Da Costa enjoys lights-to-flag win in second New York E-Prix

Antonio Felix da Costa scored a lights-to-flag win in Sunday's second round of Formula E racing in New York, the DS Techeetah charger holding off new championship leader Stoffel Vandoorne to secure his first victory of the season.

Jaguar's Mitch Evans completed the podium after overtaking Mahindra's Alexander Sims in the late stages of the race at the Brooklyn Street Circuit.

A fifth battery replacement of the season for Saturday's winner and consecutive pole man Nick Cassidy sent the Kiwi to the back of the grid, which resulted in da Costa leading the field off the line from Sims and Vandoorne.

However, there was commotion on the grid when Porsche's André Lotterer jumped the start only to stopl and force all those immediately behind him to take avoiding action before the German got going again.

Up ahead, da Costa held his own but Sims and Vandoorne were right with the DS Techeetah driver while Mercedes EQ's Nyck de Vries was fourth.

©MercedesEQ

With only one mandatory Attack Mode in Sunday's round, the leaders appeared to be set to take their cue from one another, and it was de Vries who charged up first on lap 11.

The top two followed suit a lap later which pushed Vandoorne briefly into the lead. But when all had swung through the loop, positions were unchanged, with leader da Costa heading Sims, Vandoorne, Evans and de Vries all within two seconds.

Vandoorne then pressured Sims for the runner-up spot, eventually passing the Mahindra at Turn 6. Behind, Evans sought to recoup fourth from de Vries who had edged pass the Jaguar at the hairpin a lap earlier.

But as de Vries defended his rival's move up the inside, the Dutchman forced Evans to run over a bump, the latter miraculously saving his car from hitting the wall.

De Vries then tried to pull off a move on Sims, but it was the Mercedes' turn to fly over the bump and nearly hit the wall, which dropped the Dutchman behind Evans to fifth. De Vries then lost out to Sam Bird after a contact with the Briton, and then to Envision's Robin Frijns

Up ahead, da Costa was able to bring it home as Vandoorne's Fanboost bonus charge was too little too late to overhaul the leader. Evans completed the top-three, with Sim, Bird and Frijns rounding off the top-six.

Vandoorne now sits at the top of the Drivers' standings once again with 155 points, with Venturi's Mortara trailing the Belgian by 11 points and Evans sitting third 16 points adrift.

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