It was another dominant race victory by Sebastien Buemi and the Renault eDAMS team, although they had to work for it.
Buemi didn’t perform in the final qualifying shoot-out, leaving him in fifth place on the grid despite having the faster car. A good, but not amazing start meant that Buemi was only fourth on the first lap, before attacking Loic Duval for third.
At this point, D’Ambrosio was starting to pull away slightly at the front, but the Swiss driver kept his march going overtaking Bird’s Virgin before setting sights on the leading Dragon.
He made is way into the lead by lap 8, and never looked like being seriously challenged apart from after the full course yellow, which brought Di Grassi closer to the Renault eDAMS car.
Buemi said after the race, “The start was really important for the outcome of the race. Pulling away from the clean side of the grid meant I could jump di Grassi and then close in and pass D’Ambrosio and Bird in the opening laps.
“I was ahead and lost a lot of time under Full Course Yellow. Normally you get a 10-second countdown from the race director but the boards were already out so I backed off, I didn’t want to take the risk.
“It’s good to bounce back from Putrajaya but Lucas is really close and consistent so we have to remain focused.”
Teammate Nico Prost had a less successful day. Despite starting just behind him on the grid, he didn’t make the same progress through the field, instead getting stuck in the lower reaches of the top ten, before making his way up to fifth by the end of the race.
