Saturday, September 13, 2014

Lucas di Grassi Wins Formula E Premiere

A last lap, final corner accident between Nicolas Prost and Nick Heidfeld that sent the German airborne handed the premiere Formula E race to Audi Sport Abt driver Lucas di Grassi with Andretti Autosport driver Franck Montagny finishing second and Sam Bird rounding out the podium.

Prost had led all but one lap up to the accident when he cut down on the Venturi Grand Prix car of Heidfeld, taking himself and the German out of the race. Heidfeld's car was launched by the kerbs into the catchfence and landed upside down. Heidfeld was able to get out of the car under his own power and he sprinted over to confront Prost immediately after the accident.

Charles Pic finished fourth. The Frenchman was only confirmed as Andretti Autosport's second driver days before the first race. Karun Chandhok finished fifth followed by the Dragon Racing drivers Jérôme d'Ambrosio and Oriol Servià. Nelson Piquet, Jr. and Stéphane Sarrazin ended eighth and ninth. Daniel Abt had taken the checkered flag in third and looked to be the youngest of the three drivers on the podium but the German driver was relegated to tenth for using too much electrical energy.

Jaime Alguersuari finished eleventh ahead of Prost and Heidfeld. Katherine Legge finished fourteenth with Michela Cerruti rounding out the top fifteen. Ho-Pin Tung had to start from the pit lane for his home race but couldn't get going at the start and lost two laps down. Despite finishing seventeenth, Takuma Sato picked up two points for fastest lap at 1:45.101 (73.3 MPH/117.96 KPH).

Three drivers retired from this race. Sébastien Buemi called it quits after fourteen laps. Jarno Trulli failed to get going on the gird but ultimately was able to complete two laps. Bruno Senna had his left front suspension break on lap one after running too far over the kerbs.

Lucas di Grassi leads the championship with 25 points. Franck Montagny gets 18 points for second while Virgin Racing's Sam Bird picks up 15 for the final podium position. Charles Pic will get 12 points from the first Formula E race. Karun Chandhok rounds out the top five with 10 points. The Dragon Racing drivers Jérôme d'Ambrosio and Oriol Servià get 8 and 6 points respectively. Nelson Piquet, Jr. will get 4 points. Nicolas Prost gets 3 points for his pole position. Stéphane Sarrazin gets 2 as does Takuma Sato for his fastest lap and Daniel Abt will round out the standings with one point.

In the team championship, Andretti Autosport leads the way with 30 points, followed by Audi Sport Abt's 26 points. Virgin Racing has 15 points, Dragon Racing gets 14 points, Mahindra Racing has 10, China Racing has 4, e.dams gets 3 and VenturiGP and Aguri round out the team championship, each with 2 points.

The second round of the 2014 FIA Formula E Championshhip will be November 22 from Putrajaya, Malaysia.