Bird wins FE season opener in Hong Kong despite drive-through
Sam Bird won the opening race of the 2017/18 Formula E season in Hong Kong despite serving a drive-through penalty after a pitlane crash.
DS Virgin Racing’s Bird started the race in second place behind poleman Jean-Eric Vergne.
The duo pulled clear of the field in the opening half of the race, with Bird taking the lead of the race on lap 20 with a bold move down the inside at the Turn 6 hairpin.
When he entered the pits shortly after for his mandatory car swap, Bird missed his garage and drove into his team’s equipment. He jumped out and got into his second car, losing minimal time.
However, the stewards handed him a drive-through penalty for the incident. After the pitstops, Bird had a build up a sizeable advantage of Vergne, who was duelling with Nick Heidfeld for second place, and he managed to jump the pair after taking the penalty.
Bird took the chequered flag 11.575 seconds ahead of Vergne, who put up a stern defence for the entirety of the second half of the race to deny Heidfeld second place.
The start of the race was characterised by a lengthy red flag period caused by Andre Lotterer stuffing his Techeetah in the barriers, blocking the track.
Nelson Piquet Jr finished in fourth place on his debut for Jaguar, Maro Engel crossed the line in fourth but was demoted to 14th place after exceeding the maximum power output.
Daniel Abt finished in fifth, the German lost a large chunk of time during the pitstops but he made up three spots before the end.
Antonio Felix da Costa was sixth for Andretti ahead of Felix Rosenqvist, rookie Edoardo Mortara, Alex Lynn and Nico Prost, who took the final point after starting at the back following a crash in qualifying.
Season three champion Lucas di Grassi was running in sixth early on, before an early pitstop due to broken suspension, dropped him to 18th.
He made contact with his team-mate Abt, which could have caused the damage.
Di Grassi’s main rival Sebastien Buemi also had a miserable race due to his Z.E.17 switching off. He restarted but stumbled home in 12th place behind debutante Luca Filippi, who picked up a drive-through for causing a collision.