FIA FORMULA E CHAMPIONSHIP RACE REPORT ROUND NINE MOSCOW
2015-06-08 06:49:08
So the Formula e race results from Moscow would soon come in but last time out was in Berlin, Lucas di Grassi seemed like he was coasting to victory, on his way to building up a 17-point race lead at the top of the driver standings. But soon after the race, di Grassi’s AudiSport ABT car was disqualified for running with a modified front wing.
Today the world’s first formula electric racing series heads to Russia for Round 9 and the Brazilian will have to put the disappointment of Berlin behind him and quickly if he is to maintain his title challenge.
So after the excitement of Berline, di Grassi sees his 17-point lead at the top of the driver’s leader board disappear and the Brazilian is now third behind Sébastien Buemi and bitter rival Nelson Piquet Jr. he leads the championship with 8 and 10 points more respectively.
After eight races, the driver’s standings look like this:
Driver Standings
Nelson Piquet Jr - 103
Sébastien Buemi - 101
Lucas di Grassi - 93
Nicolas Prost - 78
Jerome D’Ambrosio - 77
Sam Bird - 68
Antonio Felix da Costa - 45
Jean-Eric Vergne - 40
Jaime Alguersuari - 30
Bruno Senna - 28
In the teams’ classification, e.dams-Renault has made a significant step forward, the French team now has a 63 point lead over Dragon Racing (179 to 116), with AudiSport ABT dropping into third after di Grassi’s disqualification. The full team standings is provided in the table below:
Team Standings
e.dams-Renault - 179
Dragon Racing - 116
Audi Sport ABT - 115
NEXTEV TCR - 107
Virgin Racing - 98
Andretti - 88
Amlin Aguri - 48
Mahindra Racing - 46
Ventur - 34
Trulli - 17
There are just two races will remain after the showdown in Moscow: a double-header in London on 27th and 28th June in Battersea Park to determine the first ever Formula E champion.
Just before the race started, the top three men in the championship – Nelson Piquet Jr., Sébastien Buemi and Lucas di Grassi - received the fan boost vote, providing them with an extra 30kW of power.
As we were about to start the race, Frenchman, Jean-Eric Vergne was on P1 (his third of the season), with Nelson Piquet Jr and Lucas di Grassi aiming to chase him down into the first corner in second and third respectively.
With the lights going green in Moscow, 20 electric racing cars hurtled down the track. Vergne spun his wheels giving Piquet Jr the advantage on the inside line and into the lead of the race. Out of the first corner it was Piquet, Vergne and di Grassi.
A brilliant move by Brit, Justin Wilson saw him drive wide around Ant Felix da Costa, pulling on some of his Indy Car experience.
As usual, energy management would play a crucial role – as it did in Berlin when Piquet managed to get a lap more than anyone else and managed to stay out whilst everyone else pitted which allowed him to go much faster in the second stint. Today would be no exception to this rule.
On lap 5, Antonio Luizzi pitted his Trulli team car having started right at the back of the field.
Meanwhile, everyone else settled down early in to the race before business would inevitably pick up as we headed towards the car change and ultimately to the end of the race. All except Piquet who, on lap 7 managed to extend his lead at the front by a whole second more in just one lap. On this basis, the worst thing that could have happened to him was the deployment of the safety car.
Meanwhile da Costa and Trulli were having a mega fight. On two separate occasions the former had tried to challenge to latter for position at the chicane, only for Trulli to straight-line the chicane and maintain position. The Amlin Aguri driving da Costa was clearly getting more frustrated with every passing lap as a result.
On lap 17, Piquet Jr, who had been using a huge amount of energy compared to most of his competitors whilst leading the race by more than three seconds, pitted to swap cars.
As the pitting process began, Senna decided that it was time to part company with his rear wing and left it dumped in the centre of the track at T1 after losing the rear end.
Di Grassi managed to get out ahead of Vergne following their pit stops, meaning di Grassi was up ultimately into second place.
Buemi pitted from P1 after having been able to do an extra lap compared to most of the others meaning that wherever he was going to come out, he would have more energy to burn in the second stint. But inexplicably, he stayed 10-seconds longer in the pits than he need to meaning that he came out in P4. This one manoeuvre changed the complexion of the race.
Astonishingly, e.dams-Renault later admitted that they thought the pit stop was 68 seconds – not the 58 seconds that was the actual time. Both of their drivers did 68-seconds stops and consequently lost 10-seconds in the process.
On lap 25, it was announced that Alguesuari was to serve a drive-through penalty for going over the maximum power.
By lap 32, just 1.7-seconds separated Piquet Jr. and di Grassi, with four laps to go. However, they both still had a Fan Boost to deploy.
On lap 33, Jarno Trulli lost his rear wing after being hit at the hair pin by Duval who tried to mount his car. This also made Justin Wilson lose out.
So on the final lap Nelson Piquet it was Nelson Piquet Jr, Lucas di Grassi, Jean-Eric Vergne, Sébastien Buemi and Nick Heidfeld holding the top five positions.
Unsurprisingly, Piquet Jr – who had absolutely dominated the race from the beginning after adopting an interesting energy strategy – crossed over the line first, followed by di Grassi. But it was the battle for third and fourth positions that proved to be the most exciting.
Further back it had all kicked off on the final few corners as Buemi and Heidfeld had miraculously managed to jump position over Vergne who was pushed down into fifth. Buemi had tried to challenge Vergne but his attack had been thwarted, but not to put off, Buemi had launched another attack at the chicane.
This time, Buemi ran straight on whilst Vergne had carried through the proper racing line. To his credit, Buemi had tried to hold back and allow Vergne back through to take his rightful position. However, for some reason, this wasn’t accepted by Vergne who held back.
After the race, Buemi was stripped of the position and given a penalty, reducing his overall position to 9th. This moved Heidfeld into P3 with Vergne being awarded P4.
FIA Formula E Championship – Moscow ePrix (Rd 9) – Race results:
1. Nelson Piquet Jr. NEXTEV TCR 43.18.867s
2. Lucas di Grassi Audi Sport ABT +2.012s
3. Nick Heidfeld Venturi +11.548s
4. Jean-Eric Vergne Andretti +12.416s
5. Daniel Abt Audi Sport ABT +25.626s
6. Salvador Duran Amlin Aguri +28.960s
7. Antonio Felix da Costa Amlin Aguri +30.529s
8. Nicolas Prost e.dams-Renault +31.556s
9. Sebastien Buemi e.dams-Renault +40.058s
10. Justin Wilson Andretti +46.320s
11. Loic Duval Dragon Racing +49.763s
12. Jerome D’Ambrosio Dragon Racing +51.474s
13. Karun Chandhok Mahindra Racing +52.493s
14. Jaime Alguersuari Virgin Racing +55.810s
15. Stephane Sarrazin Venturi +56.715s
16. Bruno Senna Mahindra Racing +1 lap
17. Vitantonio Liuzzi Trulli +1 lap
18. Jarno Trulli Trulli +1 lap
19. Antonio Garcia NEXTEV TCR +3 laps
NC. Sam Bird Virgin Racing DNF
Driver Standings (after Rd 9)
1. Nelson Piquet Jr 128pts
2. Lucas di Grassi 111pts
3. Sébastien Buemi 105pts
4. Nicolas Prost 82pts
5. Jerome D’Ambrosio 77pts
6. Sam Bird 68pts
7. Jean-Eric Vergne 57pts
8. Antonio Felix da Costa 51pts
9. Daniel Abt 32pts
10. Jaime Alguersuari 30pts
Team Standings (after Rd 9)
1. e .dams-Renault Formula E 187pts
2. Audi Sport ABT Formula E 143pts
3. NEXTEV TCR Formula E 132pts
4. Dragon Racing Formula E 116pts
5. Andretti Formula E 106pts
6. Virgin Racing Formula E 98pts
7. Amlin Aguri Formula E 62pts
8. Venturi Formula E 49pts
9. Mahindra Racing 46pts
10. Trulli Formula E 17pts
Having travelled the world, Formula E now prepares to head home to England, where it all started with the test session at Donington Park last summer. The season finale will take place in London on a circuit built in Battersea Park. There will be two races over the final weekend of June, with one on Saturday 27th and the other on Sunday 28th. Six drivers are still in the hunt for the title – Piquet Jr, Buemi, di Grassi, Prost, D’Ambrosio and Bird, while in the teams’ championship, e.dams-Renault will arrive in the English capital with 187 points to their name, 44 more than Audi Sport ABT, while NEXTEV TCR is third on 132.
This article was reported by
Andrew Merritt-Morling
Electric Motorsport Editor and Chief Editor
Associate Member of the Guild of Motoring Writers
FIA Formula e Moscow highlights
