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Da Costa steers to first win with Jaguar in Jeddah E-Prix Round 5

Da Costa steers to first win with Jaguar in Jeddah E-Prix Round 5
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Da Costa was the first of the lead group to leap for both of his mandatory 350kW, all-wheel drive ATTACK MODE boosts and pulled a gap on those behind through the second round of activations – enough to hold fast for the win with 2.5 seconds to spare at the chequered flag. The victory marks six races in nine for Jaguar TCS Racing and da Costa’s first for the team as well as his first since the 2024 Portland E-Prix.

Several drivers cycled the race lead in an energy-critical race, with Buemi one of those – the Swiss driver eventually winding up second, using an ATTACK MODE overlap to beat Rowland who had also led early on.

Mahindra’s Edoardo Mortara was another that had hit the front earlier in the race but was forced to settle for fourth, having secured back-to-back pole positions – another strong points haul but the team felt more was on the table this weekend.

Dan Ticktum pipped teammate Pepe Martí to fifth – the Brit with his elbows firmly out with a lap to go as Martí looked for more. Mitch Evans (Jaguar TCS Racing) followed in seventh, while yesterday’s winner Pascal Wehrlein (Porsche) could only manage eighth this time around, ahead of Citroen’s Jean-Éric Vergne and DS PENSKE driver Taylor Barnard.

Wehrlein heads the Drivers’ running from Mortara by six points – 68 to 62 – with Rowland on 49. Porsche sits on 113 points to Jaguar’s 86 in the FIA Teams’ World Championship and FIA Manufacturers’ World Championship standings.

António Félix da Costa, No. 13, Jaguar TCS Racing, said: “This one feels good! Changing teams is a massive workload and there’s a lot of things to learn and new faces and names. I’m happy to get this done by race five – we’ve been having good pace but we haven’t been able to capitalise on it so I’m happy to give this one back to Jaguar TCS Racing. I knew when I had a little bit of a gap and ATTACK MODE over my rivals that only a big drama could really take this away from us. But you know in racing, it’s never over until it’s over – I had all these alarms flashing on my dash and I kept asking: ‘Do I need to manage something?’; ‘Do I need to go slower?’. They told me to acknowledge the alarms and crack on! It was a little bit stressful but it’s a great feeling when you know it’s only up to you to bring this one home, and I’m very happy to do it.”

Sébastien Buemi, No. 15, Envision Racing said: “I decided to lead the race just to avoid the carnage a little bit, avoid a puncture or damaging the wing. If you fight for P3 or P4 it’s a jungle out there! If you want to just survive you want to make sure you’re at the front. You do save a bit less energy and I think DAC did a mega job saving more. He was able to go flat out a bit longer than me and that’s why he made that gap. At the end it’s P2 and DAC did a better job. We take those points – yesterday we qualified last, so obviously to be on the podium today is not bad.”

Oliver Rowland, No. 23, Nissan Formula E Team said: “Yesterday I was pulling my hair out! The last two races I struggled quite a lot, I just had no pace. Last night we changed quite a lot of stuff, so I’m really pleased to be back on the podium. Thanks to my whole team as they stayed late last night and they did a great job. I just wanted to stay out of trouble – from third or fourth backwards it’s quite dangerous with people coming on the outside, and honestly I could go so slow at some points that I could control the pace and be quite comfortable in my target. Of course António got a slight advantage and I wouldn’t have beaten him today – I think with a slightly different strategy on my side with the ATTACK MODE I could have finished second, but anyway I’m still happy with third.”

The ABB FIA Formula E World Championship will continue with Round 6 in Madrid on 21st March 2026 at Circuito de Madrid Jarama.

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