Evans: Cassidy timed Monaco E-Prix race-winning overtake "perfectly"

Following Cassidy's success last time out in Berlin, the Envision Racing driver's Monaco victory has launched him into the lead of the championship.

Evans had been leading at the halfway stage of the race after passing Cassidy into Sainte Devote, but the Jaguar driver dropped behind his fellow Kiwi just two laps later at the same spot.

It proved to be the race-winning move as two late safety cars hampered Evans’ charge, just after he’d been told to push for the lead again by his engineer.

“There were moments in the race where I thought it was for me today, especially when I got into the lead,” said Evans.

“I thought it was maybe slightly early, but I was feeling good and I felt like I had a slight energy advantage on Nick.

“I wasn’t expecting Nick to attack me when he passed me and if I could do the race again, I would have defended harder and been more aware.

“I think if I could have kept him behind for a couple of laps after that it would have been a different story, but that’s the way it’s gone today. Nick timed it perfectly.”

Evans, who also finished runner-up in last year’s Monaco E-Prix, suffered damage to his front-wing early in the race after contact with Dan Ticktum’s NIO 333 machine into Sainte Devote which hindered his performance.

“[Ticktum] did absolutely nothing wrong, it was all my fault,” added Evans.

Mitch Evans, Jaguar Racing, Jaguar I-TYPE 6 Nick Cassidy, Envision Racing, Jaguar I-TYPE 6, Jake Dennis, Andretti Autosport, Porsche 99 X Electric Gen3

Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images

“I went to attack him and I braked too late and I hit him straight in the gearbox.

“I had quite a bit of understeer in the race, sure it wouldn’t have helped, but it was a bit of a silly thing from my side. I normally try and keep my nose clean, but luckily it wasn’t a race-ending situation.”

Cassidy’s two victories on the bounce have given him 20-point advantage over Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein, who was only elevated to tenth by a post-race five-second penalty for Sam Bird, and he said that the Monaco win was a special milestone.

“It’s a massive moment for me [to win in Monaco],” said Cassidy.

“Mitch and Jake [Dennis], these guys were so fast, it was a tough, tough race.

“I still can’t believe it yet to be honest. My first reaction was, and nothing against Berlin, but this feels amazing.

“That’s pretty damn special so it’s going to take probably tonight to sink in.”