Ronaldo’s brace keeps Al-Nassr in title race after beating Damac 2-0

LONDON: Nick Cassidy claimed victory in the London E-Prix on Saturday in Round 15 of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.

He delivered Jaguar TCS Racing a third consecutive win ahead of Sunday’s season finale.

The New Zealander, competing in his final weekend for Jaguar, crossed the line ahead of Mahindra Racing’s Nyck de Vries and TAG Heuer Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein, after a dramatic mid-race battle that saw Cassidy time his overtakes and strategy to perfection.

Cassidy, who started fifth on the grid, used a combination of strategic Attack Mode deployment and a perfectly timed Pit Boost to move past de Vries exiting the final turn on Lap 27, holding on for the remainder of the race despite the Dutchman’s pressure.

His win followed Jaguar’s double triumph in Berlin and made the British outfit only the fifth team in Formula E history to notch up three straight victories.

It was a particularly emotional result for Jaguar Team Principal James Barclay, who is stepping down after overseeing the team’s resurgence on the global motorsport stage.

Cassidy’s second consecutive win ensured Barclay’s final race weekend in charge came with silverware.

Wehrlein secured third place and the fastest lap of the race, banking valuable points for Porsche in both the Teams’ and FIA Manufacturers' World Championships.

Season 8 champion Stoffel Vandoorne finished fourth for Maserati MSG Racing, while Britain’s Jake Dennis took fifth and DS PENSKE's Jean-Eric Vergne rounded out the top six.

The result elevated Cassidy to third in the Drivers' Championship standings, just behind newly-crowned champion Oliver Rowland – who could only manage 11th – and Wehrlein.

In the Teams’ standings, Porsche now lead Nissan Formula E Team by 39 points with only 47 left on the table, while the German manufacturer also leads Nissan in the Manufacturers’ race by a margin of 367 to 338.

Reflecting on the win, Cassidy said: “It’s unbelievable. To win here at home for Jaguar and our team in front of a lot of our friends, family and partners who are here today, is incredible. I wasn’t the happiest guy this morning but that was for a reason, and I knew we had good potential in the car. In that race I was able to show that, which is pretty cool. To be honest it was a little bit fluid – a huge shout out to my strategy team, I was really scared about not coming out of the pits after Pit Boost in the lead of that second group, and it was tight but I was able to hang on there and that’s what made the race. It meant that we could do the Attack Modes later which was really powerful.”

Second-place finisher de Vries praised his team after a strong performance. 

“We certainly are happy to be back and give the team a result they definitely deserve. In Jakarta we were on course for a great race but for various reasons we weren’t able to bring home a podium. I’m very pleased to get it on the front row and execute a good race, so thank you very much to the entire team for giving me a great car today,” he said.

Wehrlein, who retains an outside shot at the Teams' and Manufacturers' titles with one race remaining, added: “I’m quite happy, I would have wanted more of course but more wasn’t possible. That was what we had today and our goals are clear: we want to win the Teams’ and Manufacturers’ Championships so the points are very important for us. Nevertheless, I always want to win – every time I race – and today it was not possible. We take the positives and one more race to go tomorrow – I’m looking forward to that.”

The season concludes on Sunday with Round 16 of the double-header finale in London.

PLUMELEC, France: Cycling great Marianne Vos won the opening stage of the women’s Tour de France with a brilliant late attack on Saturday.

The 38-year-old Dutchwoman overtook her Visma–Lease a Bike teammate Pauline Ferrand-Prévot approaching the line, and then held off Mauritian rider Kim Le Court in the closing meters of a grueling uphill finish.

Ferrand-Prévot looked set to win the stage, but the Frenchwoman attacked too early from 600 meters and could not withstand the late surge from Vos, who punched the air with her left fist as she crossed the line.

Moments later, Vos hugged an exhausted-looking Ferrand-Prévot, the Paris-Roubaix winner.

“I didn’t now if Pauline was still hanging in the finish, but in the end I sprinted a bit with Kim,” Vos said, praising her teammate’s effort. “I’m really grateful to the team and to Pauline.”

The hilly 78.8-kilometer (48.9-mile) route from Vannes to Plumelec in Brittany featured two small climbs and was completed in 1 hour, 53 minutes, 3 seconds by Vos — a multiple world champion, a former Olympic road race champion and a silver medalist at last year’s Paris Games.

Former Olympic time-trial silver medalist Marlen Reusser was one of 10 riders to crash some 30 kilometers from the end. She continued for a while but was clearly struggling and had to abandon the stage.

Sunday’s second stage from the port city of Brest to Quimper stays in Brittany and is slightly more hilly and longer at 110.4 kilometers.

The nine-stage race, which ends Aug. 3, began a day before the end of the men’s Tour, set to be won for a fourth time by Slovenian star Tadej Pogačar by a comfortable margin.

The women’s race could be far closer.

Last year provided the smallest winning margin in the history of the women’s and men’s races, with Polish rider Kasia Niewiadoma beating 2023 champion Demi Vollering by four seconds, and Pauliena Rooijakkers only 10 seconds off the pace in third place.