Formula E

Rosenqvist takes lead of the championship with Marrakesh win

2 Mins read
Credit: Formula E

Felix Rosenqvist drove brilliantly to win the Marrakesh ePrix and take the lead of the driver’s championship with it.

Rosenqvist used his first stint to pass Sam Bird, and then after stalking polesitter Sebastien Buemi for most of the race he made his move for the lead with three laps to go.

It was a masterful drive from the Swede who proved if there was still any doubt that he has the talent and the car to be a serious title contender this season.

While he didn’t manage to take the win, Buemi’s second place means that he has got his first big points haul of the season, and along with the three points he secured for pole it means that he now lies in seventh place in the driver’s standings.

Bird dropped back from the front two as the race progressed but grabbed the last podium position just ahead of Nelson Piquet Jr who showed impressive pace in his Panasonic Jaguar Racing car.

Jean-Eric Vergne finished fifth after an impressive recovery drive from thirteenth on the grid, although he was helped by Daniel Abt colliding with Alex Lynn in front of him, which took both out of contention as Lynn span out and Abt later received a drive-through penalty for the move.

Jose Maria Lopez continued his impressive debut for Dragon Racing by finishing in sixth, a far better result than the Dragon team had looked capable of in the first two rounds in Hong Kong.

Behind him Maro Engel, Nick Heidfeld and Edorado Mortara had a titanic battle that ended in disaster as the three collided.

Heidfeld had continued a heroic drive from the back of the grid to get past both Venturis, only for Engel to try an overly ambitious move into the hairpin that led to all three becoming entangled.

Mortara was forced to retire shortly afterwards, and although Engle would cross the line in seventh he was given a post-race penalty which dropped him to thirteenth.

That meant Alex Lynn was promoted to the last points scoring position in tenth, behind Nico Prost and MS&AD Andretti debutant Tom Blomqvist.

Reigning champion Lucas di Grassi endured another torrid race meanwhile – running well early on before a technical issue forced him to retire. It meant that once again he failed to score a point and made the challenge of retaining his title even tougher than it already was.

Oliver Turvey and Andrew Lotterer also failed to finish – Lotterer suffering a technical issue just before the pitstops, and Turvey suffered an issue in his car on the grid which his NIO team were unable to repair by the time he came in for his stop.

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Formula E writer for TCF since 2015-16 and fascinated by all things electric.
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