As early as lap one in Saturday’s race one of a double-header weekend of Formula E action, Envision Virgin Racing’s Nick Cassidy found himself sat stricken in a badly damaged car, out of the race and with his whole weekend at the Puebla E-Prix in Mexico seriously in doubt.
In a 28 hour emotional motorsport rollercoaster, the likes of which Formula E has rarely witnessed, the Envision Virgin Racing team pulled off a herculean effort Jack Bauer, and quite possibly Hercules himself, would have endorsed.
Essentially, the team had to build a new car for Sunday’s round nine of the Formula E season, pulling an all nighter and while their rival rested, the guys and girls at Envision Virgin Racing worked against the clock, sensationally rebuilding Cassidy’s Audi e-tron FE07.
And the New Zealand driver repaid his team’s labours in full, executing a measured and mature race to finish third on the road, only to be promoted to second place several hours after the chequered flag, and bag his maiden podium.
Not only did Cassidy combine stellar attack and defence skills and some blinding overtaking to end up on the podium, but the Kiwi, along with his team back in the garage, also recovered from considerable car damage sustained on lap one of round eight to bounce back in some style.
At the start of the 45 minute-plus-one-lap race Cassidy signalled his intent, making up a place amid the dust and chaos of lap one, sandwiched between Sébastien Buemi and Alex Lynn with former champion Buemi making his way around the Envision Virgin Racing into seventh.
Cassidy did not let the Swiss driver get away and duelled with the Nissan e.dams man several laps later as the race settled down, with pole position man Oliver Rowland holding the lead, only to relinquish it following his first Attack Mode phase.
In the latter stages of the race Cassidy managed to hold fourth place as he took his second Attack Mode, leading DS Techeetah’s Jean-Éric Vergne as up front yesterday’s winner on the road Wehrlein chased down Mortara for the win.
Entering the final few minutes Cassidy was right with Rowland in the fight for the final podium place. With his Saturday woes well and truly in his rear view mirror the Envision Virgin Racing driver made his move on Rowland to snatch the final podium place, which would later become the runner up position, just as team-mate Frijns hustled Jaguar’s Mitch Evans for 10th as the race entered its final lap.
Cassidy underlined a mature and gutsy performance with a brilliant move on pole position winner Rowland to at first take and then maintain his podium place which he took with aplomb.
Moments after being promoted to a 2nd place finish, Cassidy revealed: “I’m so relieved, I feel like we’ve been fast all year and honestly, last night I was really down. I didn’t really change much in my approach today. I think as a team we did a few things better. The car was a bit better, I was a bit better and the result came so I’m really happy.”
Press content courtesy of Envision Virgin Racing
