Discover more
In the final moments of the inaugural Cape Town E-Prix, it looked like DS PENSKE's Jean-Eric Vergne was on track for back-to-back victories. However, it wasn't to be for the double Formula E champion as he was forced to settle for second after an outrageous overtake for the lead from Antonio Felix da Costa (TAG Heuer Porsche).
Vergne, who won Round 4 in Hyderabad earlier this month, remains third in the Drivers' standings after a slow start to Season 9.
"I'm very happy for him," Vergne said as he congratulated his former teammate, da Costa, on the victory. "He did a fantastic race. Very good move as well."
The move in question is already going down as one of the best the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship has ever seen, with da Costa pushing his Porsche into first through the intense Turn 7, 8 and 9 combinations of corners that had already seen three crashes over the weekend.
Deciding not to fight back in the final stages of the E-Prix, Vergne added: "It was close. But there are some risks that I'm willing to take and some not. I think in the view of the championship, I want to take the points for second place rather than a crash."
Championship leader, Porsche's Pascal Wehrlein, failed to finish the South African race after colliding into the back of the Envision Racing of Sebastien Buemi on the opening lap. Jake Dennis also recorded another pointless finish in his Avalanche Andretti after getting a drive-through penalty for "not respecting minimum tyre pressure". The Brit still clings to second in the Drivers' World Championship despite failing to score points since Diriyah.
With Wehrlein on 80 points after a dominant start to the new GEN3 season and Dennis with 62 points after a victory in Mexico and two second-place finishes at the Diriyah double-header, Vergne stays in third but goes from 31 points post-Hyderabad to 50 points after Cape Town.
"At the end of the championship, I'm sure I'm going to be happy about that race. Second is good. It's good points. Good for the championship."
Vergne also confessed to not seeing the winning Porsche driver in his mirrors before the move, such was the pass' audacity.
"I genuinely didn't see him coming. So, well done to him. He used that to his advantage. I'm a bit frustrated, of course."
The back-to-back podiums also mean DS PENSKE have taken multiple podiums in a season for the first time since Season 2.