London ePrix: Buemi wins first round
Sebastien Buemi was declared the winner of the first race of the FIA Formula E London ePrix as he led from start to finish. The swiss driver of Team e.dams Renault has now managed to make a championship title battle even more interesting as he has successfully moved up to second position in the overall standings, just five points behind Nelson Piquet of Dragon Racing.
The race on the tight and bumpy track started under a safety car because of the changes at first turn as it was too narrow. In the first three laps, the standings remained as they were, but then the championship leader Nelson Piquet tried to overtake Lucas Di Grassi using fan boost in a battle for third. However, the e.dams Renault driver failed in his attempt and almost clashed with his compatriot. Jean-Eric Vergne used that to go up to fourth leaving Piquet on fifth.
Vergne was the man of the moment in lap 8 after brilliantly overtaking Di Grassi for third place, leaving the two Brazilians and also the two main title contenders on fourth and fifth to fight it out among themselves. This sequence of events was perfect for the leader as Buemi drove confidently with a huge advantage ahead of his rivals.
In the 15th lap, a change of the cars started but after all drivers finished a job in the pit, nothing changed. It was soon obvious that Daniel Abt had a problem after a small clash with Amlin Aguri car and it looked like his car was losing energy.
Soon, the young German crashed into the wall and the yellow flag was shown in the 17th lap. Soon after that, rookie racer Sakon Yamamoto stopped his car at the exit of pit lane, but it wasn’t so important as they were out of points zone.
With nine laps to go, the green flag was shown but nothing had happened at the top of the grid. Sebastien Buemi kept his lead and won the race. Jerome D’Ambrosio finished second and Jean-Eric Vergne was third. Di Grassi and Piquet were in danger of losing their positionsas they were short of energy in the last two laps, but them both managed to clinch the fourth and fifth places, respectively.
Team e.dams Renault won the Constructors’ championship title in front Audi Sport Abt . It remains to be seen who will be the first FIA Formula E Drivers champion. To find out, do tune into the last ePrix scheduled for Sunday 17.00 CET.
