Look back at the Punta del Este ePrix: Di Grassi’s renaissance, Vergne’s triumph

This third Punta del Este ePrix provided us with eventful qualifications and a fierce race between Jean-Eric Vergne and Lucas Di Grassi. It's the second victory for the Frenchman from Techeetah this year, which further propels him to the top of the championship.

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Vergne pulls the chestnuts out of the fire after chaotic qualifications

It was under sunny weather, but with wind that could bring sand onto the track, that this qualifying session began. The first group to run was composed of the drivers who were the lowest ranked in the championship, namely Engel, d’Ambrossio, Blomqvist, Di Grassi, and Filippi. It was Lucas Di Grassi who proved to be the fastest, 4 tenths ahead of Maro Engel.

It was then the turn of the second group, which consisted of Lotterer, Da Costa, Lynn, Lopez, and Prost, to take on the timed lap exercise. The fastest in the group turned out to be Alex Lynn, with a lap a tenth of a second behind Di Grassi and ahead of André Lotterer. Notably, Nicolas Prost suffered a heavy impact on the front left with the wall at the exit of the fast chicane. This would give the Renault e-dams mechanics a lot of work to do.

Now it’s time for the third group with Abt, Evans, Mortara, Turvey, and Heidfeld. This third group saw another crash, this time for Nick Heidfeld who violently crashed into a safety barrier, as the Mahindra driver failed to take a tight corner. This triggered a red flag, preventing Edoardo Mortara from finishing his lap. However, he was given one last attempt to compensate, which did not allow him to set an interesting time. In terms of timing results, Mitch Evans set the second provisional fastest time just behind Lucas Di Grassi, while Oliver Turvey and Daniel Abt placed fourth and fifth provisionally.

Finally, the championship leaders (Vergne, Rosenqvist, Bird, Buemi, and Piquet) took to the track in the last group. We then witnessed a new accident for Nelson Piquet this time, at the exit of the first chicane, after he climbed too much over the curb. For the rest of the group, it was Jean-Éric Vergne who proved to be the fastest by beating Di Grassi’s best time. The other group members were unable to place in the top five.

We found ourselves in the super pole with the five best drivers, namely Vergne, Di Grassi, Evans, Lynn, and Turvey. Each driver took turns to compete for pole position. After completing their laps, Lynn, Turvey, and Di Grassi were under investigation for cutting the chicane too much. Evans made excessive contact with the wall, and Vergne only managed to secure the fifth fastest time. The top five were, in order, Di Grassi, Lynn, Evans, Turvey, and Vergne.

A few minutes later, we learned that Di Grassi, Turvey, and Lynn were penalized with a grid drop for exceeding track limits, and that Evans was disqualified and would start from the back of the grid for not meeting the minimum weight requirement. As a result, Jean-Éric Vergne was promoted to pole position.

Here’s what the starting grid for the race will look like after all penalties have been applied:

A fierce duel between Vergne and Di Grassi

This Punta del Este ePrix started under slightly cloudier conditions than during qualifying, with sand still on the track making grip difficult. We witnessed a rather calm starting procedure with Jean-Éric Vergne still solidly in the lead. Behind him, Sébastien Buemi lost two places while Sam Bird gained three. Lucas Di Grassi, in second position, was putting pressure on Jean-Éric Vergne to push him to draw on his battery. Unfortunately for Nick Heidfeld, the difficult day continued, forcing him to stop at the side of the track and retire.

Sébastien Buemi managed to overtake Sam Bird for seventh place a lap later, thanks to a late braking maneuver that surprised the Briton. A few seconds later, race control deployed a safety car to clear Heidfeld’s Mahindra still on the trackside. The race was restarted on the following lap with Vergne still in the lead. Right behind, it seemed that Sébastien Buemi had overtaken André Lotterer during the safety car period, putting the Swiss driver in sixth place. Two laps later, it was Sam Bird’s turn to overtake the Techeetah driver for seventh position. Lotterer then continued to drop down the rankings, visibly struggling with mechanical issues.

While attempting to overtake Daniel Abt, the Renault driver hit the wall with the rear of his car, damaging his rear suspension, forcing him to cut the chicane and slow down to avoid a penalty for gaining time. However, the damage to his car quickly caused him to lose two places to Bird and Engel. Buemi had to pit a few laps later due to the damage preventing him from driving his car. He immediately went back out in his second car but without hope of a result. Meanwhile, Daniel Abt in his Audi overtook Oliver Turvey in his NIO for fourth place. Three stretches later, the two Audis were on the attack, with Di Grassi on Vergne and Abt on Lynn.

At this point in the race, Felix Rosenqvist had already moved up to seventh place ahead of Engel and behind Bird. Two laps later, Sam Bird overtook Oliver Turvey for fifth place, while Evans took the eighth position from Maro Engel. It was during this eighteenth lap that André Lotterer initiated the pit stop procedure.

A few kilometers further, Vergne, Di Grassi, Abt, Lynn, Bird, Turvey, Rosenqvist, Evans, Engel, and Da Costa came to a stop to make their car changes. This allowed Jean-Éric Vergne to maintain his first place ahead of Lucas Di Grassi. Behind them, Bird passed his teammate Lynn during the stops while Turvey fell behind Rosenqvist and Evans.

Lucas Di Grassi did not wait long to attack the Frenchman who was fiercely defending his position. This almost pushed the Brazilian into a spin into the wall, but the Audi driver skillfully managed to recover his car. Meanwhile, the rest of the pack also pitted.

It should be noted that at this point in the race, Rosenqvist and Evans had climbed to sixth and seventh positions, even though they started the race twelfth and last, respectively.

Two laps later, there was astonishment at Audi as they saw Daniel Abt, then under pressure from Sam Bird, inexplicably enter the pit lane. It quickly became clear that the reason for this unexpected stop was a poorly secured strap, highlighting the danger of removing the minimum pit stop time. As a consequence, the German lost all hope of a good result. On the other hand, it allowed Sam Bird to take the final spot on the podium.

The battle for the lead continued to rage in the following laps, as did the battle for fifth place between Rosenqvist and Evans. In the end, it was the New Zealander from Jaguar who had the final say. In the closing laps, Jean-Éric Vergne had to deploy all his defensive skills to withstand the relentless pressure from Lucas Di Grassi. The last places in the top 10 were held by Turvey, Lopez, Engel, and Ambrosio.

One of the last battles of the race was between Alex Lynn and Mitch Evans for the fourth position in the event. The speed shown by Evans could bring some regret to his team, which was sanctioned for a technical infraction. The former GP2 driver managed to win this battle thanks to a brilliant maneuver. The Vergne Di Grassi fight then intensified, with contacts between the two single-seaters on several occasions. This battle benefited Sam Bird, who significantly closed the gap to the Audi in second position.

After a few final sweats, Jean-Éric Vergne ultimately won the race ahead of a very aggressive Lucas Di Grassi, who finally achieved a successful result this season with his second place. Just behind, we found Sam Bird’s DS Virgin ahead of Mitch Evans’ Jaguar, Felix Rosenqvist’s Mahindra, Alex Lynn’s other DS Virgin, Turvey’s NIO, José Maria Lopez’s Dragon, Jérôme d’Ambrosio’s other Dragon, and finally Maro Engel’s Venturi.

Here is the complete ranking of this race:

The least we can say is that Jean-Éric Vergne has achieved a very good result, now having a 30-point lead over his closest rival.

Drivers Teams Points
1 Jean-Éric Vergne Techeetah 109
2 Felix Rosenqvist Mahindra 79
3 Sam Bird DS Virgin 76
4 Sébastien Buemi Renault 52
5 Nelson Piquet Jaguar 45
6 Mitch Evans Jaguar 41
7 Daniel Abt Audi 37
8 Oliver Turvey NIO 32
9 Edoardo Mortara Venturi 28
10 Lucas Di Grassi Audi 21
11 Nick Heidfeld Mahindra 21
12 André Lotterer Techeetah 18
13 Alex Lynn DS Virgin 17
14 Antonio Félix Da Costa Andretti 16
15 José María López Dragon 13
16 Maro Engel Venturi 7
17 Nicolas Prost Renault 7
18 Jérôme d’Ambrosio Dragon 6
19 Tom Blomqvist Andretti 4
20 Luca Filippi NIO 1

In the constructor standings, Techeetah logically retains the lead with a 27-point advantage over Mahindra.

Teams Points
1 Techeetah 127
2 Mahindra 100
3 DS Virgin 93
4 Jaguar 86
5 Renault 59
6 Audi 58
7 Venturi 35
8 NIO 33
9 Andretti 20
10 Dragon 19

Join us on April 14th for the first ePrix in Rome, marking the return of Formula E to Europe.

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