Bird resists pressure to claim Buenos Aires ePrix

Second year of the Buenos Aires ePrix in the FIA Formula E calendar, and for the second year the race in the streets of the capital of Argentina don’t fail to deliver nail-biting action from green to checkered, as Sam Bird had to withstand everyone and everything to win the race.

Race is on and Sam Bird holds his place as polesitter while Simona de Silvestro does some impossible overtakes from inside the first hairpin. Sebastien Buemi, starting from last, started climbing the grid and in two laps he got four positions. Buemi kept the good work with some precise late braking.

Near the half of the race, on lap 13, Antônio Felix da Costa gets the job done and jumps into second place from the inside of the hairpin. Nicolas Prost’s problems after being relegated to third got even worse, as Lucas di Grassi was looking for a gap to overtake.

A race can change in a moment, and Felix da Costa learned it in the worst way, as his Team Aguri car simply stopped with problems, in what seems to plague the team since Putrajaya. With the yellow flag in place, most of the group opted to enter in the pit, which put Sam Bird in the lead with di Grassi in second. On lap 21, Stéphane Sarrazin cruised in the track, bringing all the rage from Buemi, who was right behind him, to both finally to regain speed and reach the Safety Car.

Buemi started chasing di Grassi until lap 29, when the Renault e.DAMS driver finally passed the ABT Audi dudi one, jumping to second place. Then Buemi was seriously thinking in a win from the back, and with the pressure, Bird had some trouble to control his DS Virgin machine. From lap 32, Buemi started building the attack, as Bird tried to cover every possible room for overtaking, especially the inside, extensively used by the Swiss driver.

In the final lap, Bird finally got gap to breathe, and with more battery left than Buemi, it was just a thing of keeping the car straight and in one piece until the finish, in what was the first win in the season for the British driver, putting the DS Virgin garage into extase.

Formula E – Buenos Aires ePrix results

In the drivers standings, Sebastien Buemi still rules the table with 80 points, while Lucas di Grassi comes right behind with 76. Race winner Bird comes in third but a with a long gap, as he is with 52 points. Next month we will have the debut of the Mexico City ePrix at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, on March 12th.

PHOTOS: DS Virgin, FIA Formula E