Sam Bird finished second on the road but a post-race drive-through penalty for Stephane Sarrazin for exceeding his power usage allowed the Briton to close the inaugural Formula E Championship season with victory at Battersea Park.
In an exciting battle until the chequered flag, Nelson Piquet Jr did enough to become the first series champion, with the Brazilian driver moving up from sixteenth on the grid to finish seventh.
Piquet made a good start to move up four places, and then conserved enough energy to run a lap longer than anybody else before pitting to switch cars.
He was lucky that a safety car to recover the crashed Virgin Racing car of Fabio Leimer allowed him to close the five-plus second gap to the pack ahead of him, and on the restart was able to pass Salvador Duran for eighth that put him into championship winning position, having been allowed past by NEXTEV Team China Racing team-mate Oliver Turvey earlier in the lap for ninth.
With Sebastien Buemi unable to find his way back past Bruno Senna after the Swiss driver span his e.dams-Renault machine just after his own pit stop, this left Piquet in prime position to take the title. The loss of position to Senna would ultimately prove crucial, with Buemi finishing just one point behind Piquet Jr.
Despite leading the whole race, Venturi driver Sarrazin was unable to conserve enough energy to take the victory, earning himself a penalty that promoted Virgin Racing’s Bird onto the top step of the podium. Bird had earlier passed both Dragon Racing drivers Jerome d’Ambrosio and Loic Duval, with the Belgian former Formula 1 driver beating the current French Audi World Endurance Championship driver into second at the flag.
Mahindra Racing driver Senna capitalised on Buemi’s spin to claim fourth, while the outsider for the championship Lucas di Grassi could not make the progress he needed to from eleventh on the grid and finished sixth for Audi Sport Abt.
Behind Piquet was Duran and Turvey, while Nicolas Prost took the final point for e.dams-Renault, while Sarrazin fell all the way to fifteenth with his 49-second penalty.
Sam Bird finished the season with victory at Battersea Park (Credit: Sam Bloxham/LAT Photographic/Formula E)
Battersea Park Race 2 Result
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