Review of the Santiago ePrix: Techeetah and Vergne Tamed the Bumps of Santiago

Jean-Éric Vergne as fast as a cheetah

It was on a bumpy and dusty track making grip precarious as the qualifications for this Santiago ePrix began. This session did not start under the best auspices for Renault e-dams, with crashes experienced by Sébastien Buemi during the first free practice session and by Nicolas Prost during the second. The first group consisted of Buemi, Evans, Heidfeld, Da Costa, and Abt. In this group, it was Sébastien Buemi who turned out to be the fastest. Note that Mitch Evans risked inheriting the last position after making an error with no consequence for his car.

The second group, reserved for the highest-ranked drivers in the championship, followed, including Rosenqvist, Bird, Vergne, Piquet, and Mortara. This was a bad surprise for Felix Rosenqvist, who did not qualify in the top five to compete in the super pole. It was Sam Bird and Jean-Éric Vergne who were the fastest in the group and took the overall first place from Sébastien Buemi.

In the third group, it was the turn of Engel, Lopez, Prost, Turvey, and Lynn to start the time chase. The result was few improvements except for Alex Lynn, who temporarily placed fifth. Finally, it was time for the fourth group of the lower-ranked drivers, featuring Di Grassi, d’Ambrosio, Lotterer, Blomqvist, and Filippi. It was in this group that the two fastest times of this first phase of qualification were achieved by André Lotterer and Lucas Di Grassi.

The five fastest drivers would then compete in the super pole to determine the top spots on the grid. The chosen ones, in order, were Lotterer, Di Grassi, Bird, Vergne, and Buemi. The situation was slightly different for Di Grassi, who had to endure a 10-place grid penalty after having to change his faulty converter since the beginning of the season.

Sam Bird was the victim of a spin and crashed his car into a tire wall. On André Lotterer’s side, things weren’t much better, with a heavy impact against the wall at the first corner. However, the German was instructed by his team to finish his lap if possible in order to position himself ahead of Sam Bird. This was accomplished a few seconds later despite a front wing that was on the verge of passing under the version of Jean-Éric Vergne’s teammate.

In the end, it was Jean-Éric Vergne who inherited pole position with the fastest lap ahead of Sébastien Buemi. Lucas Di Grassi, however, will start thirteenth due to his penalty, André Lotterer will start third thanks to the Brazilian’s penalty, and Sam Bird will also gain a place.

Be aware that two other drivers received penalties. Specifically, 3 places for Prost who completed an extra lap in qualifying, and will start tenth in the race. Similarly, Mitch Evans receives ten places for inverter change, converted into 10 seconds on his race time for complying with quotas.

Here’s what the grid will look like for the first Santiago ePrix (not accounting for penalties):

.@JeanEricVergne fastest in super pole! #SantiagoEPrix pic.twitter.com/FW242u1bp7

— ABB Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) 3 février 2018

Techeetah at the top, Audi in hell

This first Chilean race promised to be difficult, due to a track filled with bumps, changes in surfaces, and tree leaves. At the start, Jean-Éric Vergne held the lead while Sébastien Buemi lost the second position to André Lotterer, and Nelsion Piquet Jr slipped in on the outside and managed to take second place.

The first few hundred meters of the race were marked by several incidents, the first involving José María López who ended up in the wall while trying to overtake Sam Bird in a place where space was severely lacking. The second incident involved Nick Heidfeld who, in an overly optimistic attempt to overtake Daniel Abt, saw his front right suspension break and had to quickly return to the pits. This logically led to the deployment of the safety car.

Both @pechito37 and @NickHeidfeld are out after contact on the first lap #SantiagoEPrix pic.twitter.com/7RBKAZ5RzL

— ABB Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) 3 février 2018

In the points-scoring drivers’ contingent, we found Vergne, Piquet, Lotterer, Buemi, Bird, Lynn, Prost who had gained three places, Turvey who had lost one, and Di Grassi who had climbed 4 places. Notably, Rosenqvist was already on the verge of scoring points. This first lap of the race was also marked by a third incident involving Maro Engel, who ended up crashing into the techpro barriers due to an earlier contact with Nick Heidfeld at a slow pace, which damaged his front suspension and prevented him from taking the turn properly. All the cars then went into energy-saving mode behind the safety car. This was followed by four slow laps through the pit lane to allow marshals to clear the track.

The race was reignited on the fourth lap. Vergne made a good restart and broke away at the front. This pushed Piquet to go on the offensive, eagerly using his battery to overtake Vergne. He managed to get closer at the cost of a slight touch to the rear of the leading car. On the eighth lap, Daniel Abt suffered yet another reliability issue with his Audi and continued with his second car far from the pack. The situation was slightly different for his teammate Di Grassi, who was in full attack mode to successively overtake Turvey and Prost for seventh place. Meanwhile, Lotterer took second place from Piquet, who didn’t put up much resistance. The Brazilian from Audi (Di Grassi) who was battling with Lynn’s DS Virgin eventually succeeded in overtaking him with a brilliant move on the outside, with slight contact between the two protagonists.

.@Andre_Lotterer overtakes @NelsonPiquet for second place! #SantiagoEPrix pic.twitter.com/RqUeaAYExS

— ABB Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) 3 février 2018

The Briton then took the opportunity to start the pit stop waltz ahead of Prost, Turvey, Blomqvist, and Fillipi. We were witnessing the first car changes without a minimum time requirement, making the maneuver much more dynamic than before. One lap later, during the twentieth circuit, it was Vergne, Lotterer, Piquet, Buemi, Di Grassi, Evans, Rosenqvist, D’ambrosio, and Mortara’s turn to change cars. The stops left the top three positions unchanged. It was then Bird and Da Costa’s turn to finally stop. Bird lost a lot of time in the maneuver and found himself seventh behind his teammate Lynn. This benefited Buemi and Rosenqvist, who made the best move by placing themselves fifth. The rest of the top 10 was composed of D’ambrosio, Prost, and Evans.

Catastrophe for Audi, which encountered another problem this time with Di Grassi’s car, forcing him to stop on track to perform operations to reset his car’s systems. Unfortunately for the 2016-2017 champion, he had to stop permanently a few kilometers later to retire, furious. In the twenty-fourth lap, Bird overtook his teammate Lynn for sixth place, which did not hold. Unlucky for the young Briton, he triggered a brief yellow flag deployment a few laps later by breaking down at the side of the track.

.@LucasdiGrassi stops on track! Is this another retirement for the champ? #SantiagoEPrix pic.twitter.com/FFidXVoeVB

— ABB Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) 3 février 2018

For the last spot on the podium, Sébastien Buemi finally managed to get past Piquet. Just ahead, there was a fierce battle between the two Techeetah drivers for the lead. A bit later, to regain his third position, the Jaguar driver attempted an overtake on Buemi but failed, the Brazilian briefly found himself stuck against a wall and lost two places to Felix Rosenqvist and Sam Bird.

André Lotterer then attempted an attack on Jean-Éric Vergne, but the German clipped his front wing on the back of the Frenchman, preventing him from completing his overtaking maneuver. This led to a regrouping of the top five drivers without any changes occurring.

The two TECHEETAH’s hit each other! The battle for the top five is wide open #SantiagoEPrix @TecheetahFE pic.twitter.com/T3yGR39MK1

— ABB Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) 3 février 2018

This race concluded with a first double podium for Techeetah, allowing Jean-Éric Vergne to take the lead in the championship. Ultimately, it was Sébastien Buemi who emerged victorious in the battle for third place against Felix Rosenqvist and Sam Bird. Behind this trio was Nelson Piquet, who had long been in a position to reach the podium. An impressive Mitch Evans, who started from the last position and had to endure a 10-second time penalty that didn’t change his ranking, followed in the standings. Completing the top 10 were Jérôme d’Ambrosio, Antonio Felix Da Costa, and Nicolas Prost, who paid dearly for being blocked by Oliver Turvey, who stalled at the pit exit. On Audi’s side, it was all grim faces after this terrible double retirement and the understandable disappointment of its two drivers.

Here is the final ranking of this eventful race:

Results #SantiagoEPrix 🇨🇱

1. @JeanEricVergne
2. @Andre_Lotterer
3. @Sebastien_buemi
4. @FRosenqvist
5. @sambirdracing #ABBFormulaE pic.twitter.com/O66dxLybz4

— Michelin Motorsport (@Michelin_Sport) 3 février 2018

We are witnessing a change of leader in the championship with Jean-Éric Vergne taking the lead.

Same observation on the team side where Techeetah surpasses Mahindra thanks to the best performance in its history:

The time has come to part ways and meet again on March 3rd for the Mexico ePrix at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.