Fastest lap decides title as Prost wins again

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The decision has been made: Sebastien Buemi is the new champion of Formula E. An incredible second London ePrix brought the season to a spectacular yet unusual end with Nicolas Prost winning ahead of Daniel Abt and Jerome d’Ambrosio.

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The championship became a gamble right at the beginning: While both Renault e.Dams drivers managed to get away well, Lucas di Grassi (ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport) went off a bit better and was directly next to Nicolas Prost going into turn 3. When di Grassi tried to overtake the Frenchman on the outside, he collided with the rear end of Sebastien Buemi’s car as the pole-sitter seemed to have stopped rather early going into turn 3.

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Consequently, the Safety Car was deployed while both Buemi and di Grassi continued, the latter heading directly into the pits with a badly damaged car while the Renault e.Dams driver tried to continue with a broken rear end. Di Grassi was told to change into his second car as there were still two additional points to score for setting the fastest lap. When the Safety Car went back into the pits at the end of the third lap, Prost could easily pull away from Nick Heidfeld (Mahindra Racing) and Daniel Abt (ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport) in P2 and P3.

Meanwhile, Buemi was shown the black flag with orange disk and therefore also head to the pits and followed di Grassi’s lead to change into his second car to keep his title hopes alive by setting the fastest lap. Back on track, local hero Sam Bird (DS Virgin Racing) was making an aggressive move past Oliver Turvey (NextEV TCR) and made his way towards the top-5. Teammate Jean-Eric Vergne (DS Virgin Racing) also tried to get past the Brit but only managed to do so on lap 5. Bird’s charge through the field came to a quick end on lap 7 when he lost all power and was stranded on track, bringing out the second Safety Car of the race.

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The Safety Car left the track on lap 10 and as before, Prost was able to pull away quickly. Behind him, an interesting three-way battle between Abt, Heidfeld and Vergne arose who were all aggressively fighting for P2. Their wheel-to-wheel battle found a quick end when a collision between Robin Frijns (MS Amlin Andretti) and Loic Duval (Renault e.Dams) resulted in Frijns retiring. As the MS Amlin Andretti rookie was stranded on track, the Safety Car made another appearance.

With the Safety Car back in on lap 14, an interesting German-German battle for P2 started between Abt and Heidfeld, with the better end for the ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport driver. Right behind Heidfeld, Vergne was also looking for a way past the German routinier and his aggressive overtaking manoeuvres resulted in contact more than once but he ultimately made it past Heidfeld. On lap 19, the entire grid made their way to the pits for the car swap with the exception of Mike Conway (Venturi) who stayed out one more lap.

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The championship was then decided on lap 20, when Buemi set the fastest lap of the race and even though di Grassi tried his best to go even quicker, he was forced to stop his pursuit and had to settle for a lap time five tenth of a second slower than Buemi’s. The majority of the grid were able to maintain their positions during the last few laps of the race with the exception of Conway who unfortunately had to retire from the race with just a few laps left.

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The final spurt of the race became a penalty festival as Vergne, Heidfeld and Antonio Felix da Costa (Team Aguri) have been handed penalties due to exceeding the maximum energy. Nicolas Prost therefore won the final race of a spectacular Formula E season ahead of Daniel Abt and a surprised but happy Jerome d’Ambrosio (Dragon Racing). The three successful drivers were joined by the newly crowed Formula E champion Sebastien Buemi on the podium celebrating the well-deserved title and the end of the season with the fans.

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Just like yesterday, Nicolas Prost led the race from start to finish. He only briefly had to hand it to Mike Conway on lap 19 when he went to change his car but took it back from the Brit just one lap later.

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With the championship-deciding two points handed to Sebastien Buemi, the three drivers with the most points scored are Nicolas Prost who once again received 25 points for the win, followed by Daniel Abt (18 points) and Jerome d’Ambrosio (15 points).

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After having to retire in the first London race this weekend, both Daniel Abt and Loic Duval improved massively and finished the finale in P2 and P4 respectively. Jerome d’Ambrosio joined Abt on the podium as he came in third due to other drivers receiving penalties and therefore made up six positions in comparison to yesterday’s race.

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Following a gearbox change, Loic Duval was handed a ten-place grid penalty which forced him to start from P18. Nevertheless, he showed a great performance and could benefit from several drivers being handed a penalty and therefore finished the race in P4. Stephane Sarrazin moved up nine positions in total and Duval’s teammate fought his way through the field from P10 to P3.

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With a handful of drivers not being classified, Mike Conway and Oliver Turvey are the only drivers still available for this statistic that actually lost positions. Due to his breakdown with one lap to go, Conway lost two places in total while Turvey went from P4 to P11.

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The fastest lap was set by Sebastien Buemi with an impressive 1.24.150 and handed him the title.

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Who is your driver of the race? Let us know on twitter!

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Images courtesy of Rajan Jangda

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