Maximilian Guenther converted his Pole Position into victory at the first-ever Jeddah E-Prix, stealing glory from Oliver Rowland on the final lap in Formula E’s first race featuring Pit Boost.
The German, at one stage, seemed to fall behind as cars recharged their power units for the first time in the all-electric championship, but good timing with Attack Mode helped him eat into Rowland’s four-second advantage to take the win on the final chicane.
Taylor Barnard took his second podium of the season with third, followed by Nyck de Vries, Jake Hughes and Jean-Eric Vergne.
Edoardo Morara was seventh, Sam Bird eighth in a fine recovery drive from a first-lap spin, with Antonio Felix da Costa in ninth and Stoffel Vandoorne in 10th.
How the race unfolded
At lights out, Guenther led into Turn 1, with everyone seemingly escaping through except Bird, who was pitched round and relegated to the back of the field.
At Turn 6, Pascal Wehrlein and Mitch Evans touched, the German receiving a left rear puncture, and as Evans lost momentum, clouted the back of de Vries, damaging the left front of his car. Wehrlein pitted, Evans opted to stay out, with smoke pouring from afflicted area as the bodywork kissed the tyre.
Nico Mueller also received damage to his front in a separate tussle, the Andretti launching over the top of da Costa’s Porsche, the Portuguese’s car seemingly, and miraculously, not damaged to a large extent except for a portion of the back coming away. Mueller was forced to retire.
Now six laps in, Guenther was leading by nearly two seconds from Rowland, with Barnard third and de Vries in fourth.
Rowland was chipping away at Guenther’s lead, as Evans finally pitted, now at the back of the field.
One benefactor of the early chaos was Vergne, now up to sixth spot with Dan Ticktum now seventh. Hughes was looking strong in fifth.
The offending piece of da Costa’s car was lying in the track, causing race control to make the decision to bring out the Safety Car on Lap 8, with Guenther still ahead.
The Safety Car peeled in at the end of the lap with Guenther resuming the lead with everyone following without much attempt to overtake yet, but Bird was on the move, taking 16th from Robin Frijns’ Envision.
Da Costa was now seventh, still unhindered by his now-streamlined Porsche, as de Vries nudged the back of Barnard’s McLaren as the Mahindra man looked to make headway, and did so at the end of the lap.
Hughes quickly overtook the McLaren as well as he slowed through tapping de Vries. Hughes then tried to take de Vries, but the Maserati was forced to quickly concede any hope of taking third for the moment.
Lap 11, and Norman Nato was given a drive-through penalty for a technical infraction, as Rowland took the lead at the start of Lap 12.
Jake Dennis was the first to take Attack Mode, opting for four minutes. He then took Ticktum for eighth, and then da Costa for seventh on Lap 14.
Discontented with that, Dennis took Vergne, as the first-ever Pit Boost in Formula E began.
Pit Boost sees winners and losers as first recharging takes place
Hughes and Barnard were the first to pit for recharge, followed by da Costa. Dennis, was now fourth, with Ticktum and Mortara next to pit.
Both Envisions of Frijns and Sebastien Buemi, now on Attack Mode, moved-up into the top 10, with Vergne, Vandoorne and Cassidy also electing to take their first Attack.
Nato then pitted, followed by de Vries, as the first three to pit all took their first Attack of the race. Guenther was next, as de Vries exited the pits ahead of Barnard, but the McLaren stubbornly muscled through straightaway to maintain 14th.
Rowland, Dennis, Cassidy, Buemi and Bird all pitted, handing Vergne the lead and Vandoorne second. Frijns was third with David Beckmann fourth and Wehrlein fifth.
The top four bar Beckmann then pitted, handing the German the lead with Wehrlein second and Zane Maloney third. Rowland was now already back up to fourth, with Hughes and Barnard behind, the Nissan man the net leader.
Wehrlein pitted, and with everyone else doing so, the original order was mostly back in place, but Guenther the biggest loser, now down in seventh, but in Attack Mode, he was quickly ahead of da Costa for sixth and in pursuit of his team-mate Vergne.
Rowland was now almost four seconds ahead, with de Vries eating away at the lead from second place. Guenther was now third, looking like he could find a way back into the battle.
De Vries’ progress stunted with Rowland still maintaining a lead just under the four second mark, and with seven laps the go, the top nine all still had four minutes of Attack Mode remaining.
Ticktum, so promising with his qualifying showing, also lost out big in Pit boost, now 19th and behind his team-mate, battling the Lolas of Lucas di Grassi and Maloney.
De Vries and Guenther took their remaining Attacks, followed by Mortara in seventh.
Barnard was now ahead of Hughes for fourth as Dennis took his final Attack, followed by Rowland, losing around a second, but still three seconds ahead of second-place man Guenther.
Everyone in the top nine bar da Costa had taken their final Attacks, but he would at the end of Lap 27 with just three to go.
Guenther ‘the professor’ makes it all count
Guenther was now scything into Rowland’s lead, his advantage now down to just a second, with de Vries a further second behind in third.
Rowland may have felt inclined to twitch inside the Nissan, with the stewards noting a possibly pit lane infringement, along with Vergne.
Race control would declare no further laps, leaving the total to 31, and with two-and-a-half now left.
Mortara was now putting Barnard under pressure, the Mahindra swarming over the McLaren, as Guenther brought the gap down to just four tenths with two laps to go.
Guenther looked around the outside into Turn 6, and onto the approach of the final lap, Rowland led by just three tenths, with Barnard and Mortara also closing.
Barnard began to pull away from Mortara, the first three now looking like they could all win. Guenther tried the same manoeuvre again but Rowland resisted, but the Nissan possessed only 0.4 percent left, as Guenther had a whole percent.
Guenther, using his extra fraction of power, breezed past Rowland on the outside of the final chicane to snatch the lead and victory, taking his first win since Tokyo last year, and converting his Pole Position into victory in stellar style, becoming not only the first man to win a Pit Boost E-Prix, but the first-ever Jeddah instalment.
Barnard claimed third, with Mortara also losing out, as team-mate de Vries finished fourth, with Hughes finishing fifth.
A genuine contender from the moment he lapped quickly in qualifying, Guenther perhaps showed that the Phil Charles factor at DS Penske is starting to show.
