Sébastien Buemi is the new FIA Formula E champion. The Swiss driver suffered a lot and had to take the championship thanks to fastest lap. Prost won the race in front of Daniel Abt and Jerome d’Ambrossio.
The final race, the grand finale of Season 2 (2015-2016) at Battersea Park in London. Two championship contenders, Lucas Di Grassi and Sébastien Buemi started the race equally in points and with Buemi starting from pole position as Di Grassi started third.
Di Grassi had an incredible start but he crashed with Buemi at turn 2. The Renault e.dams driver break so soon which was impossible to avoid for the Audi driver who crashed with his championship rival.
Both rivals had to change the car and the focus to set the fastest lap and take the two points of that. And both where allow to use Fan Boost.
Meanwhile, Prost (Renault e.dams) took the lead in front of Nick Heidfeld (Mahindra Racing) and Daniel Abt (ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport). Sam Bird (DS Virgin) went from sixth to fourth after overtake Vergne (DS Virgin) and Turvey (NEXTEV TCR) after the safety car period. Then Vergne overtook Turvey for fifth.
On lap 8 things went wrong for Bird who went out of power and stopped his car in the track, causing the safety car appearance. Prost was leading, in front of Heidfeld, Abt, Vergne, Turvey, Piquet, Conway, D’Ambrosio, Da Costa and Frijns.
At the re-start, Da Costa (Team Aguri) got so defensive and caused a contact with Frijns (Andretti Autosport) and D’Ambrosio (Dragon Racing) who damaged the rear wing. Both were able to continue on track until the crash of Frijns with D’Ambrosio who didn’t give enough room to the Formula Renault 3.5 2012 champion.
So with this accident, the safety car had to rejoin the track again for two laps. Daniel Abt then attacked Heidfeld for second position and He managed to pass his compatriot after many attempts.
On lap 19 everyone except Mike Conway (Dragon Racing) changed their cars. With that situation Vergne managed to overtake Heidfeld for third position as Da Costa (Team Aguri) overtook Piquet (NEXTEV TCR) and then Turvey for fifth position.
Meanwhile, Buemi managed to set the fastest lap despite some traffic. At the final laps Di Grassi gave it all but he set a 2 tenths slower lap. That meant that Buemi got the championship by 2 points.
With 10 laps to go, Prost led in front of Abt, Vergne, Heidfeld, Da Costa, Turvey, D’Ambrosio, Duval, Piquet and Senna. In those laps, the cars of NEXTEV TCR lost the pace and the point’s positions.
A perfect day for Renault e.dams who takes the victory for Nicolas Prost, the drivers’ championship with Buemi and the Teams championship.
Daniel Abt and Jean-Eric Vergne completes the podium apparently. But stewards reported that Vergne, Heidfeld and Da Costa finished without power which means that they received a penalty for that.
So is Jerome D’ambrosio who finally finished in the podium. Duval was fourth, Sarrazin fifth, Senna sixth, Vergne seventh, Heidfeld eight, Da Costa ninth and Piquet tenth.
2 points more is what needed Buemi to win the championship over Di Grassi. Prost thanks to his two late victories finished third in the standings. Sam Bird finished fourth in front of Jérome d’Ambrosio, Sarrazin, Abt, Duval, Vergne and Senna completing the top 10.
Next season of FIA Formula E will start next October in Hong Kong.