Last lap struggle for Powell in Jaguar ipace etrophy

Alice Powell crossed the line in fifth place despite a last lap crash, while it was a solid drive for series returnee Abbie Eaton in the sixth round of the Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy in Berlin.

Photo by Alastair Staley / Jaguar Racing Media

There is no way around Sergio Jimenez in the second part of the Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy season: the experienced Brazilian driver again claimed pole position on Saturday's morning for the third race of the Lockdown Showdown in Berlin. His title rival Simon Evans followed in P2, 0,185 seconds behind, while third and fourth on the grid were series newcomer Nick Foster and W Series star Alice Powell.

Making her return to the championship after her Ad-Diriyah debut round in Saudi Arabia, British driver Abbie Eaton will be the guest starter for the next three rounds. Coming to the Berlin Tempelhof venue mid-way through the race meeting, she managed to qualify the VIP Jaguar I-Pace car in 9th on the grid.

Sergio Jimenez led at the start and, up until the mid-race mark, none of the top five drivers had used the Attack Mode - the temporary power boost added the Formula E support series for the first time in 2020. Powell was fourth on the grid but got stuck at turn one and lost one position. Last of the leading group, Alice Powell, had a little gap to Caca Bueno behind, but it was all open between them for the top positions.

The group ran in formation and, with only six minutes left on the clock, Australian Nick Foster decided to pass through the marks and was the first to activate the Attack Mode. It was the beginning of a chaotic yet action-packed last part of the race.

As Jimenez also activated his Attack Mode, Foster took over the race lead - but then lost it when he failed to activate his second Attack Mode and dropped down the order.

Jimenez was back into the lead and Foster fought with Bueno, made contact with the ZEG iCarros Jaguar Brazil driver and lost more positions.

But it wasn't the end to Foster's hectic race, as he collided with Alice Powell in the last lap. The Australian tried to find a way past Alice around the outside of turn 9, but the gap closed and he found himself into the back of the #7 Ran Racing Jaguar. Powell was spun around and hit the inside wall, but managed to get her car facing the right direction in no time and sprinted towards the chequered flag to take fifth place - behind Jimenez, Bueno, Evans and Gregor Segers, who caught up with Powell after her last lap accident and passed the British racer right across the finish line.

Powell though, received a post race penalty that will drop her from third to sixth on the grid for tomorrow's seventh round.

After the crash, Foster stopped at turn 10 and was unable to finish the race with front suspension damage after a messy race day.

Jimenez took victory ahead of Bueno and Evans - who also missed his Attack Mode activation once - was third, thus losing more championship points to standings leader Jimenez.

Abbie Eaton, who had some struggles to make her Attack Mode work in free practice, finished in eighth place after her first out of three guest-starts in Berlin.

Tomorrow we will see two more Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy races at Tempelhof: the green flag will wave at 11:20 and 16:45 (local time), with Alice Powell and Abbie Eaton again battling out on track.