Nick Cassidy took victory in Race 1 of the Formula E London E-Prix, in what was his penultimate race for the Jaguar TCS Racing outfit.
Cassidy made good use of his Pit Boost and Attack Mode strategy to complete a sterling victory from fifth on the grid, his second successive FE win.
Nyck de Vries put up a valiant effort to finish second, with Pascal Wehrlein third, and Stoffel Vandoorne fourth.
Jake Dennis drove brilliant from outside the top 10 to finish fifth, with Edoardo Mortara completing a double-points finish for Mahindra.
Robin Frijns was eighth, with Norman Nato ninth, and Mitch Evans 10th, the polesitter being spun out of a higher finish by Dan Ticktum late in the race.
At the start, Evans led away from de Vries, Wehrlein and Cassidy.
Further back, a bottleneck was created by an incident between Max Guenther and Jake Hughes, the pair colliding and leaving the DS Penske shedding carbon fibre.
The Safety Car was brought out with both men out of the race, as the others caught up in it were given a chance to reverse and continue.
The race restarted with Evans leading de Vries, with Mortara now benefitting from the early incident to move into sixth, with Jake Dennis making his way up to seventh.
A rhythm was created and by Lap 11, the order was relatively unchanged, but gains had been made further up the field, with Lucas di Grassi up to 15th, Antonio Felix da Costa up to 13th and David Beckmann in a points-scoring 10th position.
Oliver Rowland was also up to 12th, as Taylor Barnard was still languishing down in 19th place, his cause even further detrimented by receiving a five-second time penalty for a Safety Car infraction.
Sam Bird was the first to take Pit Boost, with Beckmann opting for Attack Mode, the first driver to in the race.
He was followed by de Vries, Wehrlein, Rowland, the two Lolas and Bird, as Cassidy, Ticktum, Dennis and da Costa took their Pit Boost.
On his extra power, de Vries took the lead on Lap 18, with Wehrlein following suit soon after. Evans would take his first attack a lap later.
This promoted Beckmann to third, with Rowland up to fifth, as Barnard was now up to ninth on his extra power.
De Vries then took a second Attack Mode with more pitting, with de Vries doing so as his Attack Mode ran out, leading by 4.4 seconds from Wehrlein, who also pitted.
This put Robin Frijns into the lead, with de Vries returning in second, with Cassidy ahead of Wehrlein, the Kiwi putting Attack Mode on with 11 laps to go.
Cassidy takes charge to complete thrilling win
The Jaguar was now swarming all over the back of de Vries’ rear, the Mahindra defending superbly, but into Lap 28, Cassidy was through on the start-finish straight.
Dennis, da Costa, Mueller and Frijns were on their final Attack Modes, but da Costa was in the wars, having tagged the Andretti in front of him, with the Porsche’s front wing flapping around in the London wind.
Ticktum, up on power compared to everyone else and desperate to make good on it, tried to take Evans for seventh, but spun the Jaguar round at the end of Lap 30.
Evans rejoined in 15th place as Ticktum, Mortara, Vergne and Vandoorn were all on their extra power, with Cassidy taking it also.
But his likely victory was now in danger, as the Safety Car came out again, with Ticktum out, planting his Kiro nose-first into the wall after outbraking himself in his attempt to overtake Vergne.
The Safety Car came in at the end of Lap 34, with Cassidy in the lead and race control adding one lap, giving a total of 38.
Frijns in ninth and Sebastien Buemi, Rowland, Beckmann and di Grassi were the drivers still yet to take their second Attack Mode, but all did so into Lap 36.
Mueller’s race was effectively done after putting his Andretti into the wall, dropping him down, but was able to reverse out and get going again.
Cassidy needn’t have been concerned about de Vries taking his victory, as he streaked into a lead of 1.5s, which he held until the end, taking successive victories/
Wehrlein came home in third, with Vandoorne taking a superb fourth, with Dennis also completing a stellar drive to finish fifth.
The result was a strengthening for Porsche in both Teams and Constructors’ championships, with Nato the sole Nissan scorer.
Both Cassidy and Team Principal James Barclay most certainly got their Jaguar farewell party on the way, the big cat purring again after a tough Season 11.
