Formula E Race Report, Round 2: Putrajaya, Malaysia

2014-11-25 18:18:32

The second race in the Formula-E calendar took place earlier today in Putrajaya, Malaysia. Like the First Race, the second ever FIA Formula E Championship race witnessed spectacular fights and fightbacks, fiercely-contested racing and a host of other atmospherics all playing their part to cement the new series into the minds of spectators world-wide. Judging by the reactions of those present, the second race helped to confirm the growing enthusiasm for the new racing category as the 20 cars put on a very high quality sporting spectacle. Andrew Merritt-Morling, our Formula-E motorsport editor, reports.


The first race in Beijing – held in September – seem so long ago now. So the drivers, teams and sponsors were champing at the bit to get underway in Malaysia.

The 20 Spark-Renault SRT01_E race cars had been carefully configured in the lead-up to today. Fingers – and everything else – have been crossed for complete reliability and maximum safety. The gearbox installation has been strengthened on all the cars to ensure that the demands of racing on the streets of Malaysia’s administrative centre would be met.

We were not to be disappointed as the car’s robustness proved the nay-sayers wrong.

The Putrajaya circuit is perfect for allowing the drivers to show off their skills throughout what proved to be a dramatic and incident-filled day.

Following the penalty he was given in Beijing, Nicolas Prost (e.dams Renault) had to relinquish pole position to Oriol Servia (Dragon Racing). Almost straight from the line, Katherine Legge and Michaela Cerruti – the only two female drivers – collided, forcing the safety car to be deployed.

Once the race got back under way, it didn’t take British driver Sam Bird (Virgin Racing) to barrage his way past Servia to take the lead. Bird has shown promise in other single-seater series like Formula BMW, Formula 3 and GP2. Now out in front, he opened up a gap that would prove to be insurmountable to the rest of the competition. Bird was the last to carry-out the mid-race car swap, which he elected to do on lap 19. On the way out again, he fell in behind Daniel Abt (Audi Sport ABT) and began piling on the pressure.

By lap 25, Bird was gunning for the lead and managed to arrest control of the race at that point – refusing to give up the P1 position until the checkered flag at the end of the race, four laps later.

Returning from his win was Lucas di Grassi, who was no less impressive for the Audi Sport ABT team who had fought his way through the field from the ninth in the pack.

Sébastien Buemi was probably even more impressive than di Grassi. He started right from the very back of the pack to take the final place on the podium. Nico Prost missed out, coming in fourth after fighting off Abt’s advances but in the process allowing Buemi to get by.

Finishing off the points was Jerome d’Ambrioso in fifth with Chandhook in sixth, pole-sitter Servia in seventh, Antonio da Costa in eighth, Jaime Alguersuari in ninth and the tenth placed being filled by Abt, who had spent too much of his allotted power too early in the race.

It appeared to be a relatively bad day in the office for F1 veterans, Jano Trulli and Piquet. They crashed into each other on lap 23 whilst holding third and fourth positions respectively – taking each other out in the process. The same could also be said for Bruno Senna who took advantage of the extra power provided by the race’s ‘Fanboost’ system to charge his way through the rankings before losing control on the final lap and hitting the wall.

Second place was enough to keep the Brazilian driver, di Grassi, at the front of the championship leader board with 43 points. However, that is only just ahead of Bird’s 40 points. Montagny, Prost, d’Ambrosio and Chandhook all share a distant third position with 18-points each. However, this is enough to keep them, for the time-being at least, ahead of Pic on 15 and Servia on 12.

So far as the teams fare, Audi Sport Abt hold the lead with 45 points, a whisker away from Virgin’s 44 points. The e-dams-Renault team take third position with 33 with Andretti and Dragon both hovering outside the podium with 30 points apiece.

But we shouldn’t take away the glory from Bird who set the ball rolling for what turned out to be a thrilling weekend for UK motorsport after Lewis Hamilton claimed the FIA Formula 1 World Championship driver’s title.

With seven races remaining, the electric racing carnival now packs up and leaves South East Asia and instead heads for South America ahead of the next round which will takes place on 13th December, at the Punta del Este circuit in Uruguay. After the New Year, drivers and teams will return to South America to race in Argentina on 10th January before travelling north, to the US for races in Miami, Florida and Long Beach, California. Then it’s back to Europe with Monte Carlo, Berlin and the season finale in London on 27th June.

On the back of the Formula-E championship, global consultancy Ernst & Young are forecasting that over the next quarter-of-a-century, 77 million additional electric vehicles will be sold. So Formula E is potentially a huge business in its own right.

Estimates suggest that over 100,000 people were physically watching the race at Putrajaya.

Formula E supremo, Alejandro Agag, told EcoCars4Sale: “Formula E is the championship for the younger generation. The young people are going mobile and it’s going interactive. In our opinion, a new racing championship has to be ready for that change. We have been working with the local authorities and schools to distribute free tickets in this area and Kuala Lumpur because we want young people to be fans of Formula E. When those kids grow up and buy a car, that car will be electric. We started the championship in the region that is probably going to lead the way in terms of growth and development. Malaysia is a fast-growing country. You can see the dynamism here. This is a country and a city that shares with us the will to go towards cleaner mobility and sustainability.”

Reported By

Andrew Merritt-Morling

Chief Editor


Driver Standings

Rounds underlined in red indicate a dropped score for that driver. A driver's end of season total is made up of his/her best results less one.

After Round 2

POS NO DRIVER TEAM R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9 TOTAL
1 11 Lucas di Grassi Audi Sport ABT 25 18 - - - - - - - 43
2 2 Sam Bird Virgin Racing 15 25 - - - - - - - 40
3 27 Franck Montagny Andretti 18 0 - - - - - - - 18
4 8 Nicolas Prost e.dams Renault 3 15 - - - - - - - 18
5 7 Jerome D'Ambrosio Dragon Racing 8 10 - - - - - - - 18
6 5 Karun Chandhok Mahindra Racing 10 8 - - - - - - - 18
7 9 Sébastien Buemi e.dams Renault 0 15 - - - - - - - 15
8 28 Charles Pic Andretti 12 - - - - - - - - 12
9 6 Oriol Servià Dragon Racing 6 6 - - - - - - - 12
10 99 Nelson Piquet China Racing 4 0 - - - - - - - 4
11 55 Antonio Felix da Costa Amlin Aguri - 4 - - - - - - - 4
12 3 Jaime Alguersuari Virgin Racing 0 4 - - - - - - - 4
13 30 Stéphane Sarrazin Venturi 2 0 - - - - - - - 2
14 66 Daniel Abt Audi Sport ABT 1 1 - - - - - - - 2
15 55 Takuma Sato Amlin Aguri 2 - - - - - - - - 2
16 88 Ho-Pin Tung China Racing 0 0 - - - - - - - 0
17 23 Nick Heidfeld Venturi 0 0 - - - - - - - 0
18 28 Matthew Brabham Andretti - 0 - - - - - - - 0
19 18 Michela Cerruti Trulli 0 0 - - - - - - - 0
20 21 Bruno Senna Mahindra Racing 0 0 - - - - - - - 0
21 77 Katherine Legge Amlin Aguri 0 0 - - - - - - - 0
22 10 Jarno Trulli Trulli 0 0 - - - - - - - 0


Team Standings

After Round 2

POS TEAM R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9 TOTAL
1 Audi Sport ABT 26 19 - - - - - - - 45
2 Virgin Racing 15 29 - - - - - - - 44
3 e.dams-Renault 3 30 - - - - - - - 33
4 Andretti Formula E 30 0 - - - - - - - 30
5 Dragon Racing 14 16 - - - - - - - 30
6 Mahindra Racing 10 8 - - - - - - - 18
7 Amlin Aguri 2 4 - - - - - - - 6
8 China Racing 4 0 - - - - - - - 4
9 Venturi 2 0 - - - - - - - 2
10 Trulli 0 0 - - - - - - - 0