A Look Back at the Putrajaya ePrix: Lucas di Grassi Wins an Elimination Race!

Outcome of a completely crazy race in Malaysia for the second ePrix of the season. Lucas di Grassi was the most reliable and consistent on the track. The Abt Schaeffler Audi Sport team driver won ahead of the surprising Sam Bird (DS Virgin Racing) and Robin Frijns (Andretti).

Logo Mi mini
Rédigé par Par

The first weekend of the Formula E season 2 was a complete success for Sébastien Buemi: pole position, victory, fastest lap and thirty points in the bag! As he arrived this weekend for the second round of the 2015-2016 season, did the Swiss secretly think he could replicate such a feat?

For that, it was necessary to tame the route in the heart of Putrajaya, a city that has become the new administrative capital of Malaysia; situated halfway between the historic capital Kuala Lumpur and the Sepang International Circuit, notably the venue of the Formula 1 Grand Prix.

The layout of this ePrix consisted of 12 turns over a length of 2.5 kilometers. To give you an overview, a presenter of choice, Sébastien Buemi, takes you through the streets of Putrajaya. The circuit is notably bumpy, divided into two distinct parts: two long straights to start and another more winding section. The main challenge is this highly elevated chicane at turn 10. It is noteworthy that the track is quite wide, which makes overtaking easier.

A consistently dominant Sébastien Buemi during the Qualifications.

This session was, for the occasion, divided into three groups of six drivers, given the absence once again of the two Trulli team cars, which could not meet the regulatory technical inspection requirements.

First of all, Sébastien Buemi made it to the Super Pole, accompanied by the following drivers: Stéphane Sarrazin (Venturi), Loic Duval (Dragon Racing), Nicolas Prost (Renault e.Dams), and Antonio Félix Da Costa (Team Aguri). Leading during the only free practice session held a few hours earlier, Loic Duval confirmed his good form. The presence of Nico Prost behind the wheel of a performing car was also not a big surprise.

More surprising, however, were the participations of Sarrazin and da Costa. The driver from the Monegasque team finished 4 tenths behind Buemi in his preliminary group. Besides Buemi, the group also included the two DS Virgin cars of Vergne and Bird, Nathanael Berthon (Amlin-Aguri), and Nelson Piquet (Nextev). But the most astonishing surprise was da Costa’s performance, who managed to climb into the final Top 5 with a car without any major developments since the end of season 1!

During the Super-Pole, Sébastien Buemi was visibly still full of confidence. Following the trend from Beijing, the Swiss driver once again dominated the competition in the exercise of the flying lap. Being the last to take off in this final phase, he won his 2nd Pole Position of the season with a margin of nearly 6 tenths over Stéphane Sarrazin, who thus settled in the front row! As at the end of the first phase, Loic Duval also took 3rd position while da Costa and Prost completed this winning quintet.

The grid was set: after hugging the wall on the exit of the turn, the future winner, Lucas di Grassi, was nevertheless starting from 6th place.

The Race: Di Grassi as the big winner of the Malaysian lottery!

At 2 p.m. local time (7 a.m. in France), the 18 drivers were on the starting grid for the second race of the season. At one point, the arrival of a stormy rain was announced and could have reshuffled all the cards. In the end, the rain wasn’t needed: we still witnessed a true elimination race!

However dominant, the performances of the two Renault eDams cars were called into question due to reliability issues. But they were far from the only ones plagued by problems throughout these 33 laps!

At the start, Sébastien Buemi nonetheless held onto his lead. Just behind him, the first setback was for Stéphane Sarrazin, who wasn’t even able to start during the grid procedure. The French veteran thus had to start from the pits in last position.

Loic Duval therefore took this 2nd position, ahead of da Costa, Prost, and di Grassi. The first collision involved a trio of Villeneuve-Heidfeld-Vergne. Boxed in by the other two drivers mentioned, Jean-Eric Vergne couldn’t even make it past the second corner of the first lap. Bent suspension: it was a premature retirement for the Parisian.

In the 5th lap of this race, the safety car came on track so that the marshals could remove Oliver Turvey’s Nextev, which ended its race in a wall with a stuck accelerator.

Buemi broke away in the lead while Nico Prost moved up to third and was now threatening Loic Duval.

After 10 laps, the Top 10 consisted of: Buemi-Duval-Prost-Da Costa-Di Grassi-Frijns-Abt-D’Ambrosio-Bird-Villeneuve.

But shock on the sixteenth lap: Sébastien Buemi stops for a few seconds off-track before he can restart! The damage is already done for the winner of the first ePrix: he resumes at the back of the field, letting his dreams of success slip away.

Dominated in Beijing, one might think at this moment that Nico Prost will be able to seize the opportunity to win in his turn. Warned by radio of the known issue on his teammate’s car, the Frenchman takes no risks and changes cars from Lap 17. He makes the right move by performing the undercut on Loic Duval and thus takes the lead once all the drivers have been through the pits, the last being Nelson Piquet, who affords himself the luxury of leading for one lap.

The big loser in these car changes was Loic Duval. After not only giving up the lead to Prost, he fell to 4th position, overtaken by da Costa and di Grassi. After Piquet’s stop, the Top 10 at the end of the 20th lap was as follows: Prost-Di Grassi-Da Costa-Duval-D’Ambrosio-Frijns-Heidfeld-Bird-Buemi.

But this ranking kept changing until the finish!

In a humid environment, electric batteries were put to the test.

The overheating of these batteries was at the heart of the problems at the end of the race! Having become the leader, Nico Prost was unable to defend his chances following a car change that was a bit too premature. In management mode, the son of the four-time World Champion gradually dropped down the rankings.

Unable to resist, he relinquishes the lead of the race to Lucas di Grassi at the start of the 24th lap. The Brazilian doesn’t know it yet, but he’s firmly holding the reins of victory!

But behind him, it’s chaos!

After moving up to 2nd place, Antonio Félix Da Costa encounters problems on the 26th lap: his electric motor gives out on him twice. Nonetheless, the Portuguese driver manages to make it to the finish line but will certainly be disappointed with this Malaysian edition.

As a result, Loic Duval moves back to second place in the race. Caught in a trap during the car change, the Frenchman now has a real opportunity to make a lasting impression. The Dragon Racing team was even heading for a splendid overall result with Jérôme d’Ambrosio climbing onto the provisional podium at the expense of a struggling Prost.

If the temperatures are too high for the batteries, the pace on the track must be slowed down, which is what Nicolas Prost has to do. Rookie Robin Frijns was then in fifth position. He was followed by Bird, Buemi, Abt, Sarrazin, Heidfeld.

At the start of the 30th lap, three laps from the finish, di Grassi was leading ahead of the Dragon duo.

But we are not yet out of surprises: in the same 30th lap, Loic Duval breaks down in turn. During the overtaking maneuver, Robin Frijns drives on the dirty part: he hits the wall and bends his suspension. Miraculously, his car withstands the impact: Frijns must now manage with a car crab-walking to the finish!

But the final lap also brings its share of emotions for the honorable positions: having moved up to 2nd following his teammate’s withdrawal, Jérôme d’Ambrosio makes a mistake and hits the wall. He breaks his suspension: in just a few laps, the Dragon Racing team goes from the joy of a double podium to the disappointment of a double retirement.

At the front, Lucas di Grassi did not experience all this madness: wise and economical, the Brazilian therefore wins the second ePrix of the season in Putrajaya!

The Abt team driver returns to victory, more than a year after winning the very first race of the discipline in Beijing. Joining him on the podium is Sam Bird, who came out of nowhere with his DS Virgin Racing to claim this 2nd position. This podium is completely unexpected for the Franco-British team, which was lacking in performance in Putrajaya.

Improbable is also this podium for Robin Frijns, which will remain in people’s minds with those last laps in a complete slide. The Dutch driver is thus on the podium for the first time in Formula E!

The final ranking of this race is therefore completely unexpected: starting last, Stéphane Sarrazin climbed up to 4th position! Taking advantage of this epic scenario, let’s also acknowledge the 8th place of World Champion Nelson Piquet. The Nextev team was still struggling in terms of pure performance. Nevertheless, he leaves with 4 points, just one less than Sébastien Buemi. Outside the Top 10, Buemi consoles himself with the 3 points for Pole Position and the 2 points for the fastest lap in the race.

Driver Team Time / Gap
1 L.di Grassi ABT Schaeffler 50:17.449
2 S.Bird DS Virgin Racing +13.884
3 R.Frijns Andretti +29.776
4 S.Sarrazin Venturi +32.628
5 B.Senna Mahindra Racing +34.404
6 A.da Costa Team Aguri +36.925
7 D.Abt ABT Schaeffler +37.283
8 N.Piquet Junior NEXTEV +40.623
9 N.Heidfeld Mahindra Racing +52.904
10 N.Prost Renault e.Dams +53.695
11 J.Villeneuve Venturi +58.698
12 S.Buemi Renault e.Dams +1:07.728
13 S.de Silvestro Andretti +1:24.464
14 J.d’Ambrosio Dragon Racing +1 Lap
15 N.Berthon Team Aguri +1 Lap
16 L.Duval NEXTEV + 4 Laps
17 O.Turvey NEXTEV + 28 Laps
18 J.Vergne DS Virgin Racing + 33 Laps

In the World Championship drivers’ standings, Lucas di Grassi takes the lead with a total of forty-three points. Sébastien Buemi is eight points behind.

Driver Team Points
1 L.di Grassi ABT Schaeffler 43
2 S.Buemi Renault e.Dams 35
3 S.Bird DS Virgin Racing 24
4 N.Heidfeld Mahindra Racing 17
5 R.Frijns Andretti 16
6 S.Sarrazin Venturi 14
7 L.Duval Dragon Racing 12
8 B.Senna Mahindra Racing 10
9 J.d’Ambrosio Dragon Racing 10
10 A.da Costa Team Aguri 8
11 O.Turvey NEXTEV 8
12 D.Abt ABT Schaeffler 6
13 N.Berthon Team Aguri 4
14 N.Piquet Junior NEXTEV 4
15 N.Prost Renault e.Dams 1

The Renault e.Dams team therefore experienced a complicated race in terms of reliability in the heat of Malaysia. It was even dethroned from the constructors’ leadership by the ABT Schaeffler team.

Team Pts
1 ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport 49
2 Renault e.Dams 36
3 Mahindra Racing 27
4 DS Virgin Racing 24
5 Dragon Racing 22
6 Andretti 22
7 Venturi 14
8 NEXTEV TCR 12
9 Team Aguri 12
Votre commentaire

Vous recevrez un e-mail de vérification pour publier votre commentaire.

Haut
Motorsinside English
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.