Max Gunther took a hard-fought victory in Santiago which the young German driver secured on the final lap of the race passing Antonio Felix Da Costa after a mammoth battle in the final laps of the race.
Maxi Gunther managed to strategically move his way through the field after starting third. The Dutchmen managed to pass Pascal Wehrelin off the line to move into second place. Then the German was able to use his Attack Modes to pass Mitch Evans and take the lead of the race.
But in the latter stages, Da Costa – who started the race in tenth place – had fought his way through the field and was catching Gunther by over a second a lap. Da Costa then applied an aggressive move at Turn 10 to pass Gunther with three laps to go.
Da Costa then ran into battery temperature issues which allowed Gunther to have another shot at taking the lead. On the final lap, Gunther was able to pass the Techeetah driver around the outside of Turn 9 of the 11 corners Santiago E-Prix circuit.
Da Costa held on to finish second with Mitch Evans falling down into third after starting from pole position. Evans did lose out to Nyck De Vries in the Mercedes on the final lap, but the F2 Champion incurred a 5 second time penalty for a technical infringement which dropped the Dutchmen down to fifth.
De Vries’ penalty promoted Pascal Wehrelin to fourth place. The Mahindra driver was challenging for the podium during the race, but temperature issues saw him fall during the race.
Stoffel Vandoorne capped off another strong performance by Mercedes to finish in sixth. The Belgian driver now leads the drivers’ standings. Lucas Di Grassi came from 22nd on the grid to finish in sevnth for Audi. James Calado picked up his first points for Jaguar in eighth place.
Felipe Massa came home in ninth and Sam Bird who was facing the wrong way at the start of the race finished in tenth place.
The race had a Touring car feel as there where an immense amount of bumping from lights out. The amount of contact resulted in seven retriments that included reigning champion Jean-Eric Vergne. Vergne has now retired from two of the first three races. Former championship leader Alexander Sims who is now second in the drivers’ standings, three points behind Stoffel Vandoorne.
There were a number of penalties handed out after the race and during the race as De Vries, Jerome D’Ambrosio, and Sebastien Buemi received 5 second time penalties.
Rowland was given a drive-through penalty for causing a collision with Daniel Abt and Sam Bird. Abt was also given a time penalty equivalent to a drive-through penalty for causing a collision.