Race report

Formula E Jakarta ePrix II

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

Maximilian Gunther claimed a first Formula E victory for Maserati MSG in the Jakarta E-Prix, as an ill-fated overtaking attempt from Nick Cassidy handed the points lead to Pascal Wehrlein.

Rachit Thukral

Edited: Jun 5, 2023, 3:08 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Maximilian Gunther, Maserati Racing, Maserati Tipo Folgore

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 Germany Maximilian Gunther Monaco Maserati Racing 2 27 United Kingdom Jake Dennis United States Andretti Autosport 2.822 3 9 New Zealand Mitch Evans Jaguar Racing 18.498 4 23 France Sacha Fenestraz Japan Nissan e.dams 19.307 5 17 France Norman Nato Japan Nissan e.dams 19.924 6 94 Germany Pascal Wehrlein Germany Porsche Team 20.108 7 13 Portugal Antonio Felix da Costa Germany Porsche Team 20.521 8 48 Switzerland Edoardo Mortara Monaco Maserati Racing 20.996 9 1 Belgium Stoffel Vandoorne United States DS Penske 26.630 10 16 Sébastien Buemi United Kingdom Envision Racing 27.273 11 33 Dan Ticktum NIO Formula E Team 28.614 12 51 Nico Müller Germany Team Abt 28.787 13 4 Netherlands Robin Frijns Germany Team Abt 29.125 14 11 Brazil Lucas di Grassi India Mahindra Racing 29.530 15 58 Germany René Rast McLaren 30.670 16 25 France Jean-Eric Vergne United States DS Penske 56.598 17 8 Spain Roberto Merhi India Mahindra Racing 1'06.645 18 37 New Zealand Nick Cassidy United Kingdom Envision Racing 1'06.879 5 Jake Hughes McLaren 2 Laps 36 Germany David Beckmann Andretti Autosport 33 Laps 10 Sam Bird Jaguar Racing 3 Brazil Sergio Sette Camara NIO Formula E Team 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 Jakarta E-Prix: Gunther beats Dennis to claim second straight FE pole

Next article Evans had to be "roadblock" to secure Jakarta FE podium

Top Comments

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

View More & Comment

Latest news

Retaining Liam Lawson isn't enough – Red Bull must stop treating him like a failure

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1 1 h

Retaining Liam Lawson isn't enough – Red Bull must stop treating him like a failure

Yamaha may not be competitive immediately in MotoGP's 850cc era, says Pramac

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Qatar GP

5 h

Yamaha may not be competitive immediately in MotoGP's 850cc era, says Pramac

With rallying back in the spotlight, it could probably teach F1 a thing or two

Formula 1

With rallying back in the spotlight, it could probably teach F1 a thing or two

You Ask The Questions: Jack Miller

MotoGP

Qatar GP

You Ask The Questions: Jack Miller

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