Sam Bird has taken his first victory this season in FIA Formula E championship at Buenos Aires. The British kept Buemi’s comeback from last position. The Swiss finished second in front of an upset Lucas Di Grassi, who lost the opportunity to cut the gap in the championship with Buemi.

The Buenos Aires ePrix was introduced very interesting and really, it was. With Sébastien Buemi (Renault e.Dams) starting from last position, he was forced to comeback. Sam Bird (DS Virgin) started from pole position, in front of Nicolas Prost (Renault e.Dams) and António Félix da Costa (Team Aguri).

The British despite of have a lot of wheel spin, keep the top position at the start ahead of Prost and Da Costa, as Buemi started his comeback from 18th to 15th in one lap. The Swiss driver, managed to overtook nine more cars later, before the car change.

Lucas Di Grassi (ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport) had also to comeback starting from 7th place. The Brazilian had the advantage of been one of the three drivers who got the Fan Boost. The other two were, the DS Virgin drivers, Sam Bird and Jean-Éric Vergne.

Meanwhile, Jerome d’Ambrosio (Dragon Racing) had a puncture which made him lose one lap. But the Belgian, reacted with the fastest lap of the race, taking two extra and good points.

Up in front, Da Costa with the season 1 car, overtook Prost for second place on lap 13, but the Portuguese later had technical problems which makes him and his team mate, Salvador Duran abandon the race.

Da Costa car makes everyone (except Piquet) stop to change the car. Bird managed to keep the lead as Di Grassi took second place. Sarrazin get out of the pit lane in third place as Buemi was fourth. Prost was the biggest loser in the car change.

The safety car came out after the pit stops, and that helped Buemi to overtake Sarrazin for third position.

Top 3 driver, Bird, Di Grassi and Buemi run away from the others to battle for the race victory. Buemi with 7 laps to go passed Di Grassi, who lost the pace with the front runners.

Bird received such as pressure from Buemi, but a defensive driving by the Briton made him the winner of today’s race.

With Buenos Aires ePrix victory, Bird is up to 3rd in the driver’s championship standings with 28 points behind Buemi. Lucas Di Grassi is 4 points behind the driver from Switzerland.

Next round will be held at Mexico City on March 12.




Results:

Pos. Car Driver Team
1 2 Sam Bird DS Virgin Racing
2 9 Sébastien Buemi Renault e.Dams + 0,716
3 11 Lucas di Grassi ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport + 7,525
4 4 Stéphane Sarrazin Venturi Racing + 9,415
5 8 Nicolas Prost Renault e.Dams + 11,316
6 6 Loic Duval Dragon Racing + 15,660
7 23 Nick Heidfeld Mahindra Racing + 16,444
8 27 Simona de Silvestro Andretti Autosport + 18,685
9 88 Oliver Turvey NEXTEV TCR + 22,007
10 21 Bruno Senna Mahindra Racing + 22,456
11 25 Jean Éric Vergne DS Virgin Racing + 24,482
12 1 Nelson Piquet NEXTEV TCR + 24,641
13 66 Daniel Abt ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport + 27,998
14 28 Robin Frijns Andretti Autosport + 36,171
15 12 Mike Conway Venturi Racing + 39,581
16 7 Jerome D’Ambrossio Dragon Racing + 1 Lap
17 55 Antonio Felix da Costa Team Aguri + 18 Laps
18 77 Salvador Durán Team Aguri + 21 Laps