Pascal Wehrlein (TAG-Heuer Porsche) gained a bit of ground in the championship following the drama that befell his Jaguar rivals Nick Cassidy and Mitch Evans in the first e-Prix race of the weekend at Portland but could only finish in tenth place as his teammate Antonio Felix Da Costa took a third win in the last four races.

The MIM-contracted driver, starting P8 on the grid after being promoted two places due to penalizations for two other drivers, picked up some race debris during the early laps, which altered the balance of his Porsche and as a result put paid to any chance of him offering a challenge to the leading group.

“I hit some debris,” the German declared. “I think it was Evans and Hughes, when they touched out of Turn 7. The end-plate got stuck under my car. The was no balance, no braking performance and actually, the front drive shaft was quite damaged. I just tried to bring the car home, which is a bit of a shame, because today could have been a very good opportunity to score big points. I didn’t score high, but from lap six onwards my race was pretty much done.”

Wehrlein was handed a bit of a lifeline however, with race leader Cassidy spinning off on the penultimate lap and race winner Evans demoted to eighth after being handed a five-second penalty. As a result Pascal cut the gap to Cassidy to 24 points, with today’s second Portland race still to come.