Advantage Erhan Jajovski as standings leader wins Formula E: Accelerate Round 5

Standings leader Erhan Jajovski (ROKiT Venturi Racing) extended his points advantage in Formula E: Accelerate to 26 with one round left to race after securing the win in Round 5 at the Electric Docks.

The North Macedonian headed home Nikodem Wisniewski (DS TECHEETAH) and Frederik Rasmussen (DRAGON / PENSKE AUTOSPORT) after dispatching the Dane - who had earlier taken pole position in qualifying - with a sweeping move around the outside at Turn 1 on the opening lap.

Kevin Siggy (BMW i Andretti Motorsport) struggled to mount a comeback drive after the frustration of qualifying down in 11th spot, some four tenths of-a-second shy of Rasmussen's benchmark. The Slovenian tussled his way to 10th and just a solitary point, leaving himself with it all to do heading into the double points Grand Final on the new Rome E-Prix circuit next Thursday (19:00 UTC).

As it happened...

Rasmussen was ice cool on his way to pole, but it wasn't a great start from the DRAGON racer off the line and Jajovski was able to take advantage immediately with a swoop around the outside of Turn 1 on the opening lap to pinch the lead.

Jajovski pulled a little gap as the fastest man on track over the first few tours, and the North Macedonian led Rasmussen, Wisniewski and Martin Stefanko (Jaguar Racing) with Lorenz Hoerzing (ROKiT Venturi Racing) following up on a best qualifying performance of the series - the first time he’d lined up in the top 10 – to take advantage of the lap one melee and climb into fifth, ahead of F1 Esports champion Jarno Opmeer (Mercedes-EQ).

Through the first ATTACK MODE activation, Jajovski went early and pulled a 1.2 second gap on Rasmussen, and after the guys behind jumped through the zone, the Venturi racer went again for his second dose of ATTACK MODE to retain the lead with 12 minutes to run.

Progress was hard to come by for Siggy, who was fighting hard to stay with Opmeer, Graham Carroll (Envision Virgin Racing) and Jan von der Heyde (Nissan e.dams) in sixth, seventh and eighth to keep his title challenge alive.

Inside the final five minutes, Rasmussen dropped some three seconds back from leader Jajovski as he jumped through the ATTACK MODE activation zone – the race really coming to Jajovski who’d measured things perfectly from the moment he passed the Dane at Turn 1 on lap one.

The Venturi racer took the chequered flag with plenty to spare, and Wisniewski saw his opportunity to grab second from Rasmussen on the final lap and took it with both hand, demoting the Dane to third.

Hoerzing and Opmeer followed in fourth and fifth and like Wisniewski, secured their best finishes of the series to-date.

On the penultimate lap, the battle for sixth was where it was at. Stefanko threw his Jaguar up the inside of von der Heyde and Manuel Biancolilla (Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler) with a spectacular double Banzai - and made it stick!

Kuba Brzezinski (Jaguar Racing) came home ninth whilst Siggy held onto a solitary point and 10th position.

All that left Jajovski top of the standings on 111 points, with a 26-point gap to his nearest rival Rasmussen with the double points finale remaining. It also meant ROKiT Venturi Racing snatched top spot from BMW i Andretti Motorsport heading into the Rome Grand Final.

Siggy stays third but has it all to do to make up a 36-point deficit - the Race at Home Challenge winner needs a bit of his Formula E esports magic next Thursday (19:00 UTC), when the destination of the Gen2 drive will be decided.