Sebastien Buemi took his third victory of the season at the right time to close the gap in the championship to Nelson Piquet Jr to just five points ahead of tomorrow’s season finale at Battersea Park.
The Swiss drivers victory, coupled with seventh place for team-mate Nicolas Prost, also gave e.dams-Renault the teams’ championship with one race still to go.
Buemi led from the start, and was untroubled through either stint of the race, pitting with more than a three-second gap to Jerome d’Ambrosio and coming out after the pit stop cycle with roughly the same advantage.
A safety car to clear up a crash by Daniel Abt of Audi Sport Abt negated his lead, but he controlled the restart, and ended the race 0.939s clear of Dragon Racing’s d’Ambrosio.
Jean-Eric Vergne completed the podium for Andretti Autosport, and made two impressive overtaking manoeuvres on two of the championship protagonists, with the Frenchman first passing Piquet Jr and then Lucas di Grassi in the early laps of the race.
Audi Sport Abt driver Di Grassi hung on for fourth ahead of NEXTEV TCR’s Piquet Jr, who twice attempted to pass his fellow Brazilian using FanBoost, but both times di Grassi held position.
Sam Bird took a fighting sixth for Virgin Racing ahead of Prost, with Loic Duval of Dragon Racing eighth. Oliver Turvey secured points on his Formula E debut with ninth place for NEXTEV TCR, and was another one of the three drivers nominated to get the FanBoost, while Stephane Sarrazin took the final point for Venturi.
Piquet Jr leads the championship on 138 points to Buemi’s 133, while di Grassi remains in the hunt on 125 points after also taking the bonus two points for fastest lap.
Battersea Park Race 1 Result
[table id=422 /]
