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.

Pascal Wehrlein, Porsche

Photo by: Andreas Beil

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 10.

Bird survived the incident and was running inside the points until contact with McLaren's Rene Rast sent him tumbling down to 21st.

Jakarta E-Prix Race Results (36 laps):

Cla	Driver		Team	Time	Gap
1	Pascal Wehrlein		Porsche Team	42'21.995
2	Jake Dennis		Andretti Autosport	42'22.472	0.477
3	Maximilian Gunther		Maserati Racing	42'23.408	1.413
4	Stoffel Vandoorne		DS Penske	42'25.866	3.871
5	Jean-Eric Vergne		DS Penske	42'26.981	4.986
6	Edoardo Mortara		Maserati Racing	42'27.582	5.587
7	Nick Cassidy		Envision Racing	42'27.977	5.982
8	Antonio Felix da Costa		Porsche Team	42'42.131	20.136
9	Robin Frijns		Team Abt	42'43.682	21.687
10	Jake Hughes		McLaren	42'45.351	23.356
11	Nico Müller		Team Abt	42'45.787	23.792
12	Norman Nato		Nissan e.Dams	42'47.157	25.162
13	Dan Ticktum		NIO Formula E Team	42'50.819	28.824
14	Lucas di Grassi		Mahindra Racing	42'51.490	29.495
15	René Rast		McLaren	42'51.997	30.002
16	David Beckmann		Andretti Autosport	42'53.074	31.079
17	Sergio Sette Camara		NIO Formula E Team	42'54.097	32.102
18	Roberto Merhi		Mahindra Racing	43'08.657	46.662
19	Sacha Fenestraz		Nissan e.Dams	43'10.817	48.822
20	Sébastien Buemi		Envision Racing	43'22.076	1'00.081
21	Sam Bird		Jaguar Racing	43'36.067	1'14.072
	Mitch Evans		Jaguar Racing	39'07.961	3 Laps
View full results