DIRIYAH: Jaguar’s Nick Cassidy secured victory in the second race of the Diriyah E-Prix weekend on Saturday.
The Kiwi crossed the line ahead of Robin Frijns of Envision and British driver Oliver Rowland in third, who had started the race on pole position.
Frijns had flown off the line at lights out and managed to steal the lead into the first corner from Rowland.
Cassidy, however, had enough pace to stay with the top two and picked his way through the first round of Attack Mode to take top spot.
Once he had the advantage, Cassidy was able to retain it during his second mandatory Attack Mode boost having stretched his lead out to 2.5 seconds and managed the race to perfection to the chequered flag.
Jake Hughes in the NEOM McLaren crossed the line in fourth, a career best for the Brit, while Season 8 title-winner Stoffel Vandoorne in the DS PENSKE finished fifth for the fifth time in Diriyah.
Rowland had secured pole after beating out Frijns in the qualifying final duel.
“That’s why I came back,” the British driver said over the radio after setting a 1m10.055s lap time - the quickest time of the Diriyah weekend.
Several big names were knocked out of contention early on, including reigning champion and Friday's race winner Jake Dennis (Andretti) and championship leader Pascal Wehrlein (TAG Heuer Porsche).
Frijns’ teammate, Sebastien Buemi, crashed during Group B running, which ruined his car and brought out the red flag.
Dennis cruised to victory in Friday's race, beating out Jean-Eric Vergne by 13 seconds.
