Pascal Wehrlein took the Formula E World Championship title while Oliver Rowland claimed a home victory in a tense and thrilling season finale in London.
Jaguar’s collapse allowed Mitch Evans to finish third and second in the championship, but a mistake in attack mode in the closing stages cost him the victory and the Formula E championship.
Nick Cassidy retired in the closing stages of the race after being hit by Antonio Félix da Costa and Maximilian Günther, bringing a sad end to a great season for the drivers, while Rowland won ahead of Wehrlein and Evans.
Sébastien Buemi finished in fourth place, with da Costa, Jean-Éric Vergne, Nico Muller, Robin Frijns, Stoffel Vandoorne and Lucas di Grassi completing the top ten.
Cassidy started the title race from pole position, while his title rivals Evans and Wehrlein started from third and fourth places respectively, with Gunther unusually sharing the front row with Cassidy.
The stage was set and the situation was effectively simple: whoever finished as the top driver out of the title trio would win the Formula E World Championship. When the lights went out, it was Cassidy and Evans who got off to the perfect start.
Evans passed Cassidy on the outside of the first corner, with Wehrlein in fourth place. Everyone was pretty quiet on the first lap, but things changed at the start of the second lap when Jake Dennis and Edoardo Mortara collided at turn two and then both crashed into the wall at turn three, causing damage.
This resulted in an early safety car period, bringing Dennis’ title defence to a disastrous end – it was only short-lived, coming to an end at the end of lap four, after which Cassidy made an excellent restart.
But Evans was close behind him and tried to go around the outside at Turn 16 on lap five, but Cassidy managed to hold on to the lead. Behind him, Wehrlein pounced on Günther in the final corner to take third place, spotting him in the mirrors of both Jaguars.
However, a second safety car was deployed on lap 7 after Sam Bird and Jehan Daruvala collided at Turn 6, forcing both drivers to retire as a result, with Cassidy having to restart again two laps later, on lap 10.
At the restart, Jaguar instructed Evans to give race leader Cassidy some space to launch his first attacking mode, and although Evans was skeptical of the team’s intentions, he complied. Cassidy continued to take a defensive line, pursued by Evans, causing Jaguar headaches.
The headache only got worse when Evans told his team “we’re going all out” on lap 13. On the same lap, Cassidy started his second attack mode and Wehrlein also passed Cassidy, giving Evans the race lead. However, Evans and Cassidy both needed to be in attack mode.
Wehrlein was looking menacing in second place and held a two percent energy advantage over both Jaguar drivers as the race reached lap 17, with tensions building with each lap. It all started on lap 20, when Evans and Wehrlein made contact at the first corner.
The Porsche driver had a two percent energy advantage and tried to find a way to overtake, but Cassidy patiently stayed in third place, knowing that he had already taken both attacking modes. On lap 25, Evans was shown the black and white flag for making a move under braking, increasing the pressure on him.
Despite this, Evans and Wehrlein were still not in attacking mode as the race drew to a close. The title race took a major turn on lap 29, when Rowland overtook Cassidy around the penultimate corner, after which Günther crashed into Cassidy around the final corner.
Cassidy soon suffered a puncture and dove into the pits, dropping to the back of the pack, while Günther’s front wing flew under his car on the start/finish straight.
The drama continued as Evans and Wehrlein attempted their first Attack Mode lap on lap 30, but the Safety Car was called out whilst they were activating Attack Mode so it did not count, which left Cassidy at the back and required the biggest recovery of his life.
When the race restarted on lap 31, Rowland got past Evans, who was unable to activate Attack mode, and did so after the safety car was called, handing the lead back to the New Zealander, meaning Evans was ahead of Rowland and Wehrlein with six laps to go.
The drama continued on lap 33, when Evans and Wehrlein tried to launch their final attacking mode, but Evans missed one of the loops! He made it on the next lap, but fell behind Wehrlein, while Cassidy retired from the race.
Evans had to slow down to get into full attack mode and the Jaguar wagon wall collapsed, giving Wehrlein the Drivers’ title and Rowland the win, while Jaguar won the Teams’ title.