Sebastien Buemi gave Renault e.dams its most important win of the year by producing a dominant display in front of its home crowd in the Qatar Airways Paris ePrix. The race was round six of the 2016/17 FIA Formula E Championship.
From Julius Baer pole position, Buemi defended stoutly into the first corner from the charging Jean-Eric Vergne. He then established a small but comfortable lead, as the two leaders eased away from the chasing pack.
However, this wasn’t to be Vergne’s day and broken steering sent him crashing out of the race. The Qualcomm Safety Car was deployed, which bunched up the field and gave DS Virgin Racing’s Jose Maria Lopez a shot at fighting for the win.
But Buemi had things under control. When the BMW i8 came out again – this time after Lucas di Grassi pitched his ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport car into the barrier – for the second year running the Paris ePrix ended under caution.
“The most important thing for me was to pull away after the grid positon we got,” said Buemi after taking the chequered flag.
A well earned celebration after 49 laps around the 2017 FIA Formula E @qatarairways #ParisePrix pic.twitter.com/Pt6MSEm6x6
— FIA Formula E (@FIAformulaE) May 20, 2017
“And you know when the brakes are cold, the first few corners are a bit of a guess for everyone. Jean-Eric Vergne was very aggressive and tried to pass me. So, I tried to delay the braking as late as I could, just to stay ahead. I consumed maybe a little bit more energy than I was expecting to use. I lost a bit of time under Full Course Yellow and obviously in the restart when he [JEV] crashed I was having a nice time as he was putting me under pressure. Then we had the safety car and Jose [Maria Lopez] had a great race today. He was really, really quick and I had to push quite hard at the end of the race just to make sure I could build up a bit of a gap.”
A push too far. @LucasdiGrassi ends in the barriers as he fought for the Visa Fastest Lap #ParisePrix pic.twitter.com/jIqnD6uYCO
— FIA Formula E (@FIAformulaE) May 20, 2017
After the disappointment of Mexico – where he spun while fighting for the win and Monaco, where first-lap contact ended his race – Lopez was delighted to finally claim his maiden Formula E podium.
Lopez said: “You can see from the beginning of the year that we had a good car. But my experience was not enough to be competitive. We worked hard in the race. It was a circuit I like, the city and everything. I think that played a part as well.”
Another sensational start from Nick Heidfeld moved the Mahindra driver past Esteban Gutierrez and into fourth place, which became third after Vergne’s retirement
With Felix Rosenqvist driving a strong race to take fourth place, it was the best points haul in the Mahindra’s history.
Robin Frijns scored his best result of the season, taking fifth place for Andretti. The highest placed French driver was Nico Prost. He pulled off a couple of daring overtakes to take sixth.
Daniel Abt – who had driven a storming race to rise to seventh place – suffered a technical glitch on the final lap. This promoted Nelson Piquet Jr. to seventh for NextEV NIO and Dillmann to an excellent eighth on his debut.
Mitch Evans was in the top-10 for the third race in a row for Panasonic Jaguar Racing in ninth, while Stephane Sarrazin picked up the final point for Venturi in 10th
The FIA Formula E Championship returns with the Berlin ePrix – a double-header – that takes place in the historic Tempelhof Airport on June 10 & 11.
.@Sebastien_buemi wins the 2017 FIA Formula E @qatarairways #ParisePrix with @pechito37 2nd and @NickHeidfeld 3rd! #FormulaE pic.twitter.com/dXfna9Hbbx
— FIA Formula E (@FIAformulaE) May 20, 2017
