Moscow ePrix: Piquet one step closer to the title
Nelson Piquet Jr. is the winner of the Formula E Moscow ePrix. The Brazilian driver of NEXTEV TCR team led almost whole the race and remained at the top of the Championship overall standings.
Second place won Lucas di Grassi (Audi Sport ABT) and last place on the podium was won by Sebastien Buemi (e.dams Renault) what undoubtely spiced up finish of the season as the gaps between title contenders are very small.
Jean-Eric Vergne lost leading position in the Turn 2 as “Nelsinho” Piquet overtake him, while Lucas di Grassi stayed on third followed by Buemi and Daniel Abt who had excellent start.
Standings on the streets of the Russian capital remained unchanged until lap 18 when most of the drivers went into the pit for the cars change. In the same moment the race was yellow flaged for short after Bruno Senna spinned to the fence and stayed without spoiler on his formula.
After all drivers finished the pit-stop, Piquet Jr. stayed at the top, but his compatriot and probably the main rival in the championshp battle Lucas di Grassi moved up to second. Vergne dropped to third, Buemi retained fourth place and Nick Heidfeld moved up to fifth in front of Daniel Abt. It was disasterous pit-stop for the e-dams drivers as they were 10 seconds slower than the other teams.
Ten laps before the end Piquet had comfortable advantage of almost three seconds in regard to di Grassi, while Vergne was eight seconds behind the leader. When it was one lap to go, yellow flag was shown again after clash of Jarno Trulli and Loic Duval but it didn’t affected events.
One of the most interesting moments of the race was seen in the final metres when Buemi beat Vergne in the battle for third and made overall standings for the championship title very interesting before the last two races of the season in London.
Fourth finished Nick Heidfeld (Venturi), Jean-Eric Vergne (Andretti Autosport) finished fifth and remaining points were won by Daniel Abt, Salvador Duran, Felix Antonio Da Costa, Nicolas Prost and Justin Wilson who made an impressive debut in the series this weekend.
