Season 4 Paris E-Prix - Race Summary
Paris, The City Of Light, was the setting for Round 8 of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship. Le Circuit Des Invalides is the shortest track in the calendar, at just 1.9 kilometres, and the 49-lap race certainly threw up a few surprises.
Home hero Jean-Éric Vergne gave a superb effort in Superpole to qualify first: behind him were championship rival Sam Bird, Techeetah teammate André Lotterer, and Maro Engel, with his best ever grid position.
Vergne converted that pole position into an early lead when the lights went out, with Bird and Lotterer hot on his heels. China’s Ma Qing Hua was unable to pull away, his car stalling on the grid, and barely a lap into the race Tom Blomqvist had run into the back of Nico Prost, with Panasonic Jaguar Racing’s Mitch Evans, behind him.
Germany’s Daniel Abt started a determined charge from P15, taking every opportunity to pass, and by Lap 16 he had gained an incredible 8 places. However, things didn’t go quite as well for António Félix da Costa - early on in the race, he locked up and went off, putting a disappointing end to a weekend that had seen him qualify in the top 5.
Things remained close between the top 3 of Vergne, Bird and Lotterer, with Bird making sure he kept the pressure on his championship rival as they pulled away from the pack. Blomqvist, running 17th after his Lap 1 incident, was the first to pull into the pits as energy began to run low. Sam Bird made an attempt to snatch the lead away from Jean-Éric Vergne; however, he locked his tyres as he braked late, and so the front 3 headed into the pits in the same order they’d began.
As the pit sequence continued, reigning champion Lucas di Grassi emerged in fourth place, having jumped Maro Engel, with the German as well as last year’s winner Sébastien Buemi hot on his heels. Di Grassi’s teammate Daniel Abt quickly caught up, and was soon pressuring Buemi for P6, forcing the Swiss to use his Fanboost to defend.
Meanwhile, things were heating up at the front, as André Lotterer sent it up the inside of Sam Bird. He couldn’t quite get it stopped and so the two made contact, although both cars kept out of the wall. Lucas di Grassi saw his opportunity and seized it, passing Bird for P3 to applause from the Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler garage. The gap to leader Jean-Éric Vergne had opened up to 4.9 seconds, as the incident between Lotterer and Bird was under investigation from the stewards.
Swiss driver Edoardo Mortara had saved a lot of energy in his first car, meaning he pitted a lap later than everyone else. This strategy had been paying off well until contact while trying to pass Argentina’s José Maria Lopez left him briefly stopped on track, leaving the race under yellow flag conditions for a moment.
On Lap 44 of 49, Daniel Abt was still pressuring Buemi for P6. He used his Fanboost to slip past the Season 2 champion, who searched for a way back past but couldn’t find one.
Di Grassi and Lotterer continued to fight over second and third place - however, in the final sector, Lotterer ran out of energy. He was helpless to do anything as Di Grassi passed him, the Brazilian driver taking his third consecutive second place finish. Moments later, Sam Bird smashed into the back of the Techeetah car - he limped home in P3 with only 3 wheels, the DS Virgin car’s front axle having been shattered by the impact. Lotterer nursed it home to P6 with a broken rear wing.
Jean-Éric Vergne, meanwhile, was completely unaware of his teammate’s fate as he celebrated his win, clearly emotional to finally win in front of his home crowd. Maro Engel came fourth, his best ever Formula E finish, while Sébastien Buemi (P5) found a way back past Daniel Abt (P7). The race saw three retirements: António Félix da Costa, Tom Blomqvist, and Nelson Piquet Jr.
After the race, reactions varied. Winner Jean-Éric Vergne called it “the best race of my career”, while both Lucas di Grassi and Sam Bird expressed disapproval of André Lotterer’s actions.
Sam Bird said: “If you’ve run out of energy, tough, you know, you can’t just do what he did. So, I’m disappointed by that, by his driving standard, and I’m disappointed that I’ve destroyed the car, but I’m happy with the podium.”
Lucas di Grassi told the media that: “The way André acted on track today was not professional at all, with me and I think with Sam [...] Two times he was not only close, but he was really like pushing me into the wall, even when he ran out of energy, and if he doesn’t get a penalty for the next race… I don’t think you can behave on any worse manner on track.”
For his part, Lotterer gave something of an indication of his feelings about the race. Sitting in the Techeetah garage, sipping from a water bottle, he said one word: “Sh*t!”
With four races left to go, Vergne has opened up his championship lead to 31 points, with 147 to Bird’s 116. Third-placed Rosenqvist has fallen behind, with just 86 points, after a race that saw him finishing P8. In the team standings, Techeetah now lead with 55 points over DS Virgin Racing. Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler lie in third with 114 points, having somewhat recovered from the reliability issues that plagued them in the first half of the season.
