2015 Buenos Aires ePrix

  2015 Buenos Aires ePrix

Race details
Race 4 of 11 of the 2014–15 Formula E season
Layout of the Puerto Madero Street Circuit
Date	10 January 2015
Official name	2015 FIA Formula E Buenos Aires ePrix
Location	Puerto Madero Street Circuit, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Course	Street circuit
Course length	2.407 km (1.495 mi)
Distance	35 laps, 84.245 km (52.347 mi)
Pole position
Driver	Sébastien Buemi	e.dams-Renault
Time	1:09.134
Fastest lap
Driver	Sam Bird	Virgin Racing
Time	1:11.540 on lap 29
Podium
First	António Félix da Costa	Amlin Aguri
Second	Nicolas Prost	e.dams-Renault
Third	Nelson Piquet, Jr.	China Racing

Puerto Madero Street Circuit, previous to the 2015 Buenos Aires ePrix.

The 2015 Buenos Aires ePrix, formally the 2015 FIA Formula E Buenos Aires ePrix was a Formula E motor race held on 10 January 2015 at the Puerto Madero Street Circuit in Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was the first edition of the Buenos Aires ePrix and the fourth championship race of the single-seater, electrically powered racing car series' inaugural season. The race was won by António Félix da Costa.

Report

Background

Nick Heidfeld, Jean-Éric Vergne, and Bruno Senna were voted to receive the FanBoost (an extra 30 kWh for five seconds per car).

Race

Sébastien Buemi started on pole position, with Jaime Alguersuari and Nick Heidfeld behind him. Going into the first hairpin, Heidfeld managed to brake later and overtake Alguersuari on the outside. The field seemed to be free of incidents throughout the first couple of laps, but Michela Cerruti was seen entering the pits, possibly after making contact with Bruno Senna. Meanwhile, championship leader Lucas di Grassi overtook Sam Bird for fourth position and Heidfeld deployed his FanBoost at the main straight, but he failed to take the lead from Buemi. On lap 7, di Grassi passed Alguersuari and moved up to third, and passed Heidfeld in turn five, on lap 14. Heidfeld fell further down the order when he had to use the run-off area at turn 8 and was overtaken by both Virgin drivers.

The first major incident of the race happened on lap 16, when Karun Chandhok's right-rear suspension broke and he hit the wall. Just before the race was neutralised, Heidfeld managed to take his position back from Bird, and Alguersuari was seen entering the pits with five others. Those who waited a lap to come in, including Buemi and di Grassi, were stuck behind Cerruti, because overtaking was not permitted under yellow flags. Because the safety car picked up the leader at the moment Buemi was in the pits, there was much confusion about who was in the lead. However, it was still Buemi, di Grassi, and Heidfeld at the top of the standings, so on lap 21, every driver not in the lead lap was told to pass the safety car and catch up with the rest of the field.

Green flags showed with thirteen laps to go. Almost immediately, however, the leader Buemi hit the wall on the inside of turn 8, broke his suspension and had to retire. The top three was now filled by di Grassi, Heidfeld, and Bird, but the latter quickly received a drive-through penalty for ignoring the red lights at the end of the pit lane. On lap 26, di Grassi's suspension broke in the same fashion as Chandhok's had done, sending another race leader into retirement. The safety car was not deemed to be required, because both Buemi and di Grassi had managed to park their cars safely.

The last three laps saw Jean-Éric Vergne aggressively overtaking Alguersuari for third place and Nick Heidfeld being given a drive-through penalty for going over the pit lane speed limit, making António Félix da Costa, who had been relatively invisible throughout the race, the fourth race leader in ten laps. Meanwhile, Alguersuari was being attacked by Nicolas Prost, Nelson Piquet, Jr. and Daniel Abt. Vergne joined them when he missed his braking point twice and fell back from second to fifth. Abt tried to overtake Prost on the dirtier side of the track, but ended up hitting the back of Alguersuari instead and retiring with one lap to go. Félix da Costa took victory, with Prost second, Piquet third, Alguersuari fourth, and Senna fifth; Vergne had had to slow down to save energy.

Results

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Grid
1	9	Sébastien Buemi	e.dams-Renault	1:09.134	-	1
2	3	Jaime Alguersuari	Virgin Racing	1:09.161	+0.027	2
3	23	Nick Heidfeld	Venturi	1:09.367	+0.233	3
4	2	Sam Bird	Virgin Racing	1:09.388	+0.254	4
5	11	Lucas di Grassi	Audi Sport ABT	1:09.521	+0.387	5
6	27	Jean-Éric Vergne	Andretti	1:09.527	+0.393	6
7	8	Nicolas Prost	e.dams-Renault	1:09.636	+0.502	7
8	55	António Félix da Costa	Amlin Aguri	1:09.658	+0.524	8
9	99	Nelson Piquet, Jr.	China Racing	1:09.742	+0.608	9
10	5	Karun Chandhok	Mahindra Racing	1:09.875	+0.741	10
11	30	Stéphane Sarrazin	Venturi	1:10.165	+1.031	11
12	66	Daniel Abt	Audi Sport ABT	1:10.329	+1.195	12
13	6	Oriol Servià	Dragon Racing	1:10.588	+1.454	13
14	28	Marco Andretti	Andretti	1:10.713	+1.579	14
15	88	Ho-Pin Tung	China Racing	1:11.049	+1.915	15
16	23	Salvador Durán	Amlin Aguri	1:11.331	+2.197	16
17	18	Michela Cerruti	Trulli	1:11.785	+2.651	17
18	7	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon Racing	1:12.239	+3.105	18
19	21	Bruno Senna	Mahindra Racing	1:13.209	+4.075	19
20	10	Jarno Trulli	Trulli	No time		20

Race

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	55	António Félix da Costa	Amlin Aguri	35	48:52.100	8	25
2	8	Nicolas Prost	e.dams-Renault	35	+5.354s	7	18
3	99	Nelson Piquet, Jr.	China Racing	35	+8.552s	9	15
4	3	Jaime Alguersuari	Virgin Racing	35	+11.148s	2	12
5	21	Bruno Senna	Mahindra Racing	35	+11.535s	19	10
6	27	Jean-Éric Vergne	Andretti	35	+13.319s	6	8
7	2	Sam Bird	Virgin Racing	35	+13.617s	4	8^2
8	23	Nick Heidfeld	Venturi	35	+15.464	3	4
9	6	Oriol Servià	Dragon Racing	35	+19.334	13	2
10	30	Stéphane Sarrazin	Venturi	35	+28.973	11	1
11	88	Ho-Pin Tung	China Racing	35	+37.858	15
12	28	Marco Andretti	Andretti	34	+1 lap	14
13	66	Daniel Abt	Audi Sport ABT	34	+2 laps	12
14	7	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon Racing	33	+2 laps	18
Ret	10	Jarno Trulli	Trulli	30	Mechanical	20
Ret	11	Lucas di Grassi	Audi Sport ABT	26	Suspension	5
Ret	9	Sébastien Buemi	e.dams-Renault	23	Suspension	1	3^1
Ret	18	Michela Cerruti	Trulli	20	Mechanical	17
Ret	5	Karun Chandhok	Mahindra Racing	15	Suspension	10
DSQ	77	Salvador Durán	Amlin Aguri	35	+14.724s^3	16

Notes:

• ^1 – Three points for pole position.
• ^2 – Two points for fastest lap.
• ^3 – Salvador Durán finished in eighth position, but was disqualified for exceeding the maximum power usage.^[1]

Lap leaders:Sebastien Buemi (1-22), Lucas Di Grassi (23-26),Nick Heidfeld (27-33), Antonio Felix Da Costa (34-35)

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Lucas di Grassi 58 2 Sam Bird 48 3 Sébastien Buemi 43 4 Nicolas Prost 42 5 Nelson Piquet, Jr. 37

Teams' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 e.dams-Renault 85 2 Virgin Racing 74 3 Audi Sport ABT 62 4 Andretti 41 5 Dragon Racing 38

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

References

1. http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2015/january/post-race-penalties-buenos-aires-eprix.aspx

External links

• Official results