Rome E-Prix: Evans secures Race 1 victory from ninth on grid

The Kiwi driver enjoyed a happy return to the circuit in which he scored his and Jaguar's first Formula E victory in 2019, turning a first-act surge through the field into a dominant second-half display to cross the line 5.7 seconds clear of Robin Frijns.

On a hectic first lap, which concluded with a safety car for Maximilian Guenther's wall-ensconced Nissan e.dams car, Evans picked his way past the two Porsche cars of Pascal Wehrlein and Andre Lotterer.

He was then on the back of Jake Dennis once the race had resumed on lap 4, and the two traded positions on track during the first phase of attack mode; Evans picked up his opening activation on the ninth lap and eventually used it to charge past Dennis - although the Avalanche Andretti driver then returned the favour.

But Dennis' contact with Antonio Felix da Costa, in which he performed a bump-and-run pass on lap 11 to clear the DS Techeetah driver, also allowed Evans to trickle through - Dennis earning a five-second penalty for his part in the contact.

With Jean-Eric Vergne then taking his second dose of attack mode on the following lap, Evans was in fourth and reeling in the leading trio of Stoffel Vandoorne, Frijns and Nyck de Vries; conveniently, the latter began to ail and dropped behind the charging New Zealander.

As Vandoorne and Frijns were battling over the lead, Evans then drew his second attack mode and regained the ground he'd lost to the duo at the front.

Robin Frijns, Envision Racing, Audi e-tron FE07

Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images

Frijns then dispatched Vandoorne, leaving the Belgian vulnerable to Evans' overtures - and was effectively defenceless against his attack mode activation.

Although Frijns put in a typically gutsy defence of his