Vandoorne defeats Evans to claim championship lead with Monaco E-Prix win

Stoffel Vandoorne has won on the streets of Monte Carlo for the first time since his Formula 2 days, as he crossed the line in his Mercedes EQ Formula E car to claim the win and the lead of the World Championship.

The Belgian driver had started the event from fourth on the grid, four-tenths off the pole position time set by Jaguar's Mitch Evans, but benefited from the timing of some incidents and a mid-race retirement for race leader Pascal Wehrlein.

An action-packed race

Evans held onto the lead from Wehrlein at the start, in what was a steady first handful of laps as the drivers played it safe with their energy management.

Sam Bird was an early retirement, with the Jaguar driver making little impression in the race before picking up some wishbone damage.

13 minutes in, Robin Frijns, Antonio Felix da Costa, and Oliver Rowland become the first in the top 10 to take Attack Mode.

Up front, Wehrlein overtook Evans into the chicane as the race hit the 15-minute mark. Evans got it back almost immediately with a spirited counter-attack, while third-placed Vergne took attack mode and fell to sixth as a result.

Vergne quickly moved into fifth past Frijns, and overtook Di Grassi for fourth at the chicane.

With 20 minutes gone, Evans and Vandoorne took Attack Mode, with Wehrlein moving into the lead and still yet to use Attack Mode, ahead of Vergne as the Techeetah driver went back to normal power.

As Evans continued to be cooped up behind Vergne, Wehrlein took Attack Mode at 22 minutes, but his attempts weren't enough to keep ahead of Evans. However, seemingly struggling with energy management, Evans fell behind Wehrlein into the chicane.

Vergne assumed the lead, holding off the attacking Wehrlein, but the German Porsche driver stormed into the lead with just a minute left in his Attack Mode.

Wehrlein's retirement gifts Vandoorne the lead

Just as Wehrlein started pulling away at the front, he encountered an apparent technical issue at Mirabeau and slowed to crawl back to the pits. Falling to the very back, he ground to a halt at the exit of the tunnel and was forced to clamber out.

The position of his stopped car meant a Full Course Yellow was deployed to slow the pack, which was bad news for Vergne and Di Grassi as they had just taken their second Attack Mode. The timing of this meant that Vandoorne was out front and, once racing resumed, was 3.6 seconds clear of Evans as Vergne and Di Grassi's Attack Modes came to an end.

Vandoorne's comfort in P1 quickly came to an end as the Safety Car was deployed, almost simultaneously as he took his second Attack Mode. The race was neutralised for a second time due to an incident between the Porsche of Andre Lotterer and Mahindra's Oliver Rowland, with both cars ending up in the barriers at St. Devote.

Once proceedings got underway again, Vandoorne settled into the lead as Evans tried to pull away from the cars behind to take his second Attack Mode. With six minutes left, Evans finally used the Attack Mode and fell down to fourth as a result. By the end of the lap, he was back into third past Frijns, and set off after Vergne.

Due to the amount of interruptions, Race Control announced an addition of four and a half minutes to the race time. With one minute of Attack Mode time left, Evans passed Vergne down the pit straight and set off in hot pursuit of Vandoorne out front.

However, Evans wasn't able to catch up on the Mercedes driver, meaning a delighted Vandoorne crossed the line to take the win and move six points clear of Vergne at the top of the standings.