Porsche driver Pascal Wehrlein secured a start-to-finish victory in the first Formula E race in London and heads into Sunday’s season finale as the leader
Pascal Wehrlein dominated Saturday’s opening race of the London E-Prix and took the lead in the 2025/26 Formula E World Championship ahead of Sunday’s title decider.
The Porsche factory driver won with a six-second lead over the previous championship leader, Jake Dennis in the Andretti. Jaguar driver Antonio Felix da Costa rounded out the podium in the tight ExCeL Arena.
As a result, Wehrlein leads second-place Dennis by five points heading into the season finale—with 29 points still up for grabs. Meanwhile, 11th and 10th-place finishes for Mitch Evans and Oliver Rowland, respectively, effectively end their title hopes.
Porsche Dominates Qualifying
Porsche made headlines all weekend: Already in qualifying, the two factory cars battled it out in the final duel, with Nico Müller easing off the gas in the last sector to let his teammate Wehrlein take pole position.
Together with Dan Ticktum, who started on the second row alongside Evans in the customer Porsche, it was a dream qualifying session for the German, who had already announced on Friday that team orders might play a role in the title race.
It was therefore no surprise that, after an unusually calm start at the ExCeL, he entered Turn 1 unchallenged. Wehrlein had already built a three-second lead by the first lap.
Nico Müller holds off Wehrlein’s pursuers
Müller’s task was clear: he was to slow down Evans and the rest of the field on the indoor-outdoor circuit, and the track’s tight layout helped him fend off the Jaguar driver’s attacks.
This drew the ire of Evans, who described Müller’s tactics as “borderline.” Furthermore, the fact that laps seven and eight were run under full-course yellow did not help his comeback attempt.
This was triggered by a collision between Zane Maloney (Lola) and Edoardo Mortara (Mahindra), in which Maloney damaged his car and was forced to retire early.
Evans with a bold strategy
When the race was green-flagged again, the procession continued at first, until the drivers began using their Attack Mode and pit stop boost starting on lap 17. Evans pulled off immediately.
That gave him the clear run he needed to activate Attack Mode on lap 18. On the following lap, he passed Müller and took virtual second place, as Wehrlein had not yet pitted.
At first, it looked as though the now extremely fast Evans had landed on the best strategy. At times, it even seemed as though he might pass his title rival as soon as Porsche brought the 2025 champion into the pits.
Di Grassi’s crash seals the deal
However, the racing gods had other plans: Lucas di Grassi’s run off the track into the barriers at Turn 9 on Lap 21 allowed Wehrlein—and many others—to make a strategic pit stop under yellow flags.
This allowed him to effortlessly maintain his lead. It was immediately clear to a frustrated Evans that his chance was gone—instead of fighting for the podium, he now had to worry about securing a spot in the top 10.
Things got even worse for him: He was overtaken by Müller, who had also suffered during the poorly timed FCY phase. By that point, Wehrlein already held a comfortable eight-second lead over second-place Ticktum.
Felix da Costa edges past Ticktum
Behind them, however, the action was tight: Ticktum, Felix da Costa, and Dennis were locked in a fierce battle for the remaining podium spots, with the Andretti driver prevailing on lap 28 to take third place.
Shortly afterward, the former points leader also snatched second place from Ticktum and quickly built a three-second lead, while da Costa soon passed the Brit as well.
With that, the podium spots were decided, but things continued to go downhill for Ticktum. Overtaken in a hard-fought four-way battle for fourth place during the final laps, he fell back to seventh place behind Sebastien Buemi, Mortara, and Taylor Barnard.
After the race, however, he moved up to sixth place after Mortara dropped to seventh due to a penalty for his late collision with Ticktum in Turn 1, while Evans, Nick Cassidy, and Rowland rounded out the top 10.
