Sebastien Buemi kicks off his Formula E Drivers’ Championship defence with a win at the inaugural Hong Kong ePrix.
The race had great racing, and other than incidents on the first lap and a crash on lap 17 it was a clean ePrix. Lucas di Grassi, Buemi’s championship rival last year, was behind him with Mahindra’s Nick Heidfeld taking home third.
The race went green and everyone was able to get around the first hairpin safely. However it was at turn 3 that contact would occur. Ma Qing Hua went into the back of Antonio Felix da Costa who had hit Daniel Abt. The concertina effect led to Di Grassi damaging his front wing hitting Ma.
Ma had to come in with broken suspension, but Abt was given the black and orange flag which effectively ruined his race. Two laps later the day went even worse for the Abt Schaeffler team, as while Di Grassi’s damage wasn’t as major he was still brought in by the stewards.
On track the racing picked up early. Heidfeld made a good pass on Jose Maria Lopez on the second lap, with the Formula E rookie then dropping down the grid considerably through the rest of the first stint. Oliver Turvey also dropped from second to fourth, being passed by both Sam Bird and Sebastien Buemi. Jean-Eric Vergne must have had an issue with the car as he went into the pits on lap 9.
The race stays fairly quiet until lap 15 when Felix Rosenqvist slides and hits the barrier. The rookie has had a good first ePrix up until this point, and will be disappointed for it to be ruined like this.
On lap 17 Lopez, who had dropped to the back-end of the grid, was caught out by the chicane coming out of turn 5. Behind him was race leader Piquet Jr, who slows into the barrier rather than trying to make the corner. This gives the lead to Lopez’s teammate Sam Bird, although the Brazilian was able to get going in third place.
With the safety car coming out, some drivers used it to pit, with Bird being the main man to stay out. The Brit was able to get down to the minimum battery charge before coming into the pits, but issues setting off dropped him outside of the points. The order out front became Buemi, Di Grassi, Heidfeld, Turvey and Nico Prost.
Piquet Jr dropped down the order, with Robin Frijns passing him for eighth going into turn 1 on lap 39. On lap 40 Da Costa was able to pass both Jerome D’Ambrosio and Turvey in quick succession thanks to the higher amount of power available to him. Not long later Frijns was also able to pass D’Ambrosio and Turvey to take sixth position.
Buemi takes home the win from Di Grassi and Heidfeld, the latter hitting 0% battery power just after the finish line. Buemi’s teammate Prost missed out on the podium but takes home fourth, while Da Costa and Frijns finish fifth and sixth respectively.
