Round 1 - Beijing
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| Buemi dominated the even in Beijing |
Formula E roared back into action on the 24th October in Beijing as the second season of the electric racing series got underway, and it got underway in emphatic style for the Renault e.dams team, as Sebastian Buemi took pole position and the win and won in dominant style. He won by 11 seconds and only lost the lead as drivers made their pitstops for their second cars. Behind him came Lucas Di Grassi, the Abt driver pleased with 2nd place despite the big gap to the winner, and 3rd was a very happy Nick Heidfeld for Mahindra racing, who had been running in 2nd place early on and benefited from problems for the other Renault e.dams. Di Grassi benefited early on from a mistake from Prost, who ran wide at turn 3 on the second lap, and was stuck in fourth for the first part of the race.
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| All the action happened behind Buemi as he pulled away from the rest of the field |
Simona De Silvestro stuffed her Amlin Andretti car into the barriers at turn 3, where Prost made his earlier mistake. This brought out a full course yellow for a few laps, and when the race resumed, Buemi bolted from the rest of the pack and pulled away. Behind the leader Jean-Eric Vergne was having an almighty scrap with first Bruno Senna, then Loic Duval,the DS Virgin car ultimately losing out to the pair. Heidfeld's Mahindra nowhere near the pace of the Renault car. Buemi lead the charge into the pits for the car swap, and Di Grassi and Prost got the jump on Heidfeld, although Heidfeld managed to re-pass the Renault driver into turn 2, however Prost soon got him back, the pair having a fantastic scrap like they did last year. Another full course yellow then came out, this time for a collision between Jaques Villeneuve and Antonio Felix Da Costa. Jaques managed to continue but Da Cost was out on the spot. Back up front, after there scrap for the lead last year, it didn't end in tears for Nick Heidfeld this time round. However, it did for Nico Prost. Prost's rear wing decided to give up and collapsed, and even though the Frenchman race on for a few more laps, he was given the black and orange flag and had to retire the car.
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| Nico Prost surveys his damaged car, gutted at losing a potential podium |
This elevated Di Grassi into 2nd place and Heidfeld back into 3rd, however Loic Duval soon closed up on him in the Dragon car and threw absolutely everything at him to try and get onto the podium. Determined to pass him was his team-mate Jerome d'Ambrosio, who had caught up to him and made a lunge for Duval's position but it was unsuccessful. Duval regrouped after his team-mates attack and threw caution into the wind at Heidfeld, lunging himself to try and grab the final position on the podium but id didn't pay off and the dragon driver had to settle four 4th place with d'Ambrosio behind. It was a very successful day nonetheless for the Dragon Racing team, and a great day for Mahindra, their first podium in the sport.
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| Sebastian Buemi celebrates an absolutely dominant win in China |
No one though could come close to Sebastian Buemi. He had lead all but one of the racing laps and took the victory by just over 11 seconds from Di Grassi, who pushed hard to close the gap but to no avail. When the Formula E grid regrouped just two weeks later in Putrajaya for round two of the championship, it looked like it could be another Buemi walkover after the Swiss driver took pole position. In the end, no one could have predicted what happened in Malaysia.
Round 2 - Putrajaya
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| Things looked good for Renault in Putrajaya before the heat got to them... |
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| Buemi pulled away from Duval once again after the safety car |
At the restart Buemi pulled away from Duval, who was foccussed on keeping Da Costa at bay, as he had made a great restart and was pressuring the Dragon Racing machine. He was soon passed by Prost, who made an undercut on lap 9 into turn 4, and he was up into third place, and it was a Renault 1-3. Duval then managed to cut into Buemi's 2.5s lead when all of a sudden the Renault car slowed out of the hairpin and stopped on track, and dropped way down the order. At the same time, Prost dived into the pits as he was suffering with a temperature issue, and Buemi had managed to get going again and came into the pits as well to change cars. Both got back out on track fairly quickly, however they had to energy save like crazy stay in the race as they had both swapped cars a lot earlier than was originally planned.
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| Di Grassi closes in on Prost after the Renault car's issues |
Things were now really starting to kick off. With Buemi and Prost out of the picture, Duval now lead from Da Costa and Di Grassi and a few laps later the leading trio came into the pits with Robin Frijns an amazing fifth, the Amlin Andretti car running last years powertrain like the Aguri. He stayed out one more lap as the others went in, but it was disastrous stop for Duval. His pitstop was six seconds longer than Da Costa's and Di Grassi, and now Da Costa was in the net lead of the race, as Prost had somehow managed to come around and take the lead of the race after his force pitstop. His lead was however an illusion as he was saving so much energy just to stay in the race, and after quickly dispatching Da Costa, Di Grassi closed in for the kill.
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| After passing Prost, Di Grassi left all the carnage behind him |
Within a few laps Di Grassi had passed Prost, and soon after Da Costa passed the struggling Frenchman. However shortly after, Da Costa locked up into turn 1 then, when rejoining the track, his car shut down, dropping him to 7th but he managed to get going again, only for the car to stop again and then carry on, this time he managed to keep going for the rest of the race. He was outside the top ten but would finish 6th, thanks to the carnage that was about to unfold upfront. Robin Frijns was now in 5th with Sam Bird ahead in 4th. Both cars then suddenly closed up onto the Dragon of Loic Duval who had ran straight on at turn 1 with a damper problem. Frijns passed him on the run up to the hairpin but carried to much speed into the corner and smacked into the wall, damaging the right rear suspension, and then knocking the front wing of the car slightly on the back of the limping Duval, as Sam Bird passed both and was up into 3rd. Frijns though incredibly carried on, ahead of Sarrazin who had stormed to 5th place. Then on the last lap, d'Ambrosio, who had passed Prost for 3rd earlier on, and then his team-mate after his damper issue, wacked his right rear suspension against the wall at turn 7, taking himself out of the race, elevating Bird to 2nd and Frijns to an incredible 3rd place!
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| Di Grassi celebrates the win after an incredibly crazy race |
In all the carnage, Nico Prost ran straight on at turn five and Sebastian Buemi stopped on track AGAIN, to cap a horrible day for the Renault team. Ahead of it all, Lucas Di Grassi must have been incredibly relieved, as he took his second career victory in Formula E and moved to the top of the drivers standings comfortably, and Abt took a comfortable lead in the teams championship as well. By all rights, Di Grassi should have three wins to his name, after being excluded from a brilliant drive in Berlin last year due to an issue with the front wing of the car. Abt had the pace to challenge Renault in Malaysia, despite Di Grassi's 6th place on the grid in qualifying, Virgin got the podium there car is capable of getting after a tough Beijing and start to the race in Putrajaya, and Frijns crabbed his way to an amazing podium, in a car with a year old power train! A podium spot that by all rights however, should have been Da Costa',s but both put in stunning drives. The next round is in Punta Del Este in Uruguay on December the 19th. After two amazing opening rounds, what can Uruguay deliver? If only we didn't have to wait more than a month to find out...
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| Sam Bird, Lucas Di Grassi and Robin Frijns spray the champagne on the podium |
All images copyright of the FIA Formula E Championship
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