2014 Punta del Este ePrix

  2014 Punta del Este ePrix

Race details
Race 3 of 11 of the 2014–15 Formula E season
Layout of the Punta del Este Street Circuit
Date	13 December 2014
Official name	2014 FIA Formula E Julius Baer Punta del Este ePrix
Location	Punta del Este, Uruguay
Course	Street circuit
Course length	2.80 km (1.70 mi)
Distance	31 laps, 86.80 km (52.7 mi)
Pole position
Driver	Jean-Éric Vergne	Andretti
Time	1:15.408
Fastest lap
Driver	Daniel Abt	Audi Sport ABT
Time	1:18:451 on lap 22
Podium
First	Sébastien Buemi	e.dams Renault
Second	Nelson Piquet, Jr.	China Racing
Third	Lucas di Grassi	Audi Sport ABT
Lap leaders

The 2014 Punta del Este ePrix was the first race of the Formula E history in the Americas.

The 2014 Punta del Este ePrix, formally the 2014 FIA Formula E Julius Baer Punta del Este ePrix^[1] is a Formula E motor race held on 13 December 2014 at the Punta del Este Street Circuit in Punta del Este, Uruguay. It was the first Punta del Este ePrix and the third championship race of the single-seater, electrically powered racing car series' inaugural season, the first in America.^[2]

Report

Background

Jean-Eric Vergne, Salvador Duran and Antonio Garcia were brought in to replace Franck Montagny, Katherine Legge and Ho-Pin Tung respectively. Vergne, Durán and Nick Heidfeld were voted for to receive the FanBoost.

Race

Jean-Eric Vergne started on pole position. Behind him were Nelson Piquet, Jr., Nicolas Prost, and Sebastian Buemi. Piquet immediately overtook Vergne and Buemi overtook Prost, while the whole field safely squeezed through the first chicane. Nick Heidfeld used his FanBoost and went up to fifth position. On the fourth lap, Sam Bird went over a kerb in the first corner and, unable to steer, hit the wall. This brought out the safety car.

Green flags were waved on the sixth lap, but the race was soon neutralized again when Da Costa had to retire on track. After that, Vergne managed to pass Piquet for the lead. Buemi tried to pass him as well, but locked up his front wheels. Both drivers had to use the run-off area, but kept their positions.

On the sixteenth lap, Piquet had fallen back behind both e.dams drivers, and Vergne made his pit stop. Meanwhile, Stephane Sarrazin's suspension failed when he hit a kerb and he crashed out. This brought out a third safety car. Bruno Senna had hit the wall in the same incident, but managed to switch cars at the same time as his rivals, without losing much time.

On the twentieth lap, Heidfeld was leading the race, but received a drive-through penalty for exceeding the maximum power usage. Nicolas Prost was then penalized in the same manner. This left the top three as Buemi, Vergne, Piquet. A fourth safety car was called on lap 27 when Matthew Brabham crashed exactly like Sarrazin did earlier.

With two laps left to race, Vergne used his FanBoost as soon as the safety car pulled off, but did not manage to take the lead. Buemi, however, cut the chicane and it was debated whether he should relinquish his position. Before any action was carried out, however, Vergne ran out of power and retired. He did score three points for his pole position. Buemi took the victory with Piquet second and Di Grassi third. Further back, Heidfeld used his FanBoost and managed to take tenth position, and with that a championship point, by beating Antonio Garcia to the line by just three hundreds of a second.

Results

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	27	Jean-Éric Vergne	Andretti	1:15.408
2	99	Nelson Piquet Jr.	China Racing	1:15.530	+0.122
3	8	Nicolas Prost	e.dams-Renault	1:15.722	+0.314
4	9	Sébastien Buemi	e.dams-Renault	1:15.842	+0.434
5	3	Jaime Alguersuari	Virgin Racing	1:16.053	+0.645
6	11	Lucas di Grassi	Audi Sport ABT	1:16.108	+0.700
7	10	Jarno Trulli	Trulli	1:16.144	+0.736
8	21	Bruno Senna	Mahindra Racing	1:16.211	+0.803
9	23	Nick Heidfeld	Venturi	1:16.225	+0.817
10	66	Daniel Abt	Audi Sport ABT	1:16.374	+0.966
11	5	Karun Chandhok	Mahindra Racing	1:16.416	+1.008
12	6	Oriol Servia	Dragon Racing	1:16.811	+1.403
13	55	António Félix da Costa	Amlin Aguri	1:16.865	+1.457
14	30	Stéphane Sarrazin	Venturi	1:17.025	+1.617
15	88	Antonio García	China Racing	1:17.653	+2.245
16	77	Salvador Duran	Amlin Aguri	1:17.810	+2.402
17	18	Michela Cerruti	Trulli	1:20.206	+4.798
18	2	Sam Bird	Virgin Racing	no time
19	7	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Dragon Racing	no time
20	28	Matthew Brabham	Andretti	no time

Race

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	9	Sébastien Buemi	e.dams-Renault	31	49:08.990	4	25
2	99	Nelson Piquet, Jr.	China Racing	31	+0.732	2	18
3	11	Lucas di Grassi	Audi Sport ABT	31	+2.635	6	15
4	10	Jarno Trulli	Trulli	31	+4.163	7	12
5	3	Jaime Alguersuari	Virgin Racing	31	+4.698	5	10
6	21	Bruno Senna	Mahindra Racing	31	+5.197	20	8
7	8	Nicolas Prost	e.dams-Renault	31	+6.514	3	6
8	7	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon Racing	31	+7.567	17	4
9	6	Oriol Servia	Dragon Racing	31	+8.646	11	2
10	23	Nick Heidfeld	Venturi	31	+10.563	8	1
11	88	Antonio Garcia	China Racing	31	+10.594	14
12	18	Michela Cerruti	Trulli	31	+19.617	16
13	23	Karun Chandok	Mahindra Racing	31	+54.175	10
14	27	Jean-Eric Vergne	Andretti	29	+2 laps	1	31
15	66	Daniel Abt	Audi Sport ABT	28	+3 laps	9	22
16	23	Salvador Durán	Amlin Aguri	27	+4 laps	15
Ret	28	Matthew Brabham	Andretti	26	Suspension	19
Ret	30	Stephane Sarrazin	Venturi	15	Suspension	13
Ret	55	António Félix da Costa	Amlin Aguri	6	Mechanical	12
Ret	3	Sam Bird	Virgin Racing	3	Accident	18

Notes:

• ^1 – Three points for pole position.
• ^2 – Two points for fastest lap.

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Lucas di Grassi 58 2 Sébastian Buemi 40 3 Sam Bird 40 4 Nicolas Prost 24 5 Nelson Piquet Jr. 22

Teams' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 e.dams-Renault 64 2 Audi Sport ABT 62 3 Virgin Racing 54 4 Dragon Racing 36 5 Andretti 33

• Notes: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 2014 Punta del Este ePrix.

• Official results