Formula E Rome 2022: Two victories for Mitch Evans in a Jaguar

He didn't have pole position at the start, but he had an outstanding car – Mitch Evans has been able to climb the podium several times in Rome, winning there in 2019 – a feat he repeated on April 9 and 10, 2022. Stoffel Vandoorne started from pole position once again for Mercedes, and Robin Frijns in the Envision was once again at the forefront – eventually finishing second. Mercedes teammate Nyck de Vries and Antonio Felix da Costa completed the second starting row. World champion de Vries, however, would retire prematurely. Evans fought his way from ninth to victory during the race, after Vandoorne and Frijns long battled for it. The drivers in the front part of the field attacked each other for a long time, while Evans subtly moved forward and was able to save his additional boost. Then he ignited his two attack-modes to pull all the way to the front – in the 18th of 27 laps.

Behind the trio of Evans, Vandoorne, and Frijns, Jean-Eric Vergne in the DS Techeetah placed his car in fourth place and scored points once more. Evans' Jaguar teammate Sam Bird finished in fifth: He too fought his way up eight places – from 13th to fifth. In sixth place was the second DS Techeetah driven by Antonio Felix da Costa, followed by Edoardo Mortara in the Venturi (despite a five-second penalty for a collision) and Pascal Wehrlein in the Porsche. Ninth place went to Nick Cassidy in the second Envision, while Andre Lotterer in the second Porsche secured a point for Zuffenhausen by finishing tenth – thereby maintaining their starting positions.

Evans waits with the attack-mode in the second race too – but not too long

Even in the second race, Evans didn't achieve pole position but started from fourth this time, behind Jean Eric Vergne in the DS Techeetah, Jake Dennis in the Avalanche Andretti, and André Lotterer in the Porsche. Right behind Evans, Sam Bird started in the second Jaguar, followed by Robin Frijns in the first Envision and Pascal Wehrlein in the second Porsche. The second qualifying wasn't as good for Mercedes: Vandoorne started from eighth ahead of da Costa in the second DS Techeetah, while Nyck de Vries had to settle for tenth place. The third German driver, Maximilian Günther in the Nissan E.Dams, had to be satisfied with 16th place.

This time as well, the top positions were hotly contested, and once again Evans held back with his attack-mode: Only a few laps before the end did he unleash his extra power and once again drove to the front. In tow was Jean-Eric Vergne, who worked his way from fourth to second place and thus leads the drivers' standings because: The Frenchman has scored points in every race so far. The same applies to Robin Frijns, who finished third in the second Rome race and now narrowly follows Vergne in the overall standings. Andre Lotterer finished fourth ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne and Pascal Wehrlein. Seventh place this time surprisingly went to Oliver Turvey, who scored points for Nio for the first time and surpassed Mahindra in the manufacturers’ standings.

Among the brands, Mercedes EQ continues to lead with 94 points ahead of Porsche with 85 points. In third place, DS Techeetah has moved up with 80 points, slightly ahead of Rockit Venturi – which will become Maserati next year with 78 points and Jaguar TCS with 73 points.

Once again, Formula E remains more exciting than Formula 1, as the results at the top changed once again in Rome. Although the field here also falls into "usual suspects" in the front and rear thirds, the midfield proves to be the “spice in the soup", which flavors each race anew.

What does this mean?

Formula E continues to thrive on having many more different winners compared to Formula 1, which makes it so exciting. And even though Rome saw Mitch Evans winning twice – a driver who had previously twice had to settle for zero points. In contrast, last year's world champion Nick de Vries had to cope with zero points twice in Rome.