After another 1-2 in qualifying, the two Jaguar Brazil Racing cars secured another 1-2 finish in the Jaguar I-pace eTrophy race around the Berlin Templehof Airport Circuit with Caca Bueno once again leading home his team-mate Sergio Jimenez for another maximum points score for the Brazilian outfit.
The result now means that Jimenez has taken the lead of the driver’s championship by six points over Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver Bryan Sellers, with Bueno’s second successive win moving him up to third in the standings.
The race got underway with Bueno leading his Jaguar Brazil Racing team-mate Jimenez on the opening lap, while Simon Evans and Bryan Sellers battling for third place. But despite the best efforts of the American to make the same move Sam Bird made in the Berlin ePrix to go around the outside of turns one and two, the New Zealander was able to cover off the American. And no sooner had he lost the chance to challenge for third as Adam Carroll in the TWR Techeetah car made a bold dive into turn six to elevate himself up to fourth place on his series debut.
While things were robust but fair up front, further behind, Katherine Legge made an aggressive move on Celia Martin, but in the process, the British racer span around Pro-Am race leader and championship leader Bandar Alesayi, and with his team-mate Ahmed Bin Khanen having nowhere to go, the two Saudi Racing drivers crashed into each other at the hairpin. Alesayi was forced to retire from the damage while Bin Khanen was in last place and was faced with the tough prospect of working his way back through the order.
In the battle for fourth place, Adam Carroll made a crucial error by braking too hard and too late which saw the Brit perform a drift around turn one, with the error crucially cost him fourth place in a tightly-fought battle with Sellers.
With Alesayi out of the race, Yaqi Zhang knew that it was absolutely crucial for him to win Pro-Am if he was to have any chance of beating the canny Saudi racer in New York City. But after having to deal with an aggressive and feisty Martin over seventh place, the China Racing driver managed to pass the French racer with an aggressive move for the Pro-Am lead.
In the immediate aftermath however, his China Racing team-mate Ziyi Zhang tried to pass Martin down the inside of turn one, but Martin powered her way around the outside of turn two to reclaim the place. This slowed the Chinese racer down mid-corner and gave a recovering Bin Khanen the opportunity to pass Ziyi Zhang around the outside, but they made contact and left debris all over the track at turn two.
Consequently, the full course yellow was deployed, and at the restart, the two Jaguar Brazil Racing cars were nose-to-tail, and Sergio Jimenez tried to several overtaking attempts on the final two laps of the race to beat his team-mate to the race win.
But after leading from the start, Bueno was never going to give up the lead easily, and he held on to claim his third win of the season, with Jimenez settling for second to claim the championship lead, while Simon Evans finished third to return to the podium for the first time since Rome.
Meanwhile, in the Pro-Am class, Yaqi Zhang’s win puts him within 16 points of Bandar Alesayi heading to New York City in seven weeks’ time. So with just one weekend left in the inaugural season of the Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy, it is all to play for after another exciting race on the streets of Berlin.
