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Portugal’s da Costa wins inaugural Ad Diriyah ePrix in Saudi Arabia

BMW i Andretti Motorsport driver turns pole position into race victory around Riyadh street circuit

By Sam Bridge
Antonio Felix da Costa turned pole position into victory in the inaugural 2018 Ad Diriyah ePrix in Saudi Arabia.
Antonio Felix da Costa turned pole position into victory in the inaugural 2018 Ad Diriyah ePrix in Saudi Arabia.

Antonio Felix da Costa turned pole position into victory in the inaugural 2018 Ad Diriyah ePrix in Saudi Arabia.

The Portuguese driver held off defending champion Jean-Eric Vergne to win Saturday’s historic race, the first in the Formula E calendar for 2018-19.

For the BMW i Andretti Motorsport driver, it was his second career Formula E victory and his first victory since he won the 2015 Buenos Aires ePrix.

He had started the 45-minute race around the 2.5km Riyadh street circuit in Diriyah, but Vergne took the lead from da Costa before the race’s halfway point.

However, Vergne was given drive-through penalties for technical infractions, which sent da Costa back into the race lead and he was able to hold off Vergne to take victory by 0.462 seconds.

Earlier, heavy rain forced the start of Formula E’s fifth season of competition to be delayed, with the first practice session of the Ad Diriyah E-Prix being cancelled.

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