A dramatic 1-2 finish for Jaguar TCS Racing at the Formula E Madrid E-Prix saw António Félix da Costa take victory ahead of a storming Mitch Evans, who surged from P16 to P2.
Evans delivered an impressive energy-management drive, briefly taking the lead on Lap 15 before serving his mandatory Pit Boost. Later, after moving into P2 past Pascal Wehrlein and Dan Ticktum, frustration began to build as Evans attempted several moves on his teammate, with the team not intervening despite the Kiwi driver holding more energy. The positions ultimately remained unchanged at the chequered flag with Evans finishing 0.386 seconds behind Da Costa.
Evans on the final-lap tension
When asked about his final-lap frustration at the Formula E Madrid E-Prix post-race press conference, attended by Pit Debrief, Evans said:
“I’ve calmed down, but my opinion is the same. But I also understand why the decision was taken for me to stay behind. But in the car, it’s extremely frustrating at the same time. And look, you know, it’s no secret, this is not the first time that I’ve had to do something like this. And when it comes to team orders, it’s been tricky with us in the past. So it was more of an accumulation of, ok, this is kind of felt like I’ve been here before. So nothing against António at all. But I just I worked very hard in the race to get a huge energy advantage and I felt like I could have won the race.”
“But I want to just say a huge congrats to António. He drove really, really well. And hats off to my strategy guys, because they read this race really well. I wasn’t expecting to be in the fight. So yes, sitting here now, I’m really happy to be P2 after starting 16th. And I was actually last for a lot of the race.”
He added: “But I’m a racer and I want to win and I could smell a win today towards the end and it got away from me. Well, it got away from me or it just didn’t fall my way. Also, yeah, I got taken, I got hit off a few times by Nico Muller and that was honestly I thought was very average. If it wasn’t for that, I would have been on the back of the top three guys a lot earlier.”
“This is what we dream of”: Evans celebrates 1-2 with Da Costa
Jaguar TCS Racing leaves the Madrid E-Prix with their first 1-2 finish of the 2025/26 Formula E season. With this result, Evans moves up to P3 in the Drivers’ Standings with 65 points, while Da Costa sits one point behind in P4. Meanwhile, the British team closes in on the Teams’ Standing leaders, the Porsche Formula E Team, now just 4 points behind.
Evans acknowledged this special team result as he continued: “But in general, a huge result for the team, a 1-2. This is what we dream of. And especially with, you know, I’ve had 1-2s with other teammates, but this one’s obviously very special with Antonio. We’re very good friends. And yeah, it’s like a home race. So actually, it’s probably better I did finish second because it is like half of Portugal’s there. So but yeah, as I said, I don’t want to take anything away. It was just at the time very, very frustrating to hear those words come through the radio.”
Long-game strategy delivers
Despite the team order issue, Evans praised his team’s strategy call. The Jaguar TCS Racing driver gambled with a late PIT BOOST, emerging in P7, before activating ATTACK MODE and charging through the field.
“Yeah, look, it was a joint decision to go with that approach,” he said when asked whether the energy-saving strategy was a joint decision with his team. “Obviously, you’ve got no idea how it’s going to play out. But yeah, it was clear instructions from my strategy guys. And then obviously, I’m going to execute that. But at least it was clear in my head. And I was able to extend by another lap because of my energy advantage in the pit window, which I got some clean air for one lap. But still, it did make a difference. And I was able to overcut a lot of people. So that’s what got me to the front.”
“It wasn’t pure pace. I think the pace was still strong. But it was just doing a completely different race to the majority of people. And at the start, even the guys in front of me were racing really hard. And originally, that was my approach was to try and make progress. But obviously, we went with a long game and it paid off there, which yeah, hats off to my strategy guys.”
