The 2018/19 season’s penultimate race of Jaguar I-PACE eTrophy was run on the streets of New York.
Championship leader Sergio Jimenez had taken Pole Position in front of Katherine Legge and Caca Bueno, while Simon Evans qualified himself ahead of Bryan Sellers. Sellers was second in the championship before today, but he hit the wall hard in the qualifying and the mechanics had to work extra hard to get the car ready for the race.
Legge, however, had a three-grid penalty from Berlin after a collision with Bandar Alesayi, so she would start from P5 and her teammate Sellers went up to fourth.
Bandar Alesayi had taken Pole amongst the Pro-Am drivers.
Celia Martin had an accident in yesterday’s practice, which prevented her from qualifying the car, but she was ready for the race.
When the cars lined up on the starting grid, it was without Bryan Sellers, since the mechanics couldn’t manage to get the car ready after all. Hence, Jimenez had a match point, and he only had to finish in front of his teammate Bueno to win the title.
The start went smoothly without any drama.
Ahmed Bin-Khanen and Yagi Zhang were in a battle for second place in Pro-Am, but the Chinese driver remained in front.
The four Pro cars, Jimenez, Bueno, Evans and Legge drove in a long train but without attacking each other, and none did any mistake.
Eleven minutes before the race ended, guest driver Mack Hacking hit the concrete wall hard after a contact with Ziyi Zhang, in the duel for ninth place. The contact between Zhang’s rear wheel and Hacking’s front wheel caused Hacking’s steering to bend and the car ended up in the wall – so hard that he actually moved the concrete.
The Safety Car was deployed, so that his car could be removed.
There was only time to do one flying lap after the restart – and the positions remained the same.
Sergio Jimenez won the race, ahead of Caca Bueno, Simon Evans and Katherine Legge.
Bandar Alesayi won Pro-Am in front of Yagi Zhang and Ahmed Bin-Khanen.
Sergio Jimenez is the inaugural Jaguar I-PACE eTrophy Pro champion, while Bueno and Evans are now up to second and third, in front of Bryan Sellers.
Bandar Alesayi is the Pro-Am champion. Yagi Zhang has secured himself second place, while Ahmed Bin-Khanen is only two points from locking third position from Celia Martin.
There still one more race in Jaguar I-PACE eTrophy 2018/19 tomorrow. It could turn out to be a great race, since nobody had to worry about the championship anymore and could go all out for the race trophies.