Race report

Formula E New York City E-Prix II

New York E-Prix: Bird dominates Sunday race to take points lead

Sam Bird has leapt to the top of the Formula E standings after controlling the New York City E-Prix, while his Jaguar Racing teammate Mitch Evans suffered a late fall.

Matt Kew

Edited: Jul 22, 2021, 8:47 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Sam Bird, Jaguar Racing, Jaguar I-TYPE 5

Bird was in total command for duration of the 37-lap race to score his 11th victory in the series and leapfrog both Robin Frijns and Edoardo Mortara to the lead of the championship.

It cemented a remarkable overnight turn of fortunes for Bird, who crashed out of free practice on Saturday and picked up just three points in race one after tangling with Oliver Rowland in qualifying.

But on Sunday, he led from lights to flag to score the victory by 4.1s over Nick Cassidy.

Bird enjoyed a fine launch that was flattered by a sluggish getaway from second for teammate Evans, who then had to defend from his fellow Kiwi Cassidy into Turn 1. Cassidy tried to put his Envision Virgin Racing machine down the inside but Evans jumped late on the brakes, briefly locking the fronts, to wrest back position and fall in formation.

But the race was quickly neutralised by a safety car caused by Jean-Eric Vergne failing to start.

The double Formula E champion qualified last after his throttle died at Turn 1 of his flying lap and then the DS Techeetah car would not fire off the line.

After the one-lap interlude to retrieve the stricken car, Bird held firm and controlled a late restart to breakaway by 0.7s

Initially, this allowed the two Jaguar machines to dictate the pace of the race with a pre-grid plan to avoid the two fighting on track in a bid to recover the team’s position in the standings.

Bird and then Evans dived simultaneously for the attack mode activation zone at Turn 10.

Cassidy was able to vault into second briefly as Evans returned to the racing line, but without the 35kw power hike of his rival, Cassidy was re-passed on the run into Turn 1 of the following lap.

For the next attack mode activation, Jaguar split its strategy. Bird moved for the boost while Evans stayed on the racing line to provide a buffer to Cassidy, who took his attack mode.

Cassidy was able to leapfrog Evans despite the Jaguar racer’s best and prolonged defensive efforts, but then Evans took his second and final attack mode three laps later, repassing countryman Cassidy to resume the runner-up spot around 1.8s behind Bird.

It looked like Jaguar might convert its 1-2 but then as in qualifying, Evans ran too wide at the exit of Turn 6 and clattered the outside wall which broke his left-rear suspension.

He was able to continue but was immediately passed by Cassidy and then Antonio Felix da Costa, with the dicing Porsches of Pascal Wehrlein and Andre Lotterer also filing past.

That delay allowed Bird to deliver a remarkable victory and propel himself back into the title hotseat, with Cassidy now the most in-form driver in the series after two podiums and a fourth from the most recent three races.

Da Costa bagged a podium after rectifying the balance problems that plagued his Saturday outing, while Wehrlein kept ahead of his teammate Lotterer in the battle for the top five.

Mahindra's Alexander Sims, some way adrift of the leading train, managed to catch and pass the stricken Evans, who eventually slid all the way down to 13th.

Norman Nato was seventh for Venturi as Envision Virgin man Frijns climbed from 21st to a remarkable eighth - now tied for second in the points with da Costa - ahead of the second Mahindra machine of Alex Lynn.

Saturday victor Maximilian Gunther completed the top 10 for BMW Andretti.

Mercedes yet again recorded a double non-score, Stoffel Vandoorne coming home in 12th while Nyck de Vries was just 18th.

Long-time Formula E rivals Lucas di Grassi and Sebastien Buemi also notably collided in the race down at Turn 1, with Buemi spinning down to 15th. Di Grassi copped a 10s penalty to slide to 14th.

Race results:

Cla # Driver Team Laps Gap 1 10 United Kingdom Sam Bird Jaguar Racing 37 2 37 New Zealand Nick Cassidy Virgin Racing 37 4.167 3 13 Portugal Antonio Felix da Costa China Techeetah 37 4.840 4 99 Germany Pascal Wehrlein Germany Porsche Team 37 7.154 5 36 Germany Andre Lotterer Germany Porsche Team 37 7.762 6 29 Alexander Sims India Mahindra Racing 37 16.286 7 71 France Norman Nato Monaco Venturi 37 24.983 8 4 Netherlands Robin Frijns United Kingdom Virgin Racing 37 25.084 9 94 Alex Lynn India Mahindra Racing 37 25.405 10 28 Germany Maximilian Gunther United States Andretti Autosport 37 26.009 11 7 Brazil Sergio Sette Camara Dragon Racing 37 26.341 12 5 Belgium Stoffel Vandoorne Germany Mercedes 37 30.781 13 20 New Zealand Mitch Evans United Kingdom Jaguar Racing 37 30.957 14 11 Brazil Lucas di Grassi Germany Team Abt 37 31.970 15 23 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi France DAMS 37 32.985 16 27 Jake Dennis United States Andretti Autosport 37 35.692 17 48 Edoardo Mortara Monaco Venturi 37 35.924 18 17 Netherlands Nyck de Vries Germany Mercedes 37 36.339 19 22 United Kingdom Oliver Rowland France DAMS 37 51.384 20 33 Germany René Rast Germany Team Abt 37 59.694 21 88 Tom Blomqvist NIO Formula E Team 37 1'05.327 22 6 Sweden Joel Eriksson United States Dragon Racing 37 1'07.701 8 Oliver Turvey NIO Formula E Team 29 8 Laps 25 France Jean-Eric Vergne China Techeetah 0 View full results

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article New York turnaround shows Jaguar's 'resilience' in Formula E

Next article Bird compares teammate Evans to England soccer hero Grealish

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Carson Hocevar and Cleetus McFarland win LeMullets 2026 in epic finish

General

Misc General 2 h

Carson Hocevar and Cleetus McFarland win LeMullets 2026 in epic finish

TV ratings released for NASCAR Cup season finale

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

9 h

TV ratings released for NASCAR Cup season finale

Chase Elliott's car chief leaves Hendrick for NASCAR Truck crew chief role

NASCAR Truck

NSTR NASCAR Truck

Homestead

9 h

Chase Elliott's car chief leaves Hendrick for NASCAR Truck crew chief role

The surprising convergence behind F1's increasingly competitive 2026 season

Formula 1

The surprising convergence behind F1's increasingly competitive 2026 season

Feature

Discover prime content

Why ‘Mr Formula E’ has called time on his racing career

Formula E

By James Newbold

Why ‘Mr Formula E’ has called time on his racing career

The team orders debacle that made for a controversial Formula E title decider

Formula E

London ePrix II

By Ed Hardy

The team orders debacle that made for a controversial Formula E title decider

The 'incredible stories' that could be told in Formula E's London title decider

Formula E

London ePrix I

By Ed Hardy

The 'incredible stories' that could be told in Formula E's London title decider

Cars, stars, and the shootout winners from the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed

General

By Maciej Hamera

Cars, stars, and the shootout winners from the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts