Porsche home triumph as Da Costa seals 'emotional' victory

Antonio Felix da Costa timed his charge to perfection at the Tempelhof Airport Circuit, to claim victory in the second race of the Berlin E-Prix double-header. 

Da Costa's first win of the season was claimed in the fashion of a veteran, as he remained amongst the leaders in the peloton before bolting at the correct time. He stated over the radio that it was an "emotional" victory, which he hopes to keep unlike his Misano win. 

The victory marks his first P1 since the 2023 Cape Town E-Prix and a home win for Porsche. Nick Cassidy secured second after a late series of moves, whilst Oliver Rowland completed the podium yet again. 

Pascal Wehrlein finished fourth with Jake Dennis in fifth; however, the pair collided multiple times. Mitch Evans was sixth, with Jehan Daruvala, Taylor Barnard, Joel Eriksson and Jean-Eric Vergne completing the top 10 of what was an incident-packed race.

Fast start

Dennis started on pole for the first time this season but failed to make a good start, with Cassidy in second having launched perfectly off the line to lead into the first corner.

Wehrlein was lucky to complete the first lap after being pushed into a wall by Nato on the outside of Turn 7, with his front wheels having lifted off the surface. The incident was noted by the stewards.

Other than that, the opening laps were completed cleanly, as a flurry of drivers activated their first attack mode almost immedietly. 

From the get-go the race was significantly faster than Saturday's, with the pace having been roughly a second faster.

Lap 10 and the pace suddenly slowed, resulting in significant bunching of the pack. It led to Mortara riding up the back of Cassidy, damaging the Mahindra driver's front-wing. 

The big drama, though, was for Maximilian Günther, who hit the back of Nato. Günther drove over his front-wing and helplessly went into the Turn 1 barrier, triggering a safety car. It marked a double Berlin DNF for the Maserati driver.

Fenestraz unfortunate

Lap 15 and Da Costa got the race back underway as the lead driver, in what was a Porsche one-two and a Jaguar three-four at the time. As is always the case with the peloton, the order was changing every corner.

Cassidy moved into the lead a lap later and instantly sped the race up, leading in carnage behind. Wehrlein and Dennis rubbed wheels whilst Stoffel Vandoorne dived down the inside of Sacha Fenestraz, sending the Nissan driver's car almost onto its side.

Vandoorne was forced to pit for repairs, unlike Fenestraz who found himself in eighth at the time. At the front and Cassidy vacated the lead on Lap 22 to Da Costa. Meanwhile, Rowland was shown the black and white flag for driving standards.

Moments later and Nato made a huge error at Turn 4, as he went down the inside of Fenestraz but clipped a kerb, sending him into the side of the Nissan driver and forcing him into the barrier. The front-end of Fenestraz's car was destroyed in the process, resulting in a second safety car.

Fenestraz sarcastically clapped Nato, who was fully to blame for the collision. Thankfully, the safety car period was not lengthy with the race restarting on Lap 29. 

At the restart, Da Costa led from Rowland, Cassidy, Evans and Dennis. In a huge scare for Porsche and Andretti, Dennis and Wehrlein collided not once, not twice but three times after the restart.

Da Costa magic

The third incident between Dennis and Wehrlein took place on Lap 32 and destroyed the reigning world champion's front-wing, much to Dennis' anger. Lap 35 and they almost collided yet again.

All the carnage meant a huge rise by McLaren went completely unnoticed, as suddenly in the closing laps Barnard and Hughes found themselves in sixth and eighth. Whilst most took their attack modes in the opening laps, Evans activated his last with five laps remaining.

It meant Evans had more power than those around him in the closing laps, helping him progress to third. At the front and it was Da Costa who led the field, with Rowland in second ahead of both Jaguar drivers.

Onto the penultimate lap and Da Costa found himself with almost a two-second lead ahead of Cassidy, who dived down the inside of Rowland at Turn 6. Behind, Evans locked-up and lost a chance of a podium finish, as he fell behind Wehrlein and Dennis. 

Da Costa had timed his charge to perfection to seal his first win of the season, making up for his Misano nightmare. Cassidy secured second ahead of Rowland, with Wehrlein and Dennis in fourth and fifth. It means Cassidy remains the championship leader.