Pascal Wehrlein and Antonio Felix da Costa's well-chronicled feud never really went away. And at the London E-Prix, it got supercharged to a new alarming and bitter level.

The pair engaged in a volatile scrap during the race as Wehrlein attempted to hunt down a second world title and da Costa was deployed as a blocker to both assist team-mate Mitch Evans's remote title chance and to help secure a teams' title for Jaguar.

Strong opinions on each other's driving were articulated on their respective pit-to-car radios, with da Costa instructed to back up the Porsche. At that stage da Costa said: "They are just getting a taste of their own medicine. Don’t f*** with me, don't f*** with me."

The pair didn't actually clash to any significant degree, save for a minor altercation on the final lap, but left each other very little margin in their duels, and the acrimony peaked with Wehrlein mocking da Costa moments before he crossed the line, having already secured the title.

"Look at him, he still wants to fight. What an idiot, this guy," said Wehrlein. "Sore loser. I f***ing beat you three years in a row."

Da Costa's tactics were effective, insofar as Evans passed him and Wehrlein in a well-coordinated swoop and a lap later both he and Wehrlein were swallowed up by the chasing pack - to such an extent that the Porsche driver briefly lost the live points lead to Jake Dennis, the other points rival, before they came to blows as part of a three-car clash.

But ultimately Evans ran out of time to catch the race leaders for the points he needed to overhaul Wehrlein - who after the race called da Costa's driving "one of the most unsporting and unfair things I have seen".

"But yeah, that's how it is if you have enemies in the paddock," he acknowledged, before later adding: "Antonio tried for 20 laps to ruin my race. Driving next to me, slowing down, pushing me against the walls, brake-testing me...and just trying to ruin my race and ruin my championship."

Da Costa told The Race that the roots of his "taste of their own medicine" strategy - in attempting to destabilise his rivals and assist Evans - came from the day before with what he and Jaguar believed were questionable tactics deployed by Porsche, in particular by using Nico Mueller as a spoiler for Evans's race.

"I didn't like what they [Porsche] did yesterday," said da Costa on Sunday.

"Obviously, they gave themselves the flexibility to do it after qualifying and the track allows for that type of racing, [but] I didn't like it. And when I saw that lap one [on Sunday] they started it again, I said, 'OK, I deploy my plan B' and I played their game.

"They have no right - no right, zero - to say anything. We did nothing that they haven't done before.

"I've heard that he's been saying things here, and I haven't seen or heard anything in particular, but you take what you get, man; you can't have it both ways, right?

"They [Porsche] play these political games with other teams, with teams that they supply powertrains to, and man, you can't have it both ways. If you do bad things to people, people will do bad things to you.

"Now, having said that, what I did on track, just like what they did to us, it's not illegal. Look at the rules, look at the guidelines, I did nothing wrong, we barely touched, I think we touched wheels once in the whole race."

Both Wehrlein and da Costa were given five-second time penalties, converted to three-place future grid-drop penalties: Wehrlein for his contact with Joel Eriksson and Dennis in the ultimately title-defining moment of the day; and da Costa for his own contact with Dennis.

Ironically, the aforementioned final-lap contact between Wehrlein and da Costa at Turn 19 went unpenalised by the stewards, who reasoned: "The contact resulted from the combination of car #94's [Wehrlein] late turn-in and car #13 [da Costa] turning towards the apex while the cars were alongside.

"Accordingly, the stewards determined that neither driver was predominantly to blame for the contact and therefore take no further action."

In addition to his da Costa-targeted radio messages, Wehrlein also issued a warning for the Gen4 era of Formula E, one which it is said that Porsche has had a very strong initial private testing period for.

"Everyone's against me!" Wehrlein exclaimed. "Bet against me! Try it. Be sure I remember everything for the future. Be sure."