Monaco E-Prix: Vandoorne beats Evans to take Formula E championship lead

Having started strongly to combat any threat from fellow front-row starter Pascal Wehrlein, Evans held the lead through the race's first third, dictating the pace as the frontrunners elected to save energy in the early period.

But as the race's action slowly began to spool up, Evans then came under threat from Wehrlein, who considered a move at the Nouvelle Chicane, but decided against it.

This came at the point where a number of drivers elected to expend their first attack mode activations, where Jean-Eric Vergne was the first among the frontrunners to take the 250kW power mode.

Thus, the DS Techeetah was in position to assume the lead when Evans and Wehrlein claimed their own attack modes, while Wehrlein eventually cleared the polesitter as the Kiwi began to struggle compared to his rivals on energy available.

Evans then lost a further place to Vandoorne, while Wehrlein then moved past Vergne to pick up the lead of the race with attack mode in his pocket.

But Wehrlein began to slow, gifting the lead to Vergne, who picked up his second dose of attack mode on the following lap - which would prove to be to his detriment.

Taking the wide line at Casino Square, Vergne had no option to let Vandoorne and Evans pass, and his misery was compounded when Wehrlein's Porsche stranded post-tunnel produced a full-course yellow to ensure Vergne's useable attack mode would elapse.

Andre Lotterer, Porsche, Porsche 99X Electric, Stoffel Vandoorne, Mercedes-Benz EQ, EQ Silver Arrow 02, Robin Frijns, Envision Racing, Audi e-tron FE07

Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images

No sooner had Wehrlein's slowing car peeled off into the service road at the Nouvelle Chicane, allowing Vandoorne to pick up attack mode with no loss in position