Piquet wins in Long Beach and becomes the 6th winner in 6 races

Nelson Piquet dominated the 6th race of the Formula E season from the start until the end. This victory in the streets of Long Beach (California, United States) brings him up to the second place of the Championship, only one point behind Lucas di Grassi. Vergne finally got his first podium of the year.

Daniel Abt (Audi Sport Abt) was on pole after the last minute penalty for Buemi (e.dams Renault), but a spectacular start by Nelson Piquet put him on first position thanks to the Fan Boost. Vergne, also with Fan Boost, almost crashed with Di Grassi in the very narrow first corner. Sam Bird, one of the championship contenders, had to stop very early in the race and lost any possibility of getting a good result.

Scott Speed (Andretti Autosport) crashed against the wall of the second corner on lap 4 when he was on 6th. The American took too much of the kerb and the Safety Car had to go on track.

The race was resumed on lap 8. Vergne (Andretti Autosport) and Di Grassi (Audi Sport Abt) overtook Prost (e.dams Renault). Buemi tried so, but was attacked by Da Costa (Amlin Aguri), who at the same time was getting pressure from D’Ambrosio (Dragon Racing). This great battle was stopped by another Safety Car after Trulli (Trulli Racing) had to retire because of an incident with Duval (Dragon Racing) and Pic (China Racing).

Green flag on lap 12 and less aggressive driving. Buemi overtook Prost for 5th and so did Da Costa at turn 7.

D’Ambrosio managed to overtake Prost too, but a mistake on the braking made him lose the position again. Senna (Mahindra Racing) took this chance to overtake the Belgian. Meanwhile, Abt did the first stop of the race. Senna, Duran, Duval and Alguersuari were the last ones stopping.

Vergne’s strategy allowed him to overtake Abt. Senna also got advantage from his pitstop and was 6th after everybody had stopped. Sam Bird had to retire for good, losing some valuable points.

10 laps to go and Piquet was in the lead followed by Vergne, Abt, Di Grassi, Buemi, Senna, Prost, Heidfeld, D’Ambrosio and Sarrazin on the top 10. Sam Bird had the fastest lap so far.

Daniel Abt was told he had a penalty for using too much energy with 7 laps for the end of the race. Nicolas Prost got a penalty too for an incident with D’Ambrosio, losing all hopes of getting points.

In the fight for 6th, Sarrazin (Venturi) tried to overtake D’Ambrosio on the outside, but he didn’t leave enough space and they crashed. D’Ambrosio continued on 6th but Sarrazin went down to 10th and ended the race without a rear wing.

Finally, victory for Nelson Piquet, 6th winner of the season. Vergne finally finished on the podium and Di Grassi was 3rd, becoming the championship leader again. He’s 1st with 75 points, followed by Piquet (74), Prost (69), Buemi (55), Bird (52) and Da Costa (43).

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