Vergne fends off Rowland for Monaco E-Prix FE win

Jean-Eric Vergne held off Oliver Rowland to become the first repeat winner of the 2018/19 FIA Formula E season with victory at the Monaco E-Prix.

Vergne converted pole position into a lights-to-flag victory despite finding himself under pressure from a trio of drivers headed by Rowland behind, with the reigning FE champion successfully keeping his rivals at bay to claim his second win of the season and move into the lead of the drivers’ championship.

Qualifying pacesetter Rowland recovered impressively from a grid penalty to trail Vergne by just 0.201s as the Nissan e.dams driver ran out of laps to mount a serious challenge for the win.

Behind the top two came Felipe Massa, who secured a maiden FE podium finish on home soil for the Monaco-based Venturi squad, with the Brazilian fending off Mahindra’s Pascal Wehrlein to land the final spot on the Monte Carlo rostrum.

Wehrlein had been running in second place but was left to rue a costly error early on as he locked up and ran deep at Turn 1 and lost places to both Rowland and Massa in the process.

Sebastien Buemi finished over six seconds off the leading quartet in a distant fifth, as he ended up comfortably clear of the lead BMW-Andretti driver Antonio Felix da Costa.

Behind da Costa came Jaguar’s Mitch Evans, who battled back from a 10-place grid penalty for a Superpole infringement to claim seventh.

Daniel Abt finished right on the back of Evans’ gearbox as he finished eighth, with Techeetah’s Andre Lotterer and Jaguar’s Alex Lynn rounding out the points-paying positions to complete the top ten.