2017 Hong Kong ePrix

Practice and qualifying

Two practice sessions—both on Saturday morning—were held before the late afternoon race. The first session ran for 45 minutes and the second lasted half an hour.^[16] Although drivers were concerned over the possibility of running in darkness,^[17] Sébastien Buemi of e.Dams-Renault used the 200 kilowatts (270 hp) available to him and set the fastest time in the opening practice session with a lap of one minute and 3.310 seconds, four-tenths of a second faster than any one else on the track. His closest challenger was Mitch Evans in second and Abt followed in third and his teammate di Grassi was fourth-fastest. Sam Bird placed fifth.^[18] He was ahead of Nico Prost and Piquet. Mortara, Jean-Éric Vergne and Turvey rounded out the session's top ten drivers.^[17] During the session, where several competitors struggled to find their optimal driving style,^[19] Prost stopped on track with a battery management system glitch and restarted his vehicle to enable him to continue driving.^[20] Later, Jani broke part of his car's front-left suspension in a collision with the turn ten inside wall but returned to the pit lane where he switched into a second car.^[19][20] Lotterer glanced the same wall and damaged his car's front-right quarter.^[18] A short full course yellow was called for when Rosenqvist pulled off the circuit at the last corner.^[18]

Jean-Éric Vergne (pictured in 2016) took his fifth pole position of his career in spite of spinning after completing his super pole lap.

In the shorter second practice session, Evans set the fastest lap of the weekend so far at one minute and 2.875 seconds right at its end. Evans was two-tenths of a second quicker than the second-placed Abt who took the place in practice's final moments and his Audi teammate di Grassi followed in third.^[21] Turvey was running faster and was fourth-fastest, ahead of Nick Heidfeld (Mahindra) and Bird. Piquet was seventh-fastest, Rosenqvist eighth, Prost ninth and António Félix da Costa completed the top ten ahead of qualifying.^[22] Buemi locked his rear tyres at the turn six hairpin after going onto the dirty part of the track,^[23] and oversteered into the barrier six minutes in, causing superficial damage to his car's steering.^[21][24] Heidfeld glanced the turn ten barrier while on his maximum power lap and Maro Engel slid into the turn two run-off area.^[24] Yellow flags were waved with five minutes left when Mortara stopped his car on track at the second turn and this ended all competitive running in the session.^[22][24]

Saturday's afternoon qualifying session ran for an hour and was divided into four groups of five cars. Each group was determined by a lottery system and was permitted six minutes of on-track activity. All drivers were limited to two timed laps with one at maximum power. The fastest five overall competitors in the four groups participated in a "Super Pole" session with one driver on the track at any time going out in reverse order from fifth to first. Each of the five drivers was limited to one timed lap and the starting order was determined by the competitor's fastest times (Super Pole from first to fifth, and group qualifying from sixth to twentieth). The driver and team who recorded the fastest time were awarded three points towards their respective championships.^[16] In the first group of five drivers, Buemi paced the session, ahead of early benchmark leader Lotterer and Engel.^[25] Mortara was on a fast lap but was delayed by Lynn whose car was loose,^[25] and Mortara impacted the turn five exit wall with his vehicle's left-rear corner. This effect caused him to further hit the barrier.^[26][27] Lynn took fourth and Mortara was the first group's slowest competitor. Bird set the fastest overall lap time in the second group at one minute and 3.276 seconds, while Félix da Costa pushed hard on his attempt which saw him to second and was quickest until Bird's attempt. Kobayashi was third despite glancing the barrier and Filippi was fourth.^[25] Evans was group two's slowest driver after failing to set a maximum power lap due to him not crossing the start-finish line through a inter-team miscommunication.^[26][28] In the third group, Heidfeld took advantage of having slightly more on-circuit grip and was fastest; his lap demoted Vergne to second. Rosenqvist was third-fastest and Piquet and Jani (who aborted his maximum power lap) were the third group's slowest runners.^[25][29]

Prost clouted the turn five barrier in group four and collected a trackside sponsorship banner that got entangled on his front wing.^[28] Despite debris being littered on the track, marshals did not wave yellow flags,^[30] and the banner was collected by Jérôme d'Ambrosio which wrapped itself around his front-left wheel, prompting the session to be stopped.^[24][28] When qualifying restarted, Abt ended the group fastest and prevented his teammate di Grassi from progressing to super pole. Turvey was third and d'Ambrosio followed in fourth. The stewards denied Prost the opportunity to continue in qualifying and was the fourth group's slowest driver.^[25] At the end of group qualifying, the times set by Bird, Heidfeld, Vergne, Rosenqvist and Abt were fast enough to enable their advancement into super pole.^[29] Vergne took the first pole position of the season and the fifth of his career with a lap of one minute and 3.568 seconds.^[30] As he completed his lap, Vergne lost control of his car at the final turn, slightly damaging his car from contact with the outside wall, and stopped after crossing the timing line.^[25][26] The consequence of Vergne's spin meant his in-lap was more than 120% of his qualifying time but was not penalised since he was adjudged not to have created a danger to others.^[28] Vergne was joined on the grid's front row by Bird whose fastest lap was 0.027 seconds off Vergne's pace and made a small error at the second hairpin. Heidfeld qualified third and was 0.029 seconds slower than Vergne.^[26] Abt set a benchmark time that put him provisionally on pole but fell to fourth.^[25] Rosenqvist locked his brakes at the first hairpin and ran wide which restricted him to starting fifth.^[27] After qualifying, Jani was demoted ten places on the grid for changing his car's battery after his first practice crash.^[28] Following the application of Jani's penalty, the remainder of the grid consisted of di Grassi, Turvey, Félix da Costa, Buemi, Piquet, d'Ambrosio, Lotterer, Kobayashi, Engel, Filippi, Lynn, Prost, Mortara, Evans and Jani.^[31]

Race

André Lotterer (pictured in 2014) was involved in a multi-car collision which prompted Formula E's first race stoppage in its history.

The conditions on the grid at the start of the race were dry and warm. The air temperature throughout the ePrix was between 23 and 23.9 °C (73.4 and 75.0 °F) and the track temperature ranged from 27.2 to 28.3 °C (81.0 to 82.9 °F).^[31] A special feature of Formula E is the "Fan Boost" feature, an additional 100 kilowatts (130 hp) of power to use in the driver's second car. The three drivers who were allowed to use the boost were determined by a fan vote.^[16] For the first Hong Kong race, Kobayashi, Abt and Filippi were handed the extra power.^[32] When the race began from its standing start at 15:00 Hong Kong Time (UTC+08:00),^[4] Vergne maintained his pole position advantage heading towards the first corner with Bird remaining in second position.^[33] Heidfeld launched an attack for the lead of the ePrix but ran wide and fell to fourth after failing to get past Bird.^[34][35] Turvey steered onto the outside line and moved from seventh to third pass Rosenqvist, di Grassi, Abt and Heidfeld at the first turn as the majority of the field went defensive.^[34][36]

The field negotiated the first two corners without incident, but a track blockage at the turn three and four chicane prompted the race director to stop the race for the first time in such conditions in Formula E history.^[32] Piquet drove over the kerbs on the inside of the turn three and four chicane and Lotterer (who was attempting to swerve to avoid the traffic) was caught out and drove into the barrier.^[33][36] The quartet of cars driven by Prost, Evans, Mortara and Jani were forced to stop on track as a result.^[35] The remainder of the field drove back to the pit lane and awaited further instruction from the race director. Shortly after, the drivers who were stranded at the first chicane were allowed to drive back onto the circuit so that they could line up in the correct running order.^[32] The race restarted after more than a half hour delay under the safety car for one lap.^[36][37] Vergne led the field back up to speed at the restart and he was followed by Bird who immediately put pressure on him.^[35] Di Grassi immediately began attacking his teammate Abt by turning onto the outside line in the second corner but did not get ahead.^[37]

On lap five, Buemi attacked di Grassi by driving on the inside line going into the first turn and the two made contact since di Grassi drove defensively and gave Buemi a small amount of room.^[32][36] At the same time, Filippi closed up to Roseqnvist but sent the latter into a spin at the first corner, dropping Rosenqvist to 15th position and damaging his radiator.^[34][35][38] Heidfeld attempted to overtake Turvey around the outside heading towards the second corner but Heidfeld locked his brakes which meant he could not complete the move. Consequently, this lost of momentum allowed Abt to draw alongside Heidfeld and moved past him for fourth.^[34][35] Di Grassi and Buemi got involved in the battle for third place shortly afterwards.^[34] Di Grassi was the first driver to enter the pit lane on the sixteenth lap because Audi claimed that his right-rear suspension had sustained damage from his earlier contact with Buemi.^[35][36] Di Grassi switched into his second car soon after but this would leave him with less electrical energy than the rest of the field.^[36][37]

Sam Bird (pictured in 2015) won his first race of the season by despite a drive-through penalty for missing his garage.

Turvey had not been able to remain with the leading two drivers but slowed suddenly with a technical problem and drove to the pit lane for the switch into his second car.^[32][35] Upfront, Vergne and Bird had established a nine-second advantage over the rest of the field and Bird put more pressure on Vergne for the lead.^[35] After failing to get past Vergne a couple of times,^[32] Bird turned right onto the inside line and passed him for first at turn seven on lap 20.^[34] Vergne then went into the pit lane on lap 21 for the mandatory switch into his second car while Bird remained on the track for one additional lap.^[34][35] When Bird made his pit stop, he locked his tyres on the dusty tarmac surface,^[39] and slid into the side of his garage.^[36] Bird hit team equipment and narrowly avoided collecting one of his team's personnel who was uninjured.^[32][33] Bird abandoned his car at the side of the garage but kept the lead.^[36] After the pit stops, Bird held a seven-second advantage over Vergne, who was followed in turn, by Engel, Piquet and Rosenqvist.^[37] Abt lost the most places due to a technical error which cost him twenty seconds and fell to eighth.^[32][35]

After his pit stop, Buemi's car shut down due to a technical issue at the exit of the first turn and was stranded in the centre of the track. Buemi was able to restart his vehicle quickly but dropped to 13th position.^[35][39] Since Bird did not park his car inside his garage during his pit stop,^[33] he was handed a drive-through penalty but the short length of the pit lane and the fact he had built up a big enough of a gap allowed him to narrowly remain ahead of Vergne after serving it.^[35][36] Rosenqvist was close behind Engel in a battle for fourth place. The duo came into contact at the turn three and four chicane which saw Rosenqvist run into Engel but both drivers avoided impacting the barrier.^[35] Heidfeld was attacking Vergne for second place and drew alongside the latter at the turn two hairpin but Vergne locked his brakes and ran deep, preventing Heidfeld from performing the undercut.^[36] Lotterer was issued with a drive-through penalty that was related to his first lap multi-car collision while Filippi was similarly penalised for his earlier collision with Rosenqvist.^[32]

On the 42nd lap, Rosenqvist braked later than Piquet heading into the first corner and overtook him for fifth place. He closed up to Engel but was not near enough to affect an overtaking manoevure and then fell to eighth as he was required to conserve electrical energy.^[33][36][39] Bird crossed the start-finish line in first place after 43 laps to clinch his first victory of the season and the sixth of his career.^[33] Vergne followed 11.575 seconds in arrears in second and Heidfeld completed the podium positions in third.^[31] Off the podium, Engel originally finished fourth but was penalised with a time penalty for overusing energy and dropped to 13th.^[36] Thus Piquet finished fourth, Abt came fifth, Félix da Costa took sixth and Mortara was the highest-placed rookie in seventh.^[31] Rosenqvist lost his eighth-place result after being adjudged to have overused power and dropped to 14th.^[38] Lynn, Prost and Filippi rounded out the top-ten. The rest of the order was completed by Buemi, Evans, Engel, Rosenqvist, Kobayashi, Turvey, di Grassi and Jani.^[31] Lotterer was deemed to have left his car in an unsafe position under parc fermé conditions and was disqualified from the final results.^[38] The sole non-classified finisher was d'Ambrosio who pulled to the side of the circuit with an mechanical failure and later retired after rejoining.^[35]

Post-race

The top three drivers appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and spoke to the media in a later press conference. Bird spoke about the erratic nature of the race and said it was "unreal" for him to have secured the victory after taking his drive-through penalty^[40] He also admitted the ePrix had stressed him out but relished its competitive nature in spite of the first-lap stoppage: "Welcome to Formula E. That's like a normal race for us. We've had some crazy races in the past, you only have to look at the first ever race in the series and the crash at the last corner."^[41] Vergne said it was the most difficult race of his career as he lacked radio communication and battery regeneration: "So, if this morning somebody told me I’d have these issues, I wouldn’t even take the start of the race. To finish second off the back of this is almost like a victory to us. We’re hoping to fix things overnight and come back stronger tomorrow."^[40] Heidfeld stated that his third-place was a result he was least happy with but reserved praise for his team.^[40]

Sébastien Buemi (pictured in 2016) criticised Lucas di Grassi's defensive driving in the early part of the ePrix.

Vergne's late event defensive move at the turn three and four chicane drew criticism from Heidfeld who claimed Vergne transgressed series rules: "I tried to hard to overtake him, but I wasn't always happy with what he did. To me he was doing a bit too much of a slalom race. I think he did not stick to the rules. We spoke about that, he obviously seems to think it was okay. I accept that. But I'm not that happy."^[42] Vergne argued that he did not commit any fault as he did not wish to undertake an action that would have jeopardised his chances of battling for the championship and wanted to the finish the race: "Sometimes you have to finish second and third or fourth, but take the points. And at the end of the year they will count."^[42] Buemi was critical of di Grassi's driving, stating his belief that the latter should have ceded the position once they reached the corner. He revealed he attempted to drive as close as he could towards the barrier without hitting it but found di Grassi's driving too aggressive: "The corner is very tight, but I am there, you cannot just do the corner - and he just does the corner. He turns, so I end up pushing him and damaging both cars. If I'm beside you it's a bit difficult. What should I do? I cannot do anything."^[43] Di Grassi ignored Buemi's criticism and clarified his right-rear suspension was damaged from his contact with Abt instead of Buemi's hit as had been initially reported by Audi.^[43]

It was discovered after the race that several drivers had poor radio reception due to the local skyscrapers, prompting them to recalculate their regeneration and electrical energy usage without assistance.^[44] Abt likened the situation to competing in Formula 4 and remarked he would have exchanged FanBoost for a proper signal while Piquet said he believed he could have improved on his fourth-place had his radio functioned correctly.^[45] Jani said the lack of communication in his first race hindered him as he did not have the knowledge of what his regeneration targets were and Rosenqvist agreed the situation was unexpected and hard to deal with. Lynn revealed his team had been previously affected in a prior ePrix and thus were the best prepared in the field for a similar situation.^[44] Bird was told to see the stewards after the race and was given a ten-place grid penalty for the following day's race for not stopping in the garage during his pit stop.^[46] Virgin team principal Alex Tai told the press that he sought an answer of whether Bird's penalty was appealable but chose to follow instructions since that would be difficult to undertake.^[38] Engel revealed his issue was caused by a loss of electrical power between the first and second turns every lap which allowed Rosenqvist to attack him.^[38]

As a consequence of the final positions, Bird started the season leading the Drivers' Championship with 25 points. Vergne was four points adrift in second place. Heidfeld was in third position on fifteen points and Piquet followed a further three points behind in fourth place. With eleven points, Abt rounded out the top five drivers.^[47] In the Teams' Championship, Virgin became the early leaders on 29 points with both their drivers finishing in the top ten. Vergne's pole position and second-place finish earned the second-placed Techeetah 21 points and Mahindra were a further six points adrift in third. Jaguar were fourth with twelve points and Audi on eleven points completed the top five.^[47]

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings[47] Pos Driver Points 1 Sam Bird 25 2 Jean-Éric Vergne 21 (–4) 3 Nick Heidfeld 15 (–10) 4 Nelson Piquet Jr. 12 (–13) 5 Daniel Abt 11 (–14)

Teams' Championship standings[47] Pos Constructor Points 1 Virgin-Citroën 29 2 Techeetah-Renault 21 (–8) 3 Mahindra 15 (–14) 4 Jaguar 12 (–17) 5 Audi 11 (–18)

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

Practice and qualifying

One 45-minute practice session on Sunday morning was held before the early afternoon race.^[16] Buemi bested Evans's fastest lap of the weekend to go fastest in the third practice session with a time of one minute and 2.002 seconds; Lynn followed three-tenths of a second in arrears in second and Di Grassi was third. Vergne was fourth-quickest, with Bird placing fifth and Rosenqvist sixth.^[48] Abt was seventh-fastest, Mortara eighth, Heidfeld ninth and Turvey rounded out the top ten ahead of the second qualifying session.^[49] During practice, where several drivers locked their brakes and went off into the track's run-off areas,^[49] Engel briefly stopped at the first turn but no red flag was necessitated since he restarted his car in time.^[50] Prost narrowly avoided being caught out by Turvey who lost control of his car's rear at turn nine while passing the former and d'Ambrosio went into Prost's vehicle and dislodged its right-rear fender at the corner's apex.^[48][50] Prost was able to drive back to the pit lane but voiced his anger over the radio.^[49] Buemi slowed to avoid hitting debris at the turn three and four chicane and impeded the faster Félix da Costa with the pair gesticulating.^[49][50]

In contrast to the first race, the lottery system was changed with the top five drivers in the championship placed in the first group and the lower ranked competitors were drawn in order in the three remaining groups. This was changed so competitors could remain close to each other and stop significant variables such as changeable weather conditions from affecting the race's starting positions.^[51] In the first qualifying group of five runners, Turvey paced the session with di Grassi a quarter of a second slower in second and Lotterer was third. D'Ambrosio was fourth-fastest and the early benchmark setter Jani rounded out the first group's slowest drivers.^[52] D'Ambrosio noted that the running in the first group was difficult due a Roborace demonstration held between third practice and second qualifying leaving debris on the track.^[53] In the second group, Rosenqvist moved straight into provisional pole but Evans's effort made him the quickest overall competitor with a time of one minute and 2.577 seconds. Rosenqvist placed second and was followed by Engel in third and Kobayashi fourth.^[52] Buemi was group two's slowest driver as he was off the pace due to him damaging his car with a glance of the turn five inside barrier;^[54] he began from the back of the field for the first time since the 2016 Buenos Aires ePrix.^[55] Mortara was the fastest runner of the third group and was closely followed by Lynn and Félix da Costa. Filippi was fourth-quickest and early pace setter Prost was the third group's slowest driver.^[52] In the fourth group, Abt set a lap time that immediately moved him to second overall and was followed by Bird. The fourth group's three slowest participants were Vergne, Heidfeld and Piquet.^[53] At the end of group qualifying, the lap times set by Evans, Abt, Mortara, Rosenqvist and Bird advanced them into super pole.^[52] Despite oversteering in the final sector, Rosenqvist drove aggressively and took his fourth career pole position with a time of one minute and 2.836 seconds.^[55][56] He was joined on the grid's front row by Evans whose best effort was 0.054 seconds off Rosenqvist's pace in spite of going faster than Rosenqvist earlier in his lap.^[56] Despite ruining his preparation at the end of his warm-up lap and making an error at the first corner, Mortara took third position and Bird mustered fourth in his attempt to minimise the effect of his grid penalty.^[52][56] Abt bent his car's steering arm from minor contact with the wall and a slow middle sector meant he could only manage fifth.^[53][56] After qualifying, Evans's super pole time was deleted because he was adjudged to have overused his electrical power usage and Bird's penalty saw him start 13th.^[56] The rest of the order lined up after penalties as Lynn, Félix da Costa, Vergne, Turvey, Filippi, Heidfeld, Piquet, di Grassi, Bird, Prost, Engel, Kobayashi, Lotterer, d'Ambrosio, Jani and Buemi.^[57]

Race

The second race started at 15:00 local time.^[4] The weather conditions at the start of the event were dry and sunny with the air temperature ranging from 23.25 and 23.9 °C (73.85 and 75.02 °F) and a track temperature between 27.2 and 28.35 °C (80.96 and 83.03 °F).^[57] As in the first ePrix, the winners of the FanBoost vote were Abt, Kobayashi and Filippi.^[58] On the grid, a circuit board failure resulted in the five red lights gantry failing to illuminate, causing the entire field to remain in their starting positions as they awaited a signal from the race director Scot Elkins.^[58][59][60] Three minutes later, race control elected to use the safety car to start the race.^[61] Rosenqvist led the field up to speed but locked his rear brakes heading towards the turn one hairpin and went into a half-spin which resulted in him falling to eleventh.^[62][63] This meant Mortara took over the lead and Abt moved into second position. More action took place further down the field as drivers got close to each other but all made it through without any trouble.^[60] Filippi's track rod fractured early on and later became the race's only retiree after entering the pit lane.^[64] At the end of the second lap, Mortara led from Abt, Evans, Lynn, Félix da Costa, Vergne, Turvey, Piquet, Prost, Bird, Rosenqvist, di Grassi, Engel, Heidfeld, Kobayashi, Lotterer, d'Ambrosio, Jani, Buemi and Filippi.^[57]

Edoardo Mortara (pictured in 2014) led the majority of the second race but lost the victory after spinning on the 43rd lap.

Early movement within the top five placings occurred as Félix da Costa overtook Lynn around the outside to take over fourth place while Bird was moving up the field and moved from fourteenth to ninth by the start of the fifth lap. On the following lap, Mahindra suffered further problems when Heidfeld slowed and drove to the side of the circuit with a technical issue but was later able to get the fault rectified and continued racing.^[60] Upfront, Mortara opened up a four-second advantage over Abt, while Rosenqvist began to move up the field and Buemi and di Grassi were struggling in the non-points scoring positions.^[58] Abt looked to lessen Mortara's lead but the latter was better managing his electrical energy usage and began to increase his advantage as the pit stop phase was getting closer. Soon after, Mortara was delayed by Heidfeld who seemed to not realise that the race leader was about to lap him. The mandatory pit stops for the switch into a second car began on the 23rd lap when Mortara entered the pit lane with one percent of electrical energy left to use. Félix da Costa and Lynn stayed on the circuit for one additional lap before the duo made their pit stops.^[60] Soon after his pit stop, di Grassi stopped temporarily at the side of the track at turn six with a battery management system fault. He fell to 17th after restarting his car.^[60][61][65]

After the pit stops, Mortara kept the lead and was now three-and-a-half-seconds in front of Abt.^[62] Rosenqvist made up the most positions and was at this point in third position.^[60] Félix da Costa's second car had trouble starting and this required a full reset that dropped him to 14th.^[64] Similarly, Evans lost four seconds at his pit stop due to a problem with his second car and fell from third to fourth.^[62][63] Mortara was soon placed under pressure by Heidfeld who was making an attempt to unlap himself. Mortara responded by defending as if he was battling for position but was later informed over the radio that this was not the case. Numerous battles were taking place in the middle of the field with Bird and Vergne running close to each other while Buemi had moved up the order to run in eleventh place.^[60] Rosenqvist was closing up to Abt at the rate of half a second per lap and was five seconds adrift with eight laps left. However, Abt responded to Rosenqvist faster pace to remain in third.^[61] Mortara had more usable electrical energy but Abt was able to close up on him and the lead was reduced to two seconds. Mortara used this to his advantage to set personal best lap times so he had a three-second advantage in the closing stages and it appeared he would take his and Venturi's first Formula E win.^[62][63]

However, on lap 43, just as Abt used FanBoost on the back straight,^[58] Mortara endured difficulty with his regenerative braking system,^[60] and lost control of his car's rear at the second turn but avoided hitting the wall.^[58][63] This promoted Abt into the lead which he held for the remaining two laps to finish the ePrix first on the road for would have been his maiden Formula E victory and his first in motor racing since the 2012 GP3 Series. Rosenqvist completed his recovery and took second while Mortara came back from his late race spin to complete the podium in third.^[63] Off the podium, Evans finished in fourth to match Jaguar's best result in Formula E and Vergne followed in fifth. Bird lost out in his battle with Vergne and thus settled for sixth.^[62] The trio of cars driven by Turvey, Engel and Prost all had quiet races and followed in positions seven to nine.^[60] Lynn was more economical with his electrical energy usage and could not overtake Evans and eventually slowed to take tenth.^[62] Buemi, Félix da Costa and Piquet followed in the next three placings.^[58] Lotterer was swerving to avoid Piquet on the inside lane for turn ten,^[58] and by doing so, speared into the exit barriers, heavily damaging his car's front-right corner. Lotterer crossed the timing beam in 14th.^[60][63] Di Grassi, d'Ambrosio, Heidfeld, Kobayashi and Jani were the last of the classified finishers.^[58]

Post-race

Three hours after the race, it was announced by the FIA stewards that Abt's car was not compliant with the Formula E technical regulations. They discovered that the FIA security stickers on the car's inverter and the motor-generator unit did not match those declared on the vehicle's technical passport provided to the team for the ePrix.^[66] Audi team principal Allan McNish suspected an administrative error and announced the team's intention to file an appeal with the FIA International Tribunal in Paris so they could clarify the details surrounding the mix-up.^[67] The next day, Audi carefully reviewed all documents and processes and determined that Abt gained no advantage as a result and all parts of the car were fully homologated. The team accepted the FIA's decision and apologised to Abt for the error.^[68] The consequence of the decision meant Rosenqvist inherited the second victory of his career with Mortara moving into second and Evans securing Jaguar's first Formula E podium.^[69] Audi were additionally fined €5,000 ($5,944) for five of its team personnel walking onto the circuit to reach the podium before the final car had reached parc fermé, deemed a "serious breach of safety regulations" by the stewards.^[69]

Rosenqvist spoke of his happiness about taking the victory but expressed sympathy for Abt: "It’s not the way you want to win and I don’t feel like I’ve won the race. But I’m happy with the points. Sometimes you’re happy and then you’re sad, like yesterday we were in P15 and turned it around -- getting fastest lap but it got taken away, so there’s been a lot like that but I’ll take maximum points and third in the championship."^[70] Second-placed Mortara acknowledged he was possibly overconfident as he sought the additional point for setting the fastest lap along with the victory and vowed that he would be calmer at the season's next race: "It’s… difficult to find the words actually, after a race like that. It’s tough to swallow actually, today. We had the pace, we were managing the race from the beginning to the end – I was pretty much 100% all through the race, to keep the gap with Daniel and I was choosing when to push."^[71] Evans spoke of his pride of securing Jaguar's first Formula E podium but that it was regretful as Abt is a close friend of his: "After a tough year in our first season this is great reward for the hard work of everyone in the team. Tonight we will celebrate this achievement together and then work hard to repeat it.”^[72]

According to Buemi, an unexplained issue with his car's chassis meant his performance over the race weekend was compromised and that his team did not have the knowledge on how to rectify it. He also confirmed to the press that the same problem affected all four of his vehicles.^[73] Di Grassi said his performance over the two races showed the pace of his car but was frustrated with its problems: "The car is strong, we have the potential, we have to figure it out. Saturday we lost a fourth place or a fifth place easy, Sunday we lost again at least another fifth or fourth place. It is just frustrating because of small details which are sometimes out of our control."^[65] Lotterer stated his first lap incident in the opening ePrix was a consequence of him being in "the wrong place at the wrong time” but was encouraged over a battle he had with Buemi in the following race and was eager to discover how his team's performance could be improved for future races.^[74] Jani said that it had been quite some time since a teammate of his out-performed him but spoke of his satisfaction to improve his performance following Saturday's race.^[75] Félix da Costa spoke of his disappointment over the result as he believed he could have placed second had his pit stop not been slow.^[76]

The result meant Bird remained the Drivers' Championship leader on 36 points but his advantage over Vergne was reduced from six points to just two. Rosenqvist's victory enabled him to move into third position with 29 points and Mortara's second-place finish moved him to within five points behind the former in fourth. Heidfeld's non-points scoring finish dropped him to fifth and was tied with Evans on points.^[47] Mahindra's result enabled them to move into the lead of the Teams' Championship with 44 points, three ahead of Virgin in second place. Techeetah fell to third while Venturi's strong performance allowed the team to move into fourth. Jaguar rounded out the top five with ten races left in the season.^[47] 27,000 people attended the two-day event.^[77]

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings[47] +/– Pos Driver Points 1 Sam Bird 35 2 Jean-Éric Vergne 33 (–2) 11 3 Felix Rosenqvist 29 (–6) 3 4 Edoardo Mortara 24 (–11) 2 5 Nick Heidfeld 15 (–20)

Teams' Championship standings[47] +/– Pos Constructor Points 1 1 Mahindra 44 1 2 Virgin-Citroën 41 (–3) 3 Techeetah-Renault 33 (–11) 3 4 Venturi 30 (–14) 1 5 Jaguar 27 (–17)

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

Qualifying one

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Grid
1	25	Jean-Éric Vergne	Techeetah-Renault	1:03.568	—	1
2	2	Sam Bird	Virgin-Citroën	1:03.595	+0.027	2
3	23	Nick Heidfeld	Mahindra	1:03.597	+0.029	3
4	66	Daniel Abt	Audi	1:03.724	+0.156	4
5	19	Felix Rosenqvist	Mahindra	1:04.718	+1.150	5
6	1	Lucas di Grassi	Audi	1:03.773	+0.205	6
7	16	Oliver Turvey	NIO	1:03.881	+0.313	7
8	28	António Félix da Costa	Andretti-BMW	1:03.914	+0.346	8
9	9	Sébastien Buemi	e.Dams-Renault	1:03.966	+0.398	9
10	3	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Jaguar	1:03.993	+0.425	10
11	7	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon-Penske	1:04.405	+0.837	11
12	18	André Lotterer	Techeetah-Renault	1:04.423	+0.855	12
13	27	Kamui Kobayashi[n 1]	Andretti-BMW	1:04.806	+1.238	13
14	5	Maro Engel	Venturi	1:04.907	+1.339	14
15	68	Luca Filippi	NIO	1:05.450	+1.882	15
16	36	Alex Lynn	Virgin-Citroën	1:05.544	+1.976	16
17	6	Neel Jani	Dragon-Penske	1:05.615	+2.047	201
18	8	Nico Prost	e.Dams-Renault	1;07.745	+4.177	17
19	4	Edoardo Mortara	Venturi	1:12.730	+9.162	18
20	20	Mitch Evans	Jaguar	1:19.616	+16.048	19
Source:[31]

Notes:

• ^1 — Neel Jani was demoted ten places for changing his car's battery following an accident in the first practice session.^[28]

Qualifying two

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Grid
1	19	Felix Rosenqvist	Mahindra	1:02.836	—	1
2	4	Edoardo Mortara	Venturi	1:03.108	+0.272	2
3	2	Sam Bird	Virgin-Citroën	1:03.109	+0.273	132
4	66	Daniel Abt	Audi	1:03.715	+0.879	3
5	20	Mitch Evans	Jaguar	—	—	43
6	36	Alex Lynn	Virgin-Citroën	1:02.929	+0.093	5
7	28	António Félix da Costa	Andretti-BMW	1:02.979	+0.143	6
8	25	Jean-Éric Vergne	Techeetah-Renault	1:02.982	+0.146	7
9	16	Oliver Turvey	NIO	1:03.092	+0.356	8
10	68	Luca Filippi	NIO	1:03.210	+0.422	9
11	23	Nick Heidfeld	Mahindra	1:03.276	+0.484	10
12	3	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Jaguar	1:03.310	+0.516	11
13	1	Lucas di Grassi	Audi	1:03.346	+0.552	12
14	8	Nico Prost	e.Dams-Renault	1:03.418	+0.624	14
15	5	Maro Engel	Venturi	1:03.446	+0.652	15
16	27	Kamui Kobayashi	Andretti-BMW	1:03.473	+0.679	16
17	18	André Lotterer	Techeetah-Renault	1:03.845	+1.051	17
18	7	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon-Penske	1:03.849	+1.055	18
19	6	Neel Jani	Dragon-Penske	1:04.612	+1.818	19
20	9	Sébastien Buemi	e.Dams-Renault	1:05.346	+2.552	20
Source:[57]

Notes:

• ^2 — Sam Bird dropped ten places for not stopping in his garage during his mandatory pit stop in the first race.^[46]
• ^3 — Mitch Evans's super pole lap was deleted because of him overusing the mandated maximum amount of electrical power usage.^[56]

Race one

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	2	Sam Bird	Virgin-Citroën	43	1:17:10.486	2	25
2	25	Jean-Éric Vergne	Techeetah-Renault	43	+11.575	1	214
3	23	Nick Heidfeld	Mahindra	43	+12.465	3	15
4	3	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Jaguar	43	+15.324	10	12
5	66	Daniel Abt	Audi	43	+17.205	4	115
6	28	António Félix da Costa	Andretti-BMW	43	+18.083	8	8
7	4	Edoardo Mortara	Venturi	43	+19.797	18	6
8	36	Alex Lynn	Virgin-Citroën	43	+20.904	16	4
9	8	Nico Prost	e.Dams-Renault	43	+24.785	17	2
10	68	Luca Filippi	NIO	43	+25.500	15	1
11	9	Sébastien Buemi	e.Dams-Renault	43	+26.202	9
12	20	Mitch Evans	Jaguar	43	+34.871	19
13	5	Maro Engel	Venturi	43	+35.752	14
14	19	Felix Rosenqvist	Mahindra	43	+41.174	5
15	27	Kamui Kobayashi	Andretti-BMW	43	+48.422	13
16	16	Oliver Turvey	NIO	42	+1 Lap	7
17	1	Lucas di Grassi	Audi	42	+1 Lap	6
18	6	Neel Jani	Dragon-Penske	42	+1 Lap	20
Ret	7	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon-Penske	34	Technical	11
DSQ	18	André Lotterer	Techeetah-Renault	43	Disqualified6	12
Source:[31]

Notes:

• ^4  — Three points for pole position.^[16]
• ^5  — One point for the fastest lap awarded to Daniel Abt as Jérôme d'Ambrosio did not finish in the top ten.^[31][16]
• ^6 — André Lotterer was disqualified leaving his car in an unsafe condition under parc fermé conditions.^[38]

Race two

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	19	Felix Rosenqvist	Mahindra	45	50:05.084	1	2978
2	4	Edoardo Mortara	Venturi	45	+7.031	2	18
3	20	Mitch Evans	Jaguar	45	+10.619	4	15
4	25	Jean-Éric Vergne	Techeetah-Renault	45	+12.593	7	12
5	2	Sam Bird	Virgin-Citroën	45	+12.879	13	10
6	16	Oliver Turvey	NIO	45	+14.199	9	8
7	5	Maro Engel	Venturi	45	+15.676	15	6
8	8	Nico Prost	e.Dams-Renault	45	+18.905	14	4
9	36	Alex Lynn	Virgin-Citroën	45	+19.025	5	2
10	9	Sébastien Buemi	e.Dams-Renault	45	+22.139	20	1
11	28	António Félix da Costa	Andretti-BMW	45	+23.159	6
12	3	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Jaguar	45	+27.104	11
13	1	Lucas di Grassi	Audi	45	+28.591	12
14	18	André Lotterer	Techeetah-Renault	45	Accident	17
15	7	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon-Penske	44	+1 Lap	18
16	23	Nick Heidfeld	Mahindra	44	+1 Lap	10
17	27	Kamui Kobayashi	Andretti-BMW	44	Gearbox	16
18	6	Neel Jani	Dragon-Penske	44	Suspension	19
Ret	68	Luca Filippi	NIO	36	Track rod	9
DSQ	66	Daniel Abt	Audi	45	Disqualified9	3
Source:[57]

Notes:

• ^7  — Three points for pole position.^[16]
• ^8  — Felix Rosenqvist won the one point for the fastest lap as Lucas di Grassi did not finish in the top ten.^[57][16]
• ^9 — Daniel Abt was disqualified after FIA stewards discovered the bar codes on his car's inverter and motor-generator unit did not match those on its technical passport provided to Audi.^[66]

Notes

References