After claiming pole position earlier in the day, DS Virgin Racing driver Sam Bird held off FIA Formula E Championship Leader Sebastien Buemi, denying the Renault e.Dams racer the chance to claim back-to-back victory at the Buenos Aires ePrix.
Whilst Bird lined up at the top of the grid, Buemi began at the opposite end after a spin in qualifying damaged his session altogether, but before the race was over Buemi and Bird were battling it out. Despite Buemi’s best work, he couldn’t quite do the job to pass his British rival.
In a dash from the starting line to the first corner, Buemi was about to move from his 18th starting position into 15th and by the time the mid-race car swap came about, he was already into sixth position. However, race leader Bird was still 12 seconds ahead, just in front of Team Aguri’s Antonio Felix da Costa.
It wasn’t long before Felix da Costa was struck by disaster and he found himself and his Team Aguri car abandoned on track, allowing Buemi to continue to pick up the pace as his teammate, Nicolas Prost, seemingly stopped due to a loss of energy. Now in fourth position, the Swiss driver had the opportunity at the restart to pass Stephane Sarrazin and make a dash to catch Lucas di Grassi.
When he eventually passed the Brazilian, Buemi put his focus into catching the race leader but despite his best efforts, he had to remain in second and allow the Briton to take victory whilst Di Grassi settled for the final podium place.
Sarrazin finished fourth with Renault e.Dams’ Prost in fifth, who was under investigation post-race. Fellow Frenchman, Loic Duval came home in sixth, ahead of Nick Heidfeld whom had made his return after an operation on his injured hand.
It was Robin Frijns, Oliver Turvey and Bruno Senna who completed the top ten.
The next round of the FIA Formula E Championship will take place in over a months’ time in Mexico.
