Motorsport News – July 17, 2019

Buemiwascalmforopeningwin

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The streets of Brooklyn were alive – mainly with broken bits of Formula E cars. By Tom Errington

BUEMI AND FRIJNS AVOID THE CHAOS

AS VERGNE CLAIMS ANOTHER TITLE

FORMULA E: USA

Advertising enquiries: 0203 405 8110 motorsport-news.co.uk JULY 17 2019 19

Photos: LAT

J

ean-Eric Vergne leaves

New York City as a

two-time Formula E

champion after back-

to-back title success,

but also has a day of

community service looming over

him for a controversial radio

message. As ever in the electric

series, everything can turn on its

head in an instant.

Vergne entered the final weekend

with a 32-point buffer over Audi’s Lucas

di Grassi, with just 58 points on offer

and effectively one hand on the title,

but a dramatic opening race put all

the pressure on Vergne’s DS Techeetah

squad, with team boss Mark Preston

feeling it had been hit by all of the

“worst possible” incidents.

As ever, group one qualifying played

a key part in proceedings as Vergne’s

title-leading status meant he was in

the first group, and a very dusty surface

meant track evolution prevented

any hopes of superpole. The one

consolation was fellow group one

runner di Grassi had the same issue,

but qualified 14th and four places

down on Vergne.

Yet come Saturday evening, Vergne

was the one sweating after di Grassi

finished fifth by taking advantage

of the accident-filled race that tripped

up his title rival.

On the second lap, Sam Bird tapped

Jose Maria Lopez into a spin at Turn 7

as Bird ran side-by-side with Lopez’s

Dragon Racing team-mate Maximilian

Gunther, Bird later picked up a

10-second penalty for causing

the incident.

Lopez’s half-spun car meant the

drivers behind slowed and Vergne, who

had dropped from 10th to 13th on the

first lap, picked up nose damage as he

braked and was hit from behind by

team-mate Andre Lotterer.

Vergne came in to change his nose

and ran at the rear of the field – ahead

of Lotterer, who came in for his own

repairs after trying to stay out, but hit

the barrier on the outside of Turn 2

with his front wing wedged underneath

his car – until the safety car came out.

But a twist was revealed on Sunday

when a Vergne radio message

from around the time of the incident

attracted ire: “Tell Andre to stop...

to bring out the safety car.”

The Techeetah driver held his

hands up and was hit with the

community service punishment

at the end of the weekend.

But after that message on Saturday,

Vergne recovered to run inside the

points before a final-lap clash with

Venturi’s Felipe Massa.

Vergne dived to the inside of Massa

at the Turn 1 switchback and the pair

made contact, with Vergne forced

deep but alongside Massa.

They came together at Turn 2, with

Vergne hitting the wall on the inside,

heavily damaging the front of his car

again and spinning Massa – before

crawling across the line in 15th having

lost the chance to seal the title.

The first blows had been traded on

track between di Grassi and Vergne,

but the next strike came when

Techeetah protested the Audi driver.

The protest concerned the lap

two incident Vergne, Lotterer and

di Grassi were involved in and

Techeetah had claimed that di Grassi

had infringed Article 30.12, which

states: “At no time may a car be driven

unnecessarily slowly, erratically or

in a manner which could be deemed

potentially dangerous to other drivers

or any other person.”

The protest was rejected, and

Techeetah was left to lick its wounds

and instead fight for both the drivers’

and manufacturers’ crowns on Sunday,

with Massa and Vergne’s clash also

deemed to require no further action.

In complete contrast to Saturday,

Vergne played it smart and kept his

nose clean to make a run from 11th to

seventh, more than enough to secure

the title, and it was di Grassi who

suffered the ill-fortune.

Jaguar’s Mitch Evans was

technically in title contention in the

final race but required victory, fastest

lap and the other two contenders to fail

to score. With such a situation never

likely, Evans held fourth ahead of di

Grassi through the Turn 10 hairpin

on the final lap but came under attack.

The Jaguar driver appeared to come

across the Audi as they raced up the

straight towards the 90-degree left

of Turn 11, and they collided as a

result and went into the inside wall

before ending up in the Turn 11

outside barriers.

Evans continued and was handed a

10-second stop-go penalty – which was

later converted into a time penalty –

immediately after the finish and he

dropped to 17th in the final result as

di Grassi dropped back too.

The Audi woe only further ensured

Frijns took a second

win in FE as Vergne

(inset) took crown

there was to be no repeat of last

year’s New York finale in which

Audi pipped the Techeetah outfit

to the teams’ standings, meaning

Vergne and his squad sealed the

championship double.

“I am so proud of my team. Last

year we did an amazing job being a

private team with no testing days,

very limited resources,” said Vergne.

“This year we had more resources

with DS.

“Of course it took more time to get

everybody to work together. But

nevertheless, we were able to do a

fantastic job as a team, I’m so proud of

them because it’s been a tough season,

and the way that we were always able

to bond together in the bad moments,

really made a success this year.”

Redemption was also found with

the two race winners in New York.

On Saturday, Sebastien Buemi gave

Nissan e.dams’s controversial twin-

motor-derived car its first victory

and a maiden win for Nissan before

its powertrain is banned for 2019-20.

Envision Virgin Racing’s Robin

Frijns took the Sunday victory to end

a run of four races without a point

after his Paris victory – a spell that

cost him a chance of the crown.

RESULTS

Round 12/12, Brookyn, USA), July 13-14. 36 laps – 51.897 miles

POS DRIVER CAR TIME

1 Sebastien Buemi (CHE) Nissan e.dams-Nissan IM01 46m16.399s

2 Mitch Evans (NZL) Jaguar-Jaguar I-TYPE 3 +0.932s

3 Antonio Felix da Costa (PRT) BMW-BMW iFE.18 +1.216s

4 Alexander Sims (GBR) BMW-BMW iFE.18 +2.971s

5 Lucas di Grassi (BRA) Audi Sport Abt-Audi e-tron FE05 +3.537s

6 Daniel Abt (DEU) Audi Sport Abt-Audi e-tron FE05 +4.380s

7 Pascal Wehrlein (DEU) Mahindra Racing-Mahindra M5Electro +6.543s

8 Sam Bird (GBR) Virgin Racing-Audi e-tron FE05 +13.829s

9 Jerome d’Ambrosio (BEL) Mahindra Racing-Mahindra M5Electro +23.719s

10 Oliver Turvey (GBR) NIO-NIO 004 +25.038s

11 Gary Paffett (GBR) HWA-Venturi VFE-05 +27.831s

12 Jose Maria Lopez (ARG) Dragon Racing-Penske EV-3 +34.729s

13 Stoffel Vandoorne (BEL) HWA-Venturi VFE-05 +50.564s

14 Oliver Rowland (GBR) Nissan e.dams-Nissan IM01 +1m23.962s

15 Jean-Eric Vergne (FRA) DS Techeetah-DS E-Tense FE19 +1m34.508s

16 Felipe Massa (BRA) Venturi-Venturi VFE-05 -1 lap

17 Andre Lotterer (DEU) DS Techeetah-DS E-Tense FE19 -1 lap

R Maximilian Gunther (DEU) Dragon Racing-Penske EV-3 28 laps/accident

R Edoardo Mortara (CHE) Venturi-Venturi VFE-05 27 laps/technical

R Alex Lynn (GBR) Jaguar-Jaguar I-TYPE 3 18 laps/technical

R Robin Frijns (NLD) Virgin Racing-Audi e-tron FE05 15 laps/technical

R Tom Dillmann (FRA) NIO-NIO 004 1 lap/technical

Pole: Buemi 1m10.188s. Race 2 (36 laps – 51.897 miles): 1 Frijns 47m22.289s; 2 Sims +3.200s; 3 Buemi; 4 Bird; 5 Abt;

6 Rowland; 7 Vergne; 8 Vandoorne; 9 da Costa; 10 Paffett; 11 d’Ambrosio; 12 Wehrlein; 13 Turvey; 14 Dillmann; 15 Massa; 16 Lynn;

17 Evans; 18 di Grassi; 19 Gunther; R Mortara; R Lotterer; R Lopez.

Pole: Sims 1m09.617s.

Final points: 1 Vergne 136; 2 Buemi 119; 3 di Grassi 108; 4 Frijns 106; 5 Evans 105; 6 da Costa 99; 7 Abt 95; 8 Lotterer 86; 9 Bird 85;

10 Rowland 71.