Sebastien Buemi made it two wins from two so far this season with victory in the inaugural Marrakesh ePrix as British driver Sam Bird came home second, whilst pole sitter Felix Rosenqvist claimed his maiden podium with third.
Prior to the race, Renault e.dams driver Sebastien Buemi was hit with a five-place grid penalty for running with an underweight fire extinguisher. That penalty left Mahindra’s Felix Rosenqvist still on pole, but promoted Sam Bird to second, Nelson Piquet Jr. to third, Jean-Eric Vergne to fourth, Daniel Abt to fifth and Nico Prost to sixth as Buemi dropped down the order to seventh for the race.
Rosenqvist got off to a phenomenal start as everyone made it through the first lap with their cars intact. With a few moves here and there, the closest action of the opening laps involved Lopez, Engel and Sarrazin as both Venturi drivers worked their way past the DS Virgin Car with Rosenqvist leading Bird, Piquet jr, Vergne and Abt around Marrakesh on the opening laps.
Lap seven saw Buemi dive down the inside of Daniel Abt to move up to fifth, as team mate Nico Prost also tried to move past the Abt Schaeffler Audi Sport driver, but wasn’t able to pull it off (eventually passing the German on lap ten). A few laps later Vergne caught Piquet by surprise to move up to third in the order as Rosenqvist opened up his lead to just over three seconds.
Sebastien Buemi continued to work his way through the field as he coasted past Nelson Piquet on lap 11, whilst Da Costa stopped at turn eight on lap 12 after battling with Lucas di Grassi, but was able to get his car going again without the need of a FCY or a safety car.
As the pit stop window approached, a fast moving Jean-Eric Vergne battled with Sam Bird for second, with a rapidly moving Buemi approaching them. Felix Rosenqvist, Piquet Jr., Engel, Sarrazin, Heidfeld and Ma pitted on lap 16 with everyone else opting for another lap in their first car to enable them to have a shorter stint in their second cars.
There were no issues this time around for Sam Bird and the DS Virgin team, as he came out in fourth with Felix Rosenqvist retaining his lead with Vergne second and Buemi third.
FanBoost went to Abt, Buemi and di Grassi as the both Abt Schaeffler Audi Sport drivers found themselves sixth and seventh respectively, whilst Buemi was in third chasing down Vergne and Rosenqvist.
Whilst chasing down race leader, Rosenqvist, Jean-Eric Vergne received a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane, effectively ending his battle for victory.
With ten laps remaining, Rosenqvist still led the race but had the least amount of energy left compared to the rest of the field as Vergne served his penalty for speeding in the pit lane as he dropped down to fifth, handing second to defending champion, Sebastien Buemi.
Buemi utilised his FanBoost on lap 26 to close down the two-second gap to race leader Rosenqvist and passed him for the lead of the race moments later. Di Grassi threw his car up the inside of team mate Daniel Abt to take sixth place on lap 27, whilst further down the field, Lopez passed Andretti’s Robin Frijns to move into the points on lap 29.
Trying to get back into the podium places, Vergne burned up his energy and left himself a sitting duck as di Grassi chased him down (eventually passing on lap 31). Another sitting duck on lap 31 was previous race leader, Felix Rosenqvist. Pitting a lap earlier than the majority of the field left him an easy target for Bird, as he moved up to second place at the expense of the Mahindra driver.
Jaguar’s Mitch Evans locked up then went into the barrier on the final lap as Buemi picked up his second consecutive victory of the season with Bird in second and pole man Felix Rosenqvist in third.
Prost came home fourth with 0% energy with both Abt drivers behind him, followed by Turvey, Vergne, Heidfeld and Lopez rounding out the top ten to pick up his first point in Formula E.
Maro Engel and Antonio Felix da Costa were the only drivers not be classified.
