Oliver Rowland made the most of a late race restart to win the Mexico E-Prix over Antonio Felix da Costa.
A safety car bunched up the field — brought out for the stricken David Beckmann at Turn 12 on lap 29 after he made contact with Lucas di Grassi. Nissan’s Rowland was then on the back of fourth-place Jake Dennis despite being over 2s behind before the race was neutralized.
Holding a handy Attack Mode advantage on the subsequent restart, he was able to get by Dennis into Turn 1, Pascal Wehrlein a corner later, then da Costa in Turn 12 after dueling with the TAG Heuer Porsche driver throughout the stadium section.
All that work in a single lap proved vital, as another safety car was deployed, this time for Mitch Ev ans.
Evans restarted after Beckmann’s yellow in eighth with four minutes of his Attack Mode remaining, leaving him in a prime position to once again make big moves in the final stages of the race as he did in Sao Paulo, but he hit Mueller as the field concertinaed in Turns 10 and 11, breaking his steering in a similar fashion to Beckmann.
With some of Rowland’s four-wheel-drive and extra power remaining, he dropped the hammer before the final corner as the race resumed on lap 33 and was able to get away to have a car length’s lead into the first corner.
Da Costa kept Rowland honest in the final four laps, closing right up to his tail in the second half of the final lap, but was not able to get by the Brit who not only won, but recorded his first podium finish from six starts in Mexico City.
Wehrlein, who led the opening 15 laps from pole as the two Porsches ran in formation at the front, came home third, ahead of Dennis, who took the lead from him on lap 16 thanks to an early Attack Mode use, but couldn’t hold off da Costa who breezed by three laps later, consolidating that lead after a close battle after Dennis briefly got back ahead as the Portuguese driver dipped into the Attack Mode activation zone on lap 22.
Fifth went the way of Jean-Eric Vergne, the Frenchman dropping back from third on the grid as the Stellantis-powered cars struggled to match the Porsches in race trim.