Jakarta E-Prix: Gunther wins for Maserati, Wehrlein takes points lead

Gunther had also started Saturday's opening race in Indonesia from pole position, but the German driver showed far superior long-run pace in the second leg of the double-header, outduelling Andretti's Jake Dennis to score his first FE win in three years.

At the start of the race, Gunther held the lead from pole position into Turn 1, with Dennis also staying in second position despite Jaguar's Mitch Evans making a rapid getaway from third on the grid.

Gunther was the first of the frontrunners to activate the Attack Mode on lap 4, dropping to third behind Dennis and Evans after rejoining the track.

Dennis followed Gunther on the following lap and emerged in front of the German driver, taking the net lead of the race.

On lap 15, it was Dennis who was the first to take the wider line at Turn 16 to activate the Attack Mode, slipping momentarily behind both Gunther and Evans.

With Dennis getting stuck behind the slower Jaguar of Evans, Gunther immediately upped his pace, setting personal best times in sectors 1 and 2.

This meant that when he himself took the Attack Mode for the second time on the following lap, he was able to emerge ahead of Dennis and put himself back at the front of the pack.

However, the battle for the lead was far from settled, with Dennis immediately putting the pressure on Gunther, as Evans remained first on the road and still with a chance of stealing the victory.

On lap 19, Dennis tried to go around the outside of Gunther into Turn 1, a departure from the usual tactic of diving towards the inside into the right-hander.

The British driver managed to get his Andretti car ahead of Gunther's Maserati but then had a twitchy moment at the exit of the corner, allowing the latter to come back and stay in the net lead of the race.

That would be as close Dennis would come to passing Gunther, with the German driver pulling out a two-second gap over the next seven laps.

He eventually took the chequered flag by 2.822s, scoring his first win since New York in 2021 with BMW as well as the first-ever for Maserati in FE.

Dennis missed out on a second win of the season but extended his streak of podiums to fourth, with Evans completing the podium spots in third, albeit 18.5s behind Gunther after completely losing touch with the leading duo.

The two Nissans charged through the field in the closing stages of the race, with Sacha Fenestraz finishing fourth and team-mate Norman Nato ending up not far behind in fifth.

Their late race surge included an impressive move from Fenestraz on Stoffel Vandoorne into Turn 1, which left the DS Penske driver wide and also allowed Nato to come through.

Nato then began challenging Fenestraz for position, before eventually settling for fifth.

Another driver to pass Vandoorne late on was Wehrlein, with the move allowing the Porsche driver to claim the lead of the championship by just one point over Dennis.

It followed overnight points leader Cassidy attempting an ambitious move over Wehrlein into Turn 16 that dropped him to the back of the pack.

Coming from a long way into the left-hander, Cassidy's front wing was clipped by Wehrlein's Porsche as they turned into the corner, leaving him stranded on track.

Although he was able to get going again, he could only recover to 18th at the finish, failing to score points for only the second time this season.

Seventh place in the race went to Wehrlein's team-mate Antonio Felix da Costa, with Edoardo Mortara finishing eighth for Maserati after losing several places in one go with a lock-up at Turn 1.

Vandoorne eventually finished a disappointing ninth, while Sebastien Buemi picked up the final championship point in 10th for Envision with a bold move over McLaren's Rene Rast.

Race results:

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Gap
1	7	Maximilian Gunther	Maserati Racing
2	27	Jake Dennis	Andretti Autosport	2.822
3	9	Mitch Evans	Jaguar Racing	18.498
4	23	Sacha Fenestraz	Nissan e.dams	19.307
5	17	Norman Nato	Nissan e.dams	19.924
6	94	Pascal Wehrlein	Porsche Team	20.108
7	13	Antonio Felix da Costa	Porsche Team	20.521
8	48	Edoardo Mortara	Maserati Racing	20.996
9	1	Stoffel Vandoorne	DS Penske	26.630
10	16	Sébastien Buemi	Envision Racing	27.273
11	33	Dan Ticktum	NIO Formula E Team	28.614
12	51	Nico Müller	Team Abt	28.787
13	4	Robin Frijns	Team Abt	29.125
14	11	Lucas di Grassi	Mahindra Racing	29.530
15	58	René Rast	McLaren	30.670
16	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	DS Penske	56.598
17	8	Roberto Merhi	Mahindra Racing	1'06.645
18	37	Nick Cassidy	Envision Racing	1'06.879
	5	Jake Hughes	McLaren	2 Laps
	36	David Beckmann	Andretti Autosport	33 Laps
	10	Sam Bird	Jaguar Racing
	3	Sergio Sette Camara	NIO Formula E Team
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