Saturday, January 10, 2015

Victory Falls Into Da Costa's Lap

The Buenos Aires Formula E race might have been the craziest in the series minuscule history. Twice the leader retired from the race after contact with the barrier and once the leader was penalized. Sébastien Buemi led from pole position and through the pit stops but hit the barriers on lap 23, handing the lead to championship leader Lucas di Grassi. The Brazilian however would hit the wall in the same spot Buemi hit just three laps later, giving the lead to Nick Heidfeld.

The German appeared to be cruising to victory but was handed a penalty for speeding in the pit lane with less than five laps to go. Heidfeld served the penalty, giving the lead to Aguri driver António Félix da Costa, who held on for his first victory in the series. Nicolas Prost came home second after a late pass on Jean-Éric Vergne. Nelson Piquet, Jr. charged for his second consecutive third place finished. Jaime Alguersuari finished fourth despite being ran into by Daniel Abt with two laps to go. Bruno Senna rounded out the top five with Vergne finishing sixth despite going off course.

Sam Bird finished seventh after over coming a penalty for exiting the pit lane when the light was red. Bird would score fastest lap and pick up two bonus points. Salvador Durán finished eighth in his second Formula E start, scoring the Mexican his first career points. Heidfeld would drop to ninth after serving the speeding penalty. Oriol Servià rounded out the points in tenth.

Stéphane Sarrazin finished 11th with Ho-Pin Tung in 12th. Marco Andretti finished 13th on debut with Abt ending up 14th. Jérôme d'Ambrosio rounded out the top fifteen with Jarno Trulli finishing 16th.

Di Grassi retains the points lead with 58 points but the gap has shrunk to 10 points with Bird in second. Buemi is 15 points back after scoring three points for pole position. Prost is 16 points behind the Brazilian with Piquet, Jr. 21 points behind of his fellow Brazilian.

Da Costa jumps up to sixth in the championship with his victory as he is 29 points behind di Grassi. Alguersuari is three points behind da Costa with d'Ambrosio four points behind the Spaniard. Karun Chandhok, Franck Montagny and Bruno Senna all have 18 points with Servià on 15 points, rounding out the top ten.

The next round of the Formula E championship will take places on the street of Miami on March 14th.