German Daniel Abt has taken his first ever victory in FIA Formula E during the second round of the series at Hong Kong. Audi driver benefited from a mistake by Mortara who was leading the race, but he finally finished third. Pole sitter, Felix Rosenqvist finished second.
The race start was a nightmare for pole sitter, Felix Rosenqvist (Mahindra Racing) who spun off at the start of the race and drop to 11th place. A frustrating situation if we consider that the start was done after a safety car lap due to a lights failure.
It wasn’t a good start for Rosenqvist’s teammate, Nick Heidfeld who saw how his car got stopped but he managed to re-start. Meanwhile, rookie Edoardo Mortara (Venturi Racing) took the lead of the race ahead of Daniel Abt (Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler) and Mitch Evans (Jaguar Racing).
Before the car-change, Rosenqvist managed to comeback from 11th to 7th, while 2015-2016 champion, Sébastien Buemi (Renault e.dams) went from last to 15th. The Swiss driver was one of the first to join the pit-lane on lap 23.
The leaders join the pits a lap later, this was beneficial for Rosenqvist who managed to overtake Evans to take third position. In the following lap, things went wrong for champion Lucas Di Grassi (Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler) who saw how his car stopped on track.
After the first pit stop, Mortara was in the lead with 3 seconds-of-gap with Abt. Then it was Rosenqvist cutting the gap with the leaders, as he was followed by Evans, Alex Lynn (DS Virgin Racing), Jean-Eric Vergne (Techeetah) and yesterday race winner, Sam Bird (DS Virgin Racing) in seventh place.
Then it was a peacefully race until the race leader, Edoardo Mortara spun off at turn 2 with two laps remaining. The Swiss driver lost the lead and drop to third position.
Thus, let Daniel Abt to win his first-ever race in the series ahead of Rosenqvist and Mortara. But behind them drama was coming up with Lynn losing power and dropping to tenth place, as André Lotterer (Techetaah) crashed.
The German is now taking the lead of the championship 36 points, 3 points ahead of Sam Bird and with 5 more than Vergne.
Results:
Pos | Driver | Nation | Team | Gap |
1 | Daniel Abt | DEU | Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler | 45 LAPS |
2 | Felix Rosenqvist | SWE | Mahindra Racing | 5,276 |
3 | Edoardo Mortara | SWI | Venturi Formula E Team | 12,307 |
4 | Mitch Evans | NZL | Panasonic Jaguar Racing | 15,895 |
5 | Jean-Eric Vergne | FRA | Techeetah | 17,869 |
6 | Sam Bird | GBR | DS Virgin Racing | 18,155 |
7 | Oliver Turvey | GBR | NIO Formula E Team | 19,475 |
8 | Maro Engel | DEU | Venturi Formula E Team | 20,952 |
9 | Nicolas Prost | FRA | Renault e.dams | 24,181 |
10 | Alex Lynn | GBR | DS Virgin Racing | 24,301 |
11 | Sébastien Buemi | SWI | Renault e.dams | 27,415 |
12 | André Lotterer | DEU | Techeetah | 28,635 |
13 | António Félix da Costa | POR | Andretti Formula E Team | 33,18 |
14 | Nelson Piquet | BRA | Panasonic Jaguar Racing | 33,867 |
15 | Lucas Di Grassi | BRA | Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler | 44,413 |
16 | Jérôme d’Ambrosio | BEL | Dragon Racing | 60,465 |
17 | Neel Jani | SWI | Dragon Racing | 1 Lap |
18 | Nick Heidfeld | DEU | Mahindra Racing | 1 Lap |
19 | Kamui Kobayashi | JAP | Andretti Formula E Team | 1 Lap |
20 | Luca Filippi | ITA | NIO Formula E Team | Not Classified |