovich on the podium for a second round in a row.

However, Drugovich’s post-race penalty dropped him to fifth.

Despite taking the restart last after repairs, Martí surged through from the back to third using his attack modes - the Cupra Kiro rookie driver also repeating his Monaco podium.

With Drugovich's post-race penalty, this became second place.

Martí's team-mate Ticktum was left 15th with his damage from the incidents.

Coming next

Sanya was round one of the late-season Asian leg of the calendar, with the teams now heading to the Shanghai circuit for a double-header at the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix venue in a fortnight.

This will be followed by a pair of Tokyo night races at the end of July, with a crucial month ahead ready for a thrilling final-round decider in London in mid-August.