A stroll through the park for Prost; drama behind

02/07/2016 ePrix, Formula E, London ePrix, News

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Not just another walk in the park: the first of two rounds in London’s Battersea Park saw Renault e.Dams’ Nicolas Prost on top ahead of Bruno Senna and Jean-Eric Vergne. The two championship contenders Lucas di Grassi and Sebastien Buemi turbed the race into a real nail-biter thanks to their fantastic comebacks after qualifying.

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After a qualification with changing weather conditions, the drivers were in for a dry and sunny first race in London. Pole-sitter Nicolas Prost (Renault e.Dams) was able to defend his position during the turbulent start with Bruno Senna (Mahindra Racing) and Oliver Turvey (NextEV TCR) both keeping their positions right behind the Frenchman, too.

Further down the grid, all eyes were on the two championship contenders Lucas di Grassi (ABT Schaeffler Audis Sport) and Sebastien Buemi (Renault e.Dams) who unfortunately could not show off all they have got in qualifying due to the wet track conditions. Especially on a track where it is as difficult to overtake on as in London’s Battersea Park, the two title rivals were in for an eventful race.

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Last year’s races in London had shown that the Battersea Park track does not condone even the slightest mistakes so after a surprisingly clean start to the race, the 18 drivers showed why the Formula E is known as one of the best and most talented driver fields in the world of motorsports. While Prost could quickly establish a gap between himself and Senna in P2, Turvey and Robin Frijns (MS Amlin Andretti) followed in P3 and P4.

The action was with the DS Virgin Racing duo Jean-Eric Vergne and Sam Bird in P5 and P6 who gave the fans a run for their money as they closely yet fairly fought with each other during the entire first third of the race. Further down in the field, the two championship contenders both started charging through the field, with di Grassi first overtaking Loic Duval (Dragon Racing) and then Nick Heidfeld (Mahindra Racing). Buemi repeated the Brazilian’s actions promptly. While di Grassi then swiftly found a way past his teammate Daniel Abt, his Swiss rival struggled and was stuck behind the German ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport driver ever since lap 5.

With his teammate held off Buemi rather aggressively at times –ultimately being handed a warning flag due to changing direction more than once while defending his position –, di Grassi managed to close the gap to the battling DS Virgin Racing duo and set his sights on overtaking local hero Sam Bird. He made his first move on the Brit on lap 8 but did not yet manage to squeeze past last year’s race winner.

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As Frijns struggled to match the pace of the top-3, he quickly found himself in the company of the DS Virgin Racing drivers and their followers. This quickly created an eventful battle group starting with Frijns in P4 and finding an end with Heidfeld in P10. Di Grassi made the best of the situation and finally found the opportunity to overtake Bird for P6. Just one lap later, his teammate followed putting one more car between the ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport duo and di Grassi’s championship rival.

Nevertheless, Buemi quickly found a way past both Bird and Abt and was right behind the Brazilian when the drivers made their way to the pits for the mandatory car changes. While Senna, Turvey, Bird, Jerome d’Ambrosio (Dragon Racing) and Antonio Felix da Costa (Team Aguri) were all forced to stop a lap earlier, the majority of the field elected to swap their cars on lap 17. While Frijns dropped to P5 after the stops – losing his fourth place to Vergne – da Costa emerged as the clear victor of the stopping phase as he found himself in P7, just ahead of Bird and Heidfeld. Frijns meanwhile was under attack from di Grassi – who himself was under a lot of pressure from Buemi right behind him – and had to let the Brazilian past on lap 19.

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On lap 20, the unstable British weather gods showed their ugly faces again as it began to rain on parts of the circuit. The first victim of the new conditions was Abt who got amorous with the wall leading up to turn 3, hit it and when going off unfortunately took out Frijns as well. Due to both cars being stranded on track, the Qualcomm Safety Car was deployed and brought the field closer together again. Certainly a nice change for the drivers who were all concerned about battery management during the 33 lap race.

When the Safety Car went back into the pits on lap 23, the fight was back on. While things were rather sorted out in the front and the back of the grid, things quickly got very heated between Vergne in P4 and di Grassi, Buemi and da Costa who were following the Frenchman closely. With di Grassi pressuring Vergne, turn 3 nearly became the turning point for the championship as di Grassi found himself nearly taken out after contact with Vergne. In due course, he was nearly overtaken by Buemi as well but could hold on to his P5.

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The ongoing battle between di Grassi and Buemi turned the last few minutes of the race into a literal nail-biter and reminded fans once again of why those two emerged as the two title contenders in the end. Their epic battle was intensified by Turvey and Vergne aggressively fighting each other for P3, creating a near disaster for both di Grassi and Buemi more than once. In the end, Turvey was forced to retire from the race with just two laps to go as he found himself in the wall.

Another factor in di Grassi’s and Buemi’s battle was Bird who after a weak first half of the race, rose like the phoenix from the ashes and squeezed himself past Buemi on lap 31. The trio was up each other’s rear till the very last seconds of the race and while di Grassi kept his P4, Buemi and da Costa both managed to find a way past Bird again who finished in P7 in the end. Meanwhile, Prost could celebrate his first ePrix victory this season ahead of Senna who secured his first ever Formula E podium and his best result to date. Vergne completely the podium while Heidfeld, d’Ambrosio and Conway completed the top-10.

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Nicolas Prost (Renault e.Dams) led the race from start to finish only quickly handing over his P1 once to Bruno Senna (Mahindra Racing) when he was changing into his second car.

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Race winner Nicolas Prost also secured the three extra points for pole-position, making him the best-scoring driver today with 28 points in total. Bruno Senna in P2 secured valuable 18 points and Jean-Eric Vergne added 15 points to his championship total for P3.

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Only a few drivers were able to improve their performances in comparison to the Berlin ePrix in the end of MAy. Bruno Senna who finished second in London, only finished in P15 in Berlin, therefore actually improving his result by 12 positions. Jerome d’Ambrosio experienced a rather dark weekend in Berlin as well as he finished in 16th but was able to move up to P9 in London. Nicolas Prost crossed the finish line in Berlin in a solid P4 but his victory today nevertheless puts him into this stat as he improved his previous ePrix result by three places.

After a rather weak performance in qualifying, Antonio Felix da Costa (Team Aguri) moved from P14 to P6, therefore making up eight incredible positions on the difficult track in London. Sebastien Buemi made up seven positions, while both Lucas di Grassi and Simona de Silvestro managed to make up six places each.

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With a handful of drivers keeping their positions or having to retire, Oliver Turvey is the only classified driver who actually lost positions on track. The Brit lost 12 positions in total due to crashing out only two laps before the race finished.

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The fastest lap was set by Nelson Piquet Jr with an impressive 1:25.783.

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Image courtesy of FIA Formula E Media

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