Sébastien Buemi was the favorite driver today and he honored this with the second win this season in FIA Formula E, this time at Punta del Este. The Swiss started from 5th but made a great comeback to P1. Di Grassi finished second and lost the lead of the championship. D’Amborsio was third.
Punta del Este ePrix was all about between Di Grassi and Buemi, but who started on pole was Jérome D’Ambrosio in a Dragon Racing one-two with Loïc Duval on second place. Sam Bird started third in front of Di Grassi and Buemi.
Jérôme D’Ambrosio started the race from pole position for first time this season. The Belgian took the lead at turn 1 in front of Sam Bird who overtook Loïc Duval. Buemi also did a great start from 5th to 4th.
Rapidly the championship runner-up overtook Loïc Duval (Dragon Racing) on lap 4 to take third place. The Swiss continue on his way to take the lead overtaking Sam Bird (DS Virgin) one lap later, Duval follow the Renault e.dams driver on the move for second and third place.
Then set two fastest lap to attack and overtake D’Ambrosio (Dragon Racing) for the lead of the race. Meanwhile, Lucas Di Grassi (ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport) was also coming back despite have no Fan Boost, the Brazilian overtook Sam Bird for third place and then he tried with Duval but the Frenchman get defensive.
Car changes started on lap 17 with Abt, Sarrazin and Turvey who received a drive through penalty for pit stop time infraction. But before them, Senna pit in for a tyre change on lap 1, the Mahindra driver then crashed at turn 18 but rejoined.
One lap later, the top10 came in and this was very helpful for Lucas Di Grassi who overtook the two Dragon cars, as Bird overtook Duval. But the DS Virgin car had a failure with his new car and caused a Full-Corse-Yellow and his retirement.
People then was very separated to fight for position on top7 with Buemi leading in front of Di Grassi, D’Ambrosio, Duval, Prost, Da Costa and Abt. The battle was for 8th place between Nelson Piquet Jr (NEXTEV TCR) and Jean-Éric Vergne (DS Virgin) who started form 17th and managed to comeback to ninth thanks to his FanBoost.
It was a great battle between each other, Vergne tried with two laps to go, but he went wide and Piquet retake the position, but at the following chicane the reigning Formula E champion lost the rear of his car and crashed into the wall.
The race finished with Piquet nasty crash and the second win for Sébastien Buemi this season and his second in Punta del Este. The Swiss driver is now one point ahead of Lucas Di Grassi –who finished second. Third place today was Jérôme D’Ambrosio who entered the day ninth place in the standings and now is third, 34 points behind Buemi.
The next ePrix will be held in Buenos Aires on Februray 6th.