RIYADH, DEC 15 (DNA) -Simon Evans claimed victory in the first ever Jaguar I-PACE eTrophy, prevailing in a race-long three-way fight for the lead to make history.

Evans, elder brother of Jaguar Formula E ace Mitch, led from start to finish, but was made to work hard for his win.

With qualifying having been rained off, the starting order was decided by the free practice session that took place on Friday evening and meant that Evans was on pole.

To compensate for the loss of track time, three additional sighting laps took place before the cars lined up to take the start.

Evans led away, with Bryan Sellers settling into second. Initially the top five pulled clear, but as Alice Powell in the VIP car cleared local racer Bandar Alesayi she quickly caught the leading group and pulled a nice move on the Techeetah entry of Stefan Rzadzinski for fifth.

A lap earlier Rzadzinski had sent Caca Bueno sideways with a tap into his rear, and this allowed the leading trio – completed by Bueno’s team-mate Sergio Jimenez – to escape.

Rzadzinski dropped back after the contact and ultimately came home last of the 12 runners.

With the clock ticking down towards the end of the 23 minutes, Jimenez pulled off a great move on Sellers to take second on the penultimate lap and earn a sniff at putting the pressure on Evans up front, but the Kiwi held on for a landmark win.

Katherine Legge eventually took sixth, while Alesayi was the star of the field in the Am category, taking seventh overall but more importantly a comfortable class win.=DNA

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