Hyderabad FE winner Vergne needed "[Boeing] 777 wings" to hold Cassidy off

Vergne clinched his first Formula E win in nearly two years on Formula E’s maiden visit to India on Saturday, beating the Jaguar-powered Envision car of Cassidy by just 0.400s after 33 laps of racing.

The Frenchman was at a significant disadvantage to Cassidy in the closing stages of the race, facing an energy deficit of as much as 4% to the Kiwi due to a combination of an inferior powertrain package and having no car in front to provide tow.

But with a brief safety car period reducing the need to save energy and effectively turning the race flat-out, Vergne was impressively able to fend off the advances of Cassidy, covering the inside line at each occasion going into the Turn 3 hairpin.

Starting the final lap with less than 2% energy left, Vergne crossed the finish line in first position to secure a maiden victory for the DS Penske partnership, as well as his first since the 2021 Rome E-Prix.

Speaking after the race, Vergne admitted he feared losing the lead to Cassidy at one stage, but was able to come up with the goods to deliver an unlikely result.

“I had a couple of defensive driving [practice] from Monaco, I remember. I just put the 777 wings on the side,” quipped Vergne.

“I was struggling all race long with the recovery, that something was not working properly. So I had to lift very early. I was struggling a lot on energy, obviously.

“At some point I really thought Nick was going to pass me and I was going to be fine for it because I was struggling so much that I didn't want to lose the position to also the guys behind.

“So I didn't want to overdefend and when the safety car came it changed my target a little bit, so it became a bit easier for me.

Jean-Eric Vergne, DS Penske, DS E-Tense FE23, Nick Cassidy, Envision Racing, Jaguar I-TYPE 6, Sebastien Buemi, Envision Racing, Jaguar I-TYPE 6, Oliver Rowland, Mahindra Racing, Mahindra M9Electro

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

“Although Nick still had 3-4% more energy than me I was able to lift in some places where it allowed me to block well and that's what I had done until the end of the race.

“Last year I had many podiums but no wins, so it's been a while I hadn't won so it was important to go back to victory.”

The Jaguar powertrain proved to be the class of the field in Hyderabad, partly because Porsche - which won the opening three races of the season across Mexico City and Diriyah - lost running due to Pascal Wehrlein’s crash in Friday practice, which prompted the German manufacturer to sit out FP1.

Cassidy emerged as the best runner of the four Jaguar-powered cars in the race after factory driver Sam Bird ploughed into teammate Mitch Evans, and gave Vergne a run for his money as he challenged for a second career victory in FE.

But while Cassidy clearly had better pace than eventual winner Vergne, the safety car deployed for an incident involving McLaren’s Jake Hughes changed the nature of the race, forcing the Kiwi to settle for second position.

Only a single extra lap was added to the race total, which meant that Cassidy couldn’t use the full extent of his energy advantage and still had 2% energy remaining after the finish.

“With probably 13 laps to go or 15 laps to go I thought the race was ours and it's just about being patient,” he said. “But the safety cars with these regulations changed the game.

“Basically, when you have a safety car these days the lap [count total] changes very conservatively. So everyone then has a lot more energy in the bank.

“The race becomes more flat, it becomes much more difficult to overtake. I think he did a very good job today, they managed to race extremely well.

“I must say the final few laps I was kind of content [with second].”