Nico Prost finished ahead of Bruno Senna to win the first London ePrix of the weekend, with many great battles happening behind.
The important news for the Drivers’ Championship is that Lucas di Grassi beat his rival Sebastien Buemi to extend his lead slightly going into the final race. The majority of the action came from them during the race, while Daniel Abt brought out the safety car after colliding with Robin Frijns.
The grid got off to a safe start, with Prost and Senna staying first and second. There were some battling from teammates Jean-Eric Vergne and Sam Bird, with the two getting close to making contact before the end of Lap 1.
By the end of the first lap, Di Grassi was in ninth and Buemi in 11th. On Lap 3 Di Grassi was able to pass Nick Heidfeld to take eighth place, while Buemi got his car ahead of both Jerome d’Ambrosio and Heidfeld to get behind the Brazilian.
Daniel Abt let his Abt Schaeffler teammate by and then started to drive as defensively as possible with Buemi behind him. He was given a warning for being too defensive at one point, although the three cars were still close to each other with Robin Frijns in fourth place holding the cars up. Di Grassi tried to pass Bird on the outside at one point during Lap 8, but knew he had to back out of it.
Di Grassi tried again to pass Bird going into Turn 11 later into the race, but was able to make the move stick during the final set of corners. Abt was also able to get around Bird on Lap 14, locking up and nearly hitting his teammate. The cameras were focused on the great race unfolding while the leader Prost extended his lead over Senna to over five seconds.
Before the pit stops Buemi got past Bird, who needed to save more energy to be able to hit his target. He was also able to get around Abt to make sure there wasn’t another car in between them.
However, Abt and Frijns got together on Lap 20, hurting Abt Schaeffler’s chance to get ahead in the Teams’ Championship. It looked to be the German at fault, but Frijns may have come across him to start the incident. The safety car came out so the two cars could be collected.
When the safety car was brought back in, the action didn’t stop. Buemi was nearly able to get ahead of his rival after Di Grassi and Vergne went slow, but wasn’t able to make the move. Di Grassi damaged his front wing, but the broken part fell off before the stewards could give him the black and orange flag.
There were battles happening through the field, with Turvey and Vergne getting close to each other. The Brit was in position to finish on the podium, but put his car into the wall at Turn 14. Bird passed Buemi straight after, but the move happened just as the yellow flags came out.
The race carried on, and Prost finished comfortably ahead to grab only his second win in Formula E. Senna was also able to get a much deserved podium, while Jean-Eric Vergne was the third driver on the podium for the first race in Battersea Park this weekend.
Bird went slow at the end and Buemi hit the back of him, with both the Swiss driver and Antonio Felix da Costa getting ahead of him. Buemi finished fifth and sixth, while Di Grassi will be happy with being ahead of his rival in fourth.
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