After a mixed start to the series’ debut season, the 2015 Buenos Aires ePrix provided a truly exceptional race that silenced Formula E’s doubters and helped to secure the future of the sport.
The start of the race was fairly quiet with Sebastien Buemi leading from pole position ahead of Nick Heidfeld and Jaime Alguersuari. In what would eventually transpire to be her final race in the series, Michela Cerruti made contact with Bruno Senna on the opening lap and the Italian later retired on lap 20 with a mechanical issue while the Brazilian was able to continue.
Lucas Di Grassi was the man on the move in the early stages of the race, with a move on Sam Bird into turn 7 on lap two and an overtake into the hairpin on Virgin Racing’s Alguersuari for third place a few laps later. He was lapping much faster than the two leaders and had closed within a second by lap nine.
The Brazilian eventually passed Heidfeld on lap 14 and was quickly followed by Alguersuari who made the most of the German missing the chicane at the end of the lap. Mahindra Racing’s Karun Chandhok was the first casualty of the race when his suspension broke at the final corner.
The safety car was deployed as the lapped Trulli of Cerruti held up race leader Buemi, however, the Swiss driver still managed to maintain his lead when every driver had swapped cars. Buemi lead the field when the race was re-started on lap 23. However, disaster struck almost immediately when the Swiss driver clipped the inside wall at the final corner and broke his suspension, ending his chances of scoring back to back victories.
Consequently, Di Grassi was promoted into the lead of the race but just three laps later, he joined Buemi on the sidelines after breaking his suspension in a similar fashion to Chandhok. Meanwhile, Sam Bird was hit with a drive-through penalty while in second place for ignoring a red light upon entering the pitlane.
All of this resulted in Heidfeld leading ahead of Antonio Felix da Costa, Alguersuari and Jean-Eric Vergne. The Frenchman barged past Alguersuari for third place on lap 33 but suffered front wing damage which prevented him from pulling clear of the Spaniard.
Just as Heidfeld look set to take his debut victory which had been cruelly robbed from him in Beijing, he was hit with a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pitlane and tumbled down the order. All of this meant da Costa led comfortably with just three laps to go.
The carnage continued behind the Portuguese driver as Daniel Abt drove into Alguersuari at turn 7 and immediately ended his own race and demoted the Spaniard down into fifth place. He was promoted to fourth however when Vergne ran wide at turn 1 while duelling with Nicolas Prost for second place.
After 36 laps of crashes, countless lead changes, penalties and breathtaking overtakes, the 2015 Buenos Aires ePrix was won by Antonio Felix da Costa who took his maiden Formula E victory ahead of Prost and Nelson Piquet Jr. who drove an excellent race to come from ninth to third.
Despite numerous incidents, Alguersuari emerged with fourth place ahead of Senna, Vergne, Bird, Heidfeld, Oriol Servia and Stephane Sarrazin for Venturi.
