António Félix Da Costa produces stunning performance to win Marrakech ePrix
DS Techeetah driver António Félix da Costa finished over 11 seconds ahead of the second place finisher to win the Marrakech ePrix on Saturday, moving to the top of the Driver’s Championship.
The Portuguese driver started on pole position and after dueling with BMW driver Maximilian Günther for the first half of the race, eased away from the chasing pack to claim his first victory for his new team.
The 11.427 winning margin was the third-biggest in the history of Formula E, which features electric cars, and is da Costa’s third podium finish in three races, having placed second in Santiago and Mexico.
He moves 11 points clear of Mitch Evans, who is second in the standings.
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Günther, who briefly took the lead during the middle of the race, battled with Techeetah teammate Jean-Éric Vergne, and only reclaimed his second spot on the final lap.
The Frenchman — who started in 11th position — showed his experience to finish third, narrowly holding off Sebastien Buemi on the finish line with 0% charge left in his battery.
Da Costa tactically used his two attack modes — where drivers drive off the racing line and through the Activation Zone where they collect an extra 35 kW of power for a few laps — to ease to the victory.
It was the third win of da Costa’s Formula E career, having previously won in 2015 in Buenos Aires and 2019 in Ad Diriyah.
A different winner has emerged in each of the season’s five races so far. Last season started with eight different race winners from the opening eight races.
“I mean I had to play a brave card I had to let Max get super close there and I had to force him to use his energy and in the second attack mode,” da Costa said after. “I was controlling Andre (Lotterer) and it worked out perfectly.
“We had a good plan in mind and amazing preparation and we do a lot of hard work and it pays off.
“For Vergne — hats off he had a tough tough week, he had a hard day and he pulled a podium for the team so well done.”
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After the race, Günther acknowledged his achievement to split the two Techeetah cars and finish on the podium.
“I was fighting against the Techeetah cars, it was exciting. We knew we could manage it with the energy, and to make the move with two corners to go for P2 was a good feeling,” the German said.
“It was impressive what [Vergne] did, the recovery that he did during the race and we had the energy advantage compared to him and that’s what we used in the last stage of the race.”
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Evans, who won the previous ePrix in Mexico and started the day at the top of the Driver’s Championship standings, had to start at the back of the pack after he failed to set a laptime in qualifying after he was timed out.
From the back, the New Zealand racer managed to work his way through the pack, climbing 18 places and eventually finished in sixth place.
