Sam Bird won his first race of the season for DS Virgin Racing from pole position in Buenos Aires.
It was a lights to flag win for Sam Bird, in what was not the best handling car in the field. He overcame challenges by both the eventual second placed driver Sebastien Buemi and Lucas Di Grassi, and both looked to have faster cars.
There was another driving masterclass from Sebastien Buemi, who made his way from the very back of the grid to finish second, ahead of his championship rival Lucas Di Grassi who eventually finished in third.
Starting from pole position Sam Bird made a very good start defending from Prost into the first corner. All the cars got through the first corner nicely with only a few close moments, including Simona De Silvestro overtaking a number of cars down the inside, the field four abreast at the time. Frijns got a head of Conway at the end of the first lap, with D’Ambrosio falling to the back of the field with body work damage.
Having already been overtaken by Frijns, Di Grassi made his way past Conway on the second lap for 6th, with Turvey ahead of his team mate Piquet Jr despite starting behind him. Buemi, who had started at the back of the field, had made his way up to 13th with all the cars still in close quarters on the track. Piquet Jr was losing ground, first overtaken by Abt, and then Vergne, with places changing at the back of the field nearly every corner.
At the front on lap 5, Bird was still leading Prost and Da Costa, with Sarrazin in 4th and Di Grassi in 5th. With lots of overtaking at the lower end of the field, Buemi was still making progress. He had made his way up to 11th, but was behind Vergne’s Virgin Racing who was also making his way through the field.
Announced on lap 8, Di Grassi, Vergne and Bird were all confirmed to get the FanBoost for the second car.
After spending a few laps close behind the Venturi, Di Grassi overtook Sarrazin and immediately pulled away to close in on the top three, who were also getting closer together. By lap 12 it was then a top four, with Di Grassi making his was to the back of the pack.
Da Costa made a move into the first corner on Nico Prost, which he made stick on lap 13, giving Bird a little space before clawing back the gap by the end of the lap. At the back of the field, after falling back at the start of the race, Piquet Jr had the most power out of everyone with 30%, compared to the leader Sam Bird who had 23%.
With Frijns and Conway battling for 6th, Buemi was already in the fight and getting ahead of Conway with ease. Buemi also passed Frijns at the end of the same lap, but there was still a decent margin to make up on Sarrazin ahead. Sixth place on the road now for the driver who started at the back of the grid.
Mike Conway was on of the first to stop on lap 18. Da Costa stopped on the inside of the first corner bringing out the yellow flag. Both Prost and Bird only had 1% when entering the pitlane, with most of the field pitting a lap later on lap 19. With Prost heading down the pitlane slowly, it meant Sam Bird exited first with Di Grassi in 2nd and Sarrazin in 3rd. Nelson Piquet Jr went a lap longer than everyone else, although it didn’t make a difference at the front of the field. After falling down the field in the pit stops, Nico Prost went off and hit the wall.
It worked well for Buemi in the pit stops with Renault driver making it up to 4th. He tried to make a move on Sarrazin in 3rd, but the safety car was deployed at the same time and the Swiss driver held back on the overtaking attempt. Sarrazin slowed down dramatically trying to save power and Buemi was becoming more and more irate over the radio.
The safety car was came in on lap 23, with Bird holding the pack back before pulling away out of turn 7. The restart gave Buemi the chance to take Sarrazin into the first corner with the Renault driver setting his sights on the leaders. Despite having a good start, Di Grassi was closing on leader Bird, with Buemi also closing in on the pair of them.
Mike Conway had a spin on lap 24 dropping down to 15th in the Venturi, while Nico Prost was also put under investigation by the stewards.
Back at the front of the field, Lucas Di Grassi was closing in on Bird, although he used his FanBoost to defend from the ABT driver. Buemi had also made up time to get on the back of Di Grassi, making it a three way fight for the lead with just 7 laps remaining. Buemi got ahead of the Brazilian, although it meant that Bird was able to get a little bit of a gap.
Further down the field, after falling back in the early stages both Mahindra cars had made their way into the top ten, with Oliver Turvey rounding out the top ten. His team mate Nelson Piquet Jr hadn’t made too much progress after conserving energy in the first half of the race.
Back at the front of the field, Buemi had closed in on Bird, with Di Grassi falling back slightly on the leading pair. With just a couple of laps remaining Bird was all over the place both defending and struggling with oversteer, although Buemi was still behind. Getting a really good exit the Renault driver made the best attempt so far, but Bird covered it off into the hairpin.
The gap increased for the final lap, with the Virgin Racing driver pulling away from Buemi and keeping the gap to the end of the lap. A first race win of the year for Sam Bird, and a quite incredible drive from Sebastien Buemi from the back of the field to beat his championship rival Lucas Di Grassi.
