Written by Fleur Rogerson
Mitch Evans fought his way from the back of the grid in a race marred by red flags, crashes and penalties up and down the grid.
Season 11 in Sao Paulo and Pascal Wehrlein began his championship defence strong, taking pole position for the first race of the season.
Oliver Rowland continued his momentum from his win in London, lining up alongside the Porsche in his Nissan. Mitch Evans had a disaster in qualifying starting from the very back of the grid, with a long race ahead of him.
Race Start
Pascal Wehrlein lined up in P1 for the first race of Season 11, along with Oliver Rowland. The drivers were ready to go when the lights flashed orange, signalling a delay.
Robin Frijns' Envision had an issue that meant the car needed to be wheeled off the grid. It seemed to be a mechanical issue with the Envision.
Frijns car was cleared and the lights went out, Oliver Rowland passed Wehrlein down the inside into Turn 1 taking the lead of the race.
Günther made a move on Dennis into third, with Da Costa also making a move on the Andretti.
Jean-Eric Vergne made strides towards the front in the first two laps moving up from eighth to fourth and closing on the back of Félix Da Costa.
Jake Hughes and Nico Müller both ended up in the corner of Turn 5&6. Hughes avoided contact with Buemi and hit the wall meanwhile Hughes was tagged by Ticktum, knocking him into Müller. The safety car was brought out.
Safety Car Re-start
The Safety car came in on lap 5, Oliver Rowland making a strong restart and holding on to the lead. Günther's DS Penske made a lunge down the inside on Pascal Wehrlein.
Lucas DiGrassi's car was on the side of the road, with a piece of front wing on the track. Drivers up and down the grid had decided to use their attack modes, with Nick Cassidy using it to move up from tenth to first.
A yellow flag was waved briefly for DiGrassi's accident but it was shortlived.
Both Porsches decided on using their 2 minutes attack modes, giving them six minutes to use later. However, it meant they fell back through the grid, sitting in eighth and ninth.
Both Jaguars also using their attack modes had made huge progress up the grid, Cassidy sitting in the lead and Evans in sixth, after starting last.
Norman Nato, who had managed to take the lead was forced to come into the pits to serve a drive-through penalty.
Lap 16, Zane Maloney had made a huge move up to seventh from the back of the grid, behind Wehrlein who was closing on Jake Dennis' Andretti.
By lap 18, Wehrlein was making a move past Oliver Rowland and taking the lead. The other Porsche of Félix Da Costa also made the move ahead of Rowland and then was lunging down the inside of his teammate.
On lap 20, Da Costa finally made it through and past his teammate, with the Porsche holding first and second. Jake Dennis had a technical issue as the Andretti was stopped in a run-off area.
10 Laps Left
Oliver Rowland with 3 minutes of Attack remaining, more than every other driver, took the lead from Félix Da Costa.
A red flag was called because Jake Dennis' Andretti had an isolation issue meaning it was unsafe and needed to be dealt with more carefully.
The red flag meant that the order from the previous lap would be instated for the restart, putting Da Costa back into P1.
The 3-minute attack mode advantage Rowland had also disappeared, leaving Nick Cassidy at an advantage as he was the only car in the top 10 with attack mode left.
Green Flag
Da Costa led the pack out of the pit lane for the restart. Behind him, Oliver Rowland followed closely, with Wehrlein behind the Nissan.
The race had a standing restart so the drivers followed the safety car around the track to the grid. The final few cars lined up on the grid and the lights came on.
The red lights went out and Oliver Rowland made another perfect start, diving down the inside once again into Turn 1, taking the lead. Maximillian Günther moved around the outside of Da Costa, moving into second.
Da Costa found himself with his teammate on his tail. Nick Cassidy made the move to use his final attack mode, making his way through the grid.
On Lap 26, Oliver Rowland was put under investigation for overpowering, the same thing that led to Nato's Nissan getting a drive-through penalty. Cassidy with only a minute left on his attack mode was up in third and dove down the inside of Günther taking P2.
At this point, a possible penalty for Rowland was looming, with Cassidy potentially in the lead. Cassidy's teammate, Evans, made the most of his attack mode, climbing through the ranks and putting himself in P2.
Rowland received a drive-through penalty, which left Evans who still had attack mode time left, making a move on Nick Cassidy for the lead. Evans who started at the back of the grid now in P1.
There were 4 added laps for the time under the safety car, meaning the battles at the front were far from over.
Félix Da Costa made a lunge down the inside in the first corners, moving up to second ahead of Evans. Taylor Barnard and Sam Bird in the NEOM McLaren's made-up places with Barnard using the excess energy to get up into third place.
On lap 30, Günther's Penske hit the wall coming through the corners as Cassidy and Wherlein fought side by side. Caught up from Günther's crash, the cars went in three abreast into the corner, Wehrlein being squeezed by Cassidy with contact causing Wehrlein's Porsche to flip over on track hitting the wall.
A red flag was called almost immediately, with Wehrlein's car stuck upside down on the track, luckily he was okay though he wouldn't finish the race.
Cassidy managed to have his steering fixed and was able to restart the race with the rest of the grid, but he had to start 15th due to the work done on his car.
The restart also meant that Taylor Barnard and Sam Bird would start the race third and fourth, both with more energy than those around them.
The remaining 16 drivers lined up in order, prepared for a rolling start.
Final Race Restart
Mitch Evans began to slow the pack down as the safety car dove into the pits. The green flag was waved and Evans went, with Da Costa chasing him down and Taylor Barnard chasing the Porsche with 4 laps to go.
Taylor Barnard in his rookie season of Formula E stayed on the back of Da Costa as the Porsche fought with the Jaguar. Da Costa made a lunge on Mitch Evans but wasn't close enough to the Jaguar to make it stick.
Sam Bird came on the radio to urge his teammate to go for it, the rookie had a three per cent energy advantage. Into the final lap, Mitch Evans held onto the lead of the race.
He fought his way from the back of the grid managing to hold off those behind him crossing the line to take the win. Behind him, Félix Da Costa and, rookie, Taylor Barnard finished the podium places.
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