Andretti turned Formula E’s return to Sanya into a landmark result, with Jake Dennis leading Felipe Drugovich home for the team’s first one-two in the world championship.
Dennis had started from pole, but this was no simple lights-to-flag cruise. The 2022-23 champion and Drugovich had to survive a red flag, two Full Course Yellows and the usual Sanya energy-management puzzle before locking out the top two places at the flag.
It gives Andretti the race-day reward that had been promised by its qualifying form, after Dennis’ pole had already put the American squad in control at the front of the grid.
Andretti makes the late Attack Mode call work
The key was timing. Dennis and Drugovich led early from the front row, then allowed the race to move around them as rivals used Attack Mode at different points and Porsche, Jaguar and Nissan all looked briefly capable of turning the contest their way.
Formula E’s official report noted that the Andretti pair went later with Attack Mode, and that proved decisive once the race settled after the restart. Dennis had enough usable pace and energy to move back into the effective lead, while Drugovich converted a front-row start into a second straight podium after his Monaco breakthrough.
CUPRA KIRO’s Pepe Marti completed the podium from 18th on the grid, a drive that gives the rookie another major result after Monaco and underlines how quickly a disrupted Formula E race can swing when the timing of Attack Mode and neutralisations lines up.
Evans keeps the lead, Rowland misses his chance
The wider title picture was just as important as Andretti’s celebration. Mitch Evans remains at the top of the drivers’ championship, 19 points clear of Oliver Rowland, but Sanya made that sound a lot calmer than it looked.
Evans’ race was damaged by a tangle with Zane Maloney at the hairpin, the incident that helped trigger the red flag and turned Jaguar’s afternoon into the kind of recovery job already hinted at when Sanya’s interruption threw Jaguar’s race out of shape.
Antonio Felix da Costa was the best of the Jaguar drivers in fifth after a five-second penalty, while Rowland lost a potential big score when he hit the wall late on. That mistake mattered: Nissan had the chance to drag the championship fight towards Rowland after his recent Sanya form had looked like a title statement, but the final laps instead left Evans still ahead.
Sanya leaves Shanghai with more tension
Jaguar still leads Porsche in the teams’ standings, while Porsche extended its manufacturers’ advantage through its powertrain presence in the top three. That makes the next double-header in Shanghai on 4-5 July feel less like a reset and more like a pressure point.
Dennis called the win an emotional one in Formula E’s post-race interview, and the result justified that reaction. Andretti had pace, structure and a calm enough execution when the race became messy.
On a day when several title contenders either tripped over each other or tripped over the walls, that was enough to make Sanya belong to Dennis, Drugovich and Andretti.
