De Vries ends win drought, Ticktum loses podium due to penalty

Nyck de Vries has taken his first Formula E victory in four years in the Monaco E-Prix opener, as Dan Ticktum was denied a podium after he was penalised for a late clash with Antonio Felix da Costa.

Front-row starter de Vries failed to beat polesitter Ticktum into the lead at the first corner, and given the tight nature of the Monte Carlo street circuit the Mahindra driver bided his time behind the Cupra Kiro driver.

The Dutchman pitted on lap 14 and pulled off an undercut on Ticktum, then used his sole Attack Mode to blast by da Costa and into the lead, with the Portuguese unable to defend his position having used his own Attack Mode in the first half of the race to climb up the order.

Once out in front, de Vries managed his pace and energy to take the win ahead of Jaguar’s Mitch Evans who claimed the lead in the drivers’ standings with second place.

But the key talking point triggered behind the front two with two laps to go, as Ticktum was defending third place from da Costa. Coming out of the tunnel, the Jaguar driver looked for a move up the inside going into the chicane but Ticktum closed the gap which led to heavy contact.

Da Costa suffered terminal damage and came to a halt in the Swimming Pool section, while Ticktum survived the clash to take the chequered flag in third place.

But the stewards slapped Ticktum with a drive-through penalty, converted to 33 seconds having finished the race before the penalty was handed out, meaning he lost his podium place and dropped to 12th in the final results.

Ticktum’s penalty saw his team-mate Pepe Marti take a surprise maiden Formula E podium in his rookie season.

Earlier in the race, Porsche endured a disaster as Nico Muller rear-ended team-mate Pascal Wehrlein on lap 12 which left the Swiss with a broken front wing and the German with a right-rear puncture. After Wehrlein pitted, he was unable to make up the lost ground and finished down in 18th, while Muller was able to stagger to the finish in ninth.

Defending champion Oliver Rowland picked up a puncture on lap 14 which ended his hopes of a decent result down in 15th, while 2022-23 Formula E champion Jake Dennis was taken out in a clash with Nick Cassidy on lap 4 which triggered a brief safety car period, with the Kiwi given a 10s penalty for the incident.

With a high rate of attrition, Felipe Drugovich’s clean race saw him move up to fourth place for Andretti, ahead of Envision pair Sebastien Buemi and Joel Eriksson.

Taylor Barnard led DS Penske team-mate Max Guenther home in seventh and eighth respectively, with Muller and Lola Yamaha’s Lucas di Grassi rounding out the top 10.

Formula E Monaco E-Prix – Race 1 results

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– The Autosport.com Team