Stoffel Vandoorne 5th in Jakarta but still ahead, Mitch Evans win

(Belga) Stoffel Vandoorne (Mercedes-EQ) finished fifth in the first Jakarta E-Prix, round nine of the Formula E World Championship, on Saturday in Indonesia. The win went to New Zealander Mitch Evans (Jaguar) while the Belgian retained overall leadership.

Evans, who beat Jean-Eric Vergne (DS Techeetah) in the final minutes of the race, beat French and Swiss Eduardo Mortara (Rocket) to claim his third win of the season after two wins in Rome, his fifth in this electric formula. Eighth in qualifying, Vandoorne finally started in seventh place after a penalty kick taken by German Pascal Wehrlein (Porsche). As in his last rounds, Kortrijk managed to secure places in the race, especially past Sebastien Buemi (Nissan) and Britain’s Jake Dennis (Andretti). Despite a good fight against Antonio Felix da Costa (DS Techeetah), Vandoorne was stuck behind the Portuguese until the checkered flag, breaking through the race for fifth. It’s the end of an impressive streak for the former Formula 1 driver, who maintained his victory in Monaco and third place in Berlin. However, he will console himself at the sight of the general classification, which he leads with a score of 121 points. He has three excited riders on his trail with Vergne (116), Mortara (114) and Evans (109) as the gap widens with the rest of the group. Round 10 of the 16 rounds of the season takes place on July 2 in Marrakesh, at the Moulay El Hassan circuit, which has been traced through the streets of the city and has already been the stage for four Formula E races, in 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2020 (Belgium)