With one of the shortest laps of the season, the Norisring promised to hold a cracker of a German eV-Prix. After his surprise pole, Sebastian Bergkvist starts at the front ahead of Alexander McLaughlin, while the championship contenders, especially Felipe Cesar and Oleksandr Zozulya, start well down the field. Both Bergkvist and McLaughlin got even starts, but as they went through turn 1, McLaughlin had the inside line for the hairpin and took the lead. Before the Swede could fight back, there was a massive crash in the midfield. Judson Sikes, starting 14th, locked up heavily and went straight into Steven Kasami’s car. The two cars rolled into the runoff and left a sea of debris at turn 2. As Hitoshi Katayama had also stopped, his car failing just metres after starting, the safety car was brought out. As they settled out behind the safety car, the order became clear. Will Taylor had passed Kip Maxwell for third, Cesar and Zozulya had dispatched of Otso Toivonen and both Thunderhead cars had fallen to last. The safety car came in after 6 laps, with McLaughlin and Bergkvist flying off into a battle of their own immediately. Rodrigo Sanchez attempted a brave move on Aron Einarrson a few laps later at turn 7, only to push both wide, allowing Robert Stefansson and Jochem van Snelheid to pass both. At the back, Cesar was looking surprisingly subdued, as Zozulya overtook him easily on the main straight. Ivan Lesic joined the side-lines before even reaching quarter race distance as his car had a seemingly identical issue to Katayama.
Despite his track position, McLaughlin seemed to lack pace compared to Bergkvist as the Porsche was stuck to the back of the Mitsubishi. However, surprisingly, overtaking proved to be rather difficult and McLaughlin was able to hold the lead. Taylor had no answer to their pace while Brock Kidd was stuck behind Maxwell, who refused to let his teammate by despite calls from the pit wall. Overtaking wasn’t any easier in the midfield – it took close to ten laps for Einarsson to finally repass van Snelheid as he tried to recover from early on. Zozulya also encountered similar issues behind Stuart Harrison, as he only managed to get ahead of the American at half race distance. The same could not be said for Cesar, who simply had no pace and could not stick with the Jaguar car. It seemed there would be another safety car when on lap 35 Luke Stokey clipped in the inside wall at turn 5, pitching him into the outside wall, but as there was a gap in the barriers there his car was recovered quickly. He was also joined as a spectator by a fellow Brit in a championship defining moment – Taylor ran wide at the final corner a few laps later out of lack of concentration, got onto the marbles and slid straight into the outside wall, putting him out of the race from third. This promoted Maxwell to the podium, who was still holding up Kidd. Things weren’t much better at the other side of the Jaguar garage – Zozulya had a clear track for a while and smashed the lap record but was soon stuck behind Steffen Rosenberg. Up front, Bergkvist continued to harass McLaughlin and on lap 45, he spotted an opportunity as his rival had a moment on the exit of the hairpin. Bergkvist went for the outside at turn 4, switched back as McLaughlin braked later, held his outside line at turn 5 despite the two almost touching wheels, before the Porsche out braked the Mitsubishi into turn 7 and took the lead with a lovely move. Now free, Bergkvist flew off, leaving the race result well out of doubt. There was still action behind – van Snelheid did a perfect 360-degree spin on the exit of turn 7 after putting a wheel on the outside kerb, dropping him from 8th to 11th, while Refugio Boyer ended an uninspiring race by locking up at turn 4 and crashing into the wall further on. Cesar’s nightmare race continued when he was passed by Olen Inman, who barely troubled the points despite his teammate’s exploits. In the last 5 laps, Einarrson passed Stefansson to recover to 6th. It was to become 5th when, with just 3 laps left, Kidd’s frustration passed boiling point and he divebombed Maxwell at turn 7, banging into the side of his teammate and breaking Maxwell’s suspension. None of that mattered to Bergkvist, who cross the line for a great win, beating McLaughlin who returned to the podium, and Kidd, who’s last grasp attempt on Maxwell raised plenty of discussion. Ryota Yoshida drove cleanly and was rewarded with 4th, ahead of Einarrson, Stefansson and Sanchez. Rosenberg drove brilliant at the end to hold off Zozulya for 8th, ahead of van Snelheid who threw away another potentially good result with an error. This all had massive implications of the title race – Cesar and Kidd are now tied for 1st, the latter ahead of countback, with Taylor just 1 point behind and Zozulya a further 2 points behind his teammate. In the team’s championship, Porsche move into 6th ahead of Tesla, while Downton make up some ground on Jaguar for 1st.
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