If we can describe the
Putrajaya ePrix with the simple sentence “This is
madness!”, we wouldn’t be wrong, as the craziest FIA
Formula E race in two seasons had everything to not let the
spectator get out of the seat.
Right at the start,
Sebastien Buemi proved to be the best driver in the Best car
of the grid, and pulled away easily from the rest of the field, while
Jacques Villeneuve retired while Jean-Eric Vergné had accident
damage.
At this moment, Renault
e.DAMS driver Nicolas Prost was in a mission to recover
his natural place given the he had as he started fifth but crawled to
third after overtaking Lucas di Grassi and Antônio Felix
da Costa. Pressure was made to try a move into Loïc Duval,
but without any success. At that point, things got into a strange
route for Renault e.DAMS and for the race itself.
Both Renault e.DAMS cars
went to the pit-stops, a while after Sebastien Buemi stopped on track
due to electrical problems, and to prevent the same wouldn’t happen
with Prost, the Frenchman was called too. Buemi got back to the track
in his second car, but his race was doomed as he was in the middle of
the table trying to make a recovery race.
Another problem that
appeared for the Renault e.DAMS team was the choice of early stops,
as both Buemi and Prost would need to make the energy last for 17
laps until the finish.
The intense Malaysian
heat, allied with a lot of marbles and sand that were accumulating in the
borders of the track made the streets of the Malaysian city look more
like a FIA World Rally Championship stage than street circuit
racing. Lots of cars gone sideways, including Nick Heidfeld,
that could have caused some envy into some Formula Drift
drivers after almost hitting the wall.
After the normal pit-stop
round, da Costa got in front of di Grassi and Duval, but the charging
Brazilian wouldn't take that much time to appear in full form into
the Portuguese driver's mirrors, doing a beautiful inside overtake
for the second place. After that, di Grassi started to chase a Nico
Prost in economy mode, and the home straight was the place for the
ABT Audi driver to take the lead of the ePrix. Felix da Costa
overtook Prost too, and Duval was right behind and ready to make a
move.
Now it's when the real fun
starts. Out of nowhere, Felix da Costa has problems with his Team
Aguri machine, stopping randomly in the track, seeing his chances
for a podium just go away. Then, Duval gets the second place from
Prost, and a while after his Dragon Racing team mate Jerome
D'Ambrosio takes the third place and Andretti's Robin Frijns goes
to fourth.
With three laps to go, the
race became a total lottery for the podium. Firstly, Duval hits the
wall with his right left corner and starts to go slow on track, and
when Robin Frijns tried a move into the Frenchman, he his the
wall before the hairpin in pure Bruno Senna-style, getting some
damage but becoming fourth, as Sam Bird took all this mess to become
third.
A bit after, going into
the final lap, D'Ambrosio's enthusiasm goes a bit overboard and he
hits the wall, stopping a few seconds later, promoting Sam Bird
and Robin Frijns to second and third. Way ahead of the raising hell,
di Grassi just cruises to win his first race in the season, while
Bird finished second and Frijns, with a bent suspension, completes
the podium.
With the eventful
Putrajaya ePrix, Lucas di Grassi is now the championship leader with
45 points against 35 of Sebastien Buemi and 24 of Sam Bird. ABT Audi
also leads in the teams championship, with 49 points against 36 of
Renault e.DAMS, 27 of Mahindra, 24 of DS Virgin and 22 of Dragon
Racing.
Next round will be only on
December 19th, as the electrical single-seater
championship crosses the world to come to South America, more
specifically the city of Punta del Este, in Uruguay.
PHOTO: FIA Formula E
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