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LONDON: Nick Cassidy capped off his final weekend with Jaguar TCS Racing in spectacular fashion, claiming victory in Round 16 at the London E-Prix.

The win marked his third in a row and Jaguar's fifth in six races, wrapping up an emotional send-off for both the New Zealander and team principal James Barclay.

Cassidy’s lights-to-flag triumph at a sold-out ExCeL London also secured him second place in the FIA Drivers’ World Championship.

Having scored just a single point in the opening six rounds of the season, his late surge underlined a remarkable turnaround.

“Honestly I love racing in this place,” said Cassidy.

“It’s not been that kind to me in the last few years, but this weekend it’s absolutely delivered. When this stadium is packed full of people it’s a pleasure to race here and it’s great for Formula E. Also, it’s my last race for the team, again I’ve had the best car today, and this one is 100 percent for them.

“When the tyres are working well, when the car’s perfect, everything becomes efficient. For sure it wasn’t easy at the start to keep the lead, but I think between Mitch (Evans) and myself we could manage that well. I’m gutted for him, to have had a one-two would have been perfect,” he added.

Cassidy finished 13.5 seconds clear of Mahindra Racing’s Nyck de Vries, the second-largest winning margin in Formula E history. Only Antonio Félix da Costa has previously won three consecutive races.

“It was certainly a very challenging race,” said de Vries.

“Obviously Nick didn’t want to get too down on energy versus everyone behind, so he was making sure he stayed on the same energy as us and that resulted in a little bit of a concertina effect behind us.

“I’m very pleased to bring home another podium and give P4 to our team, because they’ve done an incredible job. To consider that last year we qualified last on merit, and we’ve come back from such a long way – finishing fourth in the championship here this year is a great effort, so I’m very proud of everyone at Mahindra,” he added.

Envision Racing’s Sebastien Buemi completed the podium, charging through the field from 19th on the grid to third place, his second podium in three races after also finishing in the top three in Jakarta.

“In the end it was important to not get caught up in those incidents, I think I was lucky enough to make sure I was avoiding them well,” said Buemi.

“I saved quite a bit of energy at the beginning and that basically allowed me to take the ATTACK MODE properly. So in the end I’m very happy with that, it’s good for the Teams’ Championship, and it’s good when you have a bad qualifying like that to finish and score some good points.”

Jake Dennis of the Andretti Formula E Team crossed the line in fourth, while Jaguar’s Mitch Evans was classified fifth after receiving a five-second penalty for speeding under Full Course Yellow conditions — a punishment that dropped him from the second place he had claimed on track.

Newly-crowned drivers’ world champion Oliver Rowland failed to finish after a collision with Nico Mueller on Lap 16 forced both out of the race. Despite the DNF, Rowland received a hero’s reception from the London crowd, having sealed his championship title earlier in Berlin.

With Rowland’s early exit, Nissan’s slim hopes of overtaking Porsche in the Teams’ and Manufacturers’ standings came to an end. Porsche, who had quietly gathered momentum throughout the season, clinched both the FIA Teams’ World Championship and the inaugural FIA Manufacturers’ title — their first in Formula E.

Jaguar TCS Racing also overtook Nissan to secure second place in both championship standings, closing out a high point in their final race under Barclay’s leadership after 127 starts in the all-electric series.

Elsewhere, it was a disappointing end to the campaign for NEOM McLaren. Both drivers — Taylor Barnard and Sam Bird — failed to finish the final race after separate incidents. The team concluded the season sixth in the Teams’ standings, with Barnard finishing fourth overall on 112 points and Bird eighteenth with 31 points.

SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS: Series leader Oscar Piastri grabbed an early lead and extended his title advantage on Sunday when he drove to a perfectly-controlled triumph ahead of McLaren team-mate and title rival Lando Norris at a rain-delayed Belgian Grand Prix.

The 24-year-old Australian managed his tires expertly to remain out of reach in the closing laps as the Briton, 25, who had started on pole, closed in on a harder-wearing compound, finishing 3.415 seconds clear as McLaren reeled off their sixth 1-2 in a dominant season.

It was Piastri’s first win at the classic Spa-Francorchamps circuit, his sixth this season and the eighth of his career, extending his lead in the drivers’ championship to 16 points after 13 of this season’s 24 races. For McLaren, it was a 10th win this year.

Charles Leclerc came a solid third for Ferrari ahead of four-time champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull, under the race leadership of new team boss Laurent Mekies for the first time, and Mercedes George Russell.

Alex Albon clung on to finish sixth for Williams ahead of chasing seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari, who started from the pit lane, and Racing Bulls’ rookie Liam Lawson.

Gabriel Botoleto was ninth for Sauber ahead of Pierre Gasly of Alpine.

“That was lively,” said the cool Piastri, who swept past Norris on lap one.

“Very lively. I knew that lap one was probably my best chance of winning the race. I lifted a little as I went through Eau Rouge and then it was enough.

“The rest of the race we managed really well. Maybe the medium wasn’t the best in the last five-six laps, but we had it almost under control! I was disappointed after yesterday, but it turns out that starting second was not too bad.”

Norris conceded he couldn’t have won.

“Oscar just did a good job — there’s nothing much more to say. He was committed a bit more in Eau Rouge and that was it. Oscar deserved it today.”

Leclerc said: “Max was behind me all race within two seconds so it’s never easy. I knew the first part was the trickiest and I’m pretty happy we managed to keep that third place.”

The race began, after an 80-minute delay due to heavy rain, with the entire field on intermediates to run for four laps behind a safety car, clearing standing water.

Four drivers started from the pitlane — Carlos Sainz, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Antonelli and Lewis Hamilton — having made changes to their power units or set-up overnight. They began at the rear of the field ahead of the rolling start at the start of lap five.

As the lights went green, Norris powered away to lead through La Source, but he was unable to resist when Piastri sneaked out of his slipstream to take the lead going into Les Combes chicane.

“Why do I have no pack?” asked Norris, realizing he lacked electric power. “We used a lot on the safety car re-start,” McLaren responded.

On lap 12, Hamilton was the first in for medium slick tires, rejoining 18th, followed by Piastri, Leclerc, Verstappen, Russell and more. Norris stayed out one lap longer for hards, hoping to profit if his rival’s rubber degraded in the closing laps. He was the only one.

By lap 15, everyone else had switched to mediums and it was Piastri on top ahead of Norris by 9.3 with Leclerc third leading Verstappen, Russell, Albon and... in flying form, Hamilton.

As Norris closed in, Piastri said his tires were already degrading. “I think it will be tough to get to the end,” he told race engineer Tom Stallard, raising the prospect of a dramatic finale.

On lap 26, Norris slid wide at Puhon, falling back to nine seconds adrift before remounting his charge. It was a process of marginal gains as Piastri managed his tires.

Norris was close but Piastri’s craft and calm prevailed.