How a fumble inadvertently aided da Costa in Formula E's Cape Town classic

In one of Formula E’s finest races yet, Antonio da Costa scored a stunning first win for Porsche with late moves to advance from outside the top 10. Here's how he made the electric series' first visit to Cape Town one for the ages

Jake Boxall-Legge Feb 27, 2023, 12:48 PM

Upd: Feb 27, 2023, 12:48 PM

In 1488, the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias became the first European to navigate the Cape of Good Hope, the peninsula that protrudes from the land that would later become part of South Africa in the modern era. He named it “The Cape of Storms” before it gained its current moniker later on, and it became a key landmark in early European sea trade to Asia as global exploration by boat later reached its zenith in the 1500s.

Perhaps it’s fitting, then, that on Formula E’s first visit to the bustling trade hub that spawned above it, it was another Portugal native who successfully traversed the Cape; from 11th on the grid, Porsche’s Antonio Felix da Costa weathered the storm to clinch his first victory of the season in scintillating fashion.

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Author Jake Boxall-Legge

Having studied Automotive Engineering with Motorsport at the University of Hertfordshire, West Country-born Jake's original ambition was to design racing cars. During a year between studies in which he accidentally rekindled a love of writing, he took up a Master's in Motorsport Engineering at Oxford Brookes. Halfway through his master's year, he was offered a place on the Autosport Academy, conducting occasional freelance duties before becoming the press officer for Formula 2 and GP3 in 2018. Autosport offered him a return to the fold later that year to serve as its Technical Editor. His voice appears on a number of videos and podcasts, and can often be found writing about terrible Formula 1 cars in excruciating detail. In his spare time, Jake enjoys baking and blames his failure to make it past the Great British Bake-Off interviews on his tenuous grasp on choux pastry. His dream is to open a brunch cafe - and his willingness to make outrageous puns in inappropriate situations has earned him the contempt of his colleagues.