2017 Mexico City ePrix

Background

The Mexico City ePrix was confirmed as part of Formula E's 2016–17 series schedule in September 2016 by the FIA World Motor Sport Council.^[2] It was the fourth of twelve scheduled single-seater electric car races of the 2016–17 season, the second running of the event, and was held on 1 April 2017 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.^[3] The ePrix was the only race of the season that took place on a permanent race track which consists of a mixture between the Grand Prix and oval layouts and is 2.092 kilometres (1.300 mi) long with 17 corners.^[4][5] The circuit underwent changes following the previous year's running of the race with the first corner altered to become a right-hand turn and the final chicane was modified to prevent drivers from short-cutting the corner in order to gain an advantage.^[6]

Before the race, e.Dams-Renault driver Sébastien Buemi led the Drivers' Championship with 75 points, ahead of nearest rival Lucas di Grassi in second and third-placed Nico Prost. Jean-Éric Vergne was fourth on 22 points and Felix Rosenqvist rounded out the top five with 20 points.^[7] e.Dams-Renault were leading the Teams' Championship with 111 points; Audi Sport ABT were in second place on 60 points, and Mahindra in third with 37 points. NextEV stood in fourth on 25 points and were three points ahead of Techeetah in the battle for the position.^[7] e.Dams-Renault and Buemi had dominated the championship, winning the season's three previous races. Di Grassi, Sam Bird and Vergne had all finished in second place once, while Mahindra drivers Nick Heidfeld and Rosenqvist, along with Di Grassi, had each secured third position results.^[7]

After being stripped of the victory in previous year's race because of an underweight car, Audi Sport ABT team principal Hans-Jurgen Abt said his team's objective was to get onto the podium. He acknowledged that getting the victory would not be easy because of the competitiveness of the field.^[8] After retiring from the preceding Buenos Aires ePrix, Bird stated that he would enter the Mexico City race with a positive attitude and affirmed his belief in his team and he felt there was a possibility of getting onto the podium in the event they perform well in qualifying.^[9] Mitch Evans reiterated that despite Jaguar not scoring points in the season's opening three races, the Buenos Aires race showed that he was becoming more confident and wanted to carry over his momentum from the four-month break. He also said he was excited to compete in the Mexico City ePrix.^[10]

There was one driver change going into the race. Having been in one of the Techeetah cars since the opening round of the season in Hong Kong, Ma Qinghua was replaced by the former Haas driver Esteban Gutiérrez.^[11] Gutiérrez announced he was entering the series in January 2017 and explored seats with three teams before signing a contract with Techeetah.^[12] The change was prompted because of Ma's poor performance in the seven races he competed in Formula E,^[12] but remained with Techeetah as their third driver.^[11] Gutiérrez stated in a press release that he was thankful to join the team and hoped he would perform well among the presence of the Mexican spectators at the track. "After four years of incredible experience in F1, I’m now taking a step forward in the future of motorsports. I am especially excited about my debut race in Mexico City," he said.^[11] Buemi, Stéphane Sarrazin (Venturi) and José María López (Virgin) missed shakedown because they attended the launch of the 2017 Toyota TS050 Hybrid at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza. The latter two were deputised by defending Formula V8 3.5 Series champion Tom Dillmann and former GP2 Series driver Alex Lynn.^[13]

Practice and qualifying

Two practice sessions—both on Saturday morning—were held before the Saturday late afternoon race. The first session ran for 45 minutes; the second for 30 minutes.^[14] The 30-minute shakedown session took place on Friday afternoon and had Bird record the fastest lap at one minute and 8.737 seconds. Evans placed second and Oliver Turvey in placed third.^[15] Vergne and his teammate Gutiérrez were handed three-place suspended grid penalties for exceeding their electrical power allowances under full course yellow conditions in shakedown.^[16] Both practice sessions took place in warm and dry weather conditions.^[17] After arriving in Mexico City early on Saturday morning, Buemi (despite being delayed by Gutiérrez) used the 200 kilowatts (270 hp) available to him and was quickest in the first practice session with a time of one minute and 2.222 seconds, half a second faster than Loïc Duval, who placed second. Duval's Dragon teammate Jérôme d'Ambrosio placed third. Vergne was the fourth-fastest, ahead of Robin Frijns and Bird. Sarrazin, di Grassi, Daniel Abt and Evans rounded out the session's top ten drivers.^[16] The first practice session was held on a dusty track,^[18] causing Felix Rosenqvist, Frijns, López and Nelson Piquet Jr. all spin and Maro Engel temporarily stopped his car on track with a battery management problem, necessitating a brief showing of the full course yellow flag.^[16][19] Frijns was investigated for performing a dangerous manoeuvre but no action was taken.^[18]

In the second practice session, Buemi was the fastest driver with a lap time of one minute and 2.164 seconds; Di Grassi and Vergne were one-tenth of a second behind in second and third. Heidfeld placed fourth; Abt was fifth-fastest and Piquet sixth. Engel was seventh-fastest, António Félix da Costa eighth, Turvey ninth and Duval completed the top ten ahead of qualifying.^[20] During the session, where teams assessed their car's thermal management in preparation for the race,^[21] Bird and Piquet locked their tyres and went off into the turn one run-off area,^[20][22] while Abt stopped on the start/finish straight but was able to restart his car. Duval and Frijns spun within moments of each other. López lost control of his car at the final chicane,^[20] and later heavily damaged his vehicle's front-right corner in the session's closing minutes by steering too early for turn 14 and collided with the barrier.^[22] The fastest 13 drivers were covered by under one second, indicating there would be a tightly-contested midfield battle.^[21]

Oliver Turvey (pictured in 2012) had the first pole position of his career after Daniel Abt was penalised for a tyre pressure infringement.

Saturday afternoon's qualifying session ran for 60 minutes 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.^[14] The session was held in dry and warm weather conditions.^[17] Drivers complained of a lack of grip early in qualifying but the track was cleaned by cars driving on it and lap times were thus lowered.^[23][24]

In the first group of five runners, Heidfeld paced the session, almost one-tenth of a second faster than Bird in second, who in turn, was a further three-tenths of a second in front of third-placed Buemi who went wide at the first corner on his first timed lap despite being in clean air.^[23][24] Evans and di Grassi (who made a mistake in turn 17) were the group's slowest two drivers.^[23] Turvey was fastest in the second group and set the quickest overall group stage time of any driver at one minute and 2.712 seconds, 0.053 seconds faster than Abt. López, Félix da Costa and Sarrazin rounded out the top five.^[24] In the third group, after the previous four drivers went onto the track, Duval was on his maximum power lap when he spun heading towards the first corner and made contact with the barriers lining the circuit,^[24] causing the session to be stopped to allow his car to be extracted from the track.^[23] After the session restarted with three minutes remaining,^[24] Vergne was the third group's fastest driver,^[23] followed by Prost who lost half a second in the second sector. Frijns, Piquet and Duval filled the next three positions.^[24]

Engel was the quickest driver in the fourth group, and finished ahead of d'Ambrosio and Rosenqvist who struggled for decent pace.^[24] Gutiérrez and Adam Carroll were the fourth group's slowest two drivers. At the end of group qualifying, the lap times set by Abt, Engel, López, Turvey and Vergne were fast enough to enable them progression into super pole.^[23] Vergne was the first to attempt to record a super pole lap time; he was unable to achieve a rhythm and placed fifth.^[23][24] Engel was slower in the track's first sector,^[24] but went faster in the second part of the track by two-tenths of a second to clinch third.^[23] López went quicker in the circuit's first two sectors but was unable to go faster in the final sector and was restricted to qualifying fourth.^[24] Abt was two-tenths of a second quicker than the previous three drivers in the first sector. Although he lost a small amount of time in the second sector, Abt took provisional pole position with a time of one minute and 2.711 seconds.^[23][24] Turvey lost time while completing his lap and qualified second. The result would have meant Abt securing his first pole position of the season, the second of his career,^[24] and his first since the 2015 Long Beach ePrix,^[25] but his car's tyre pressures were found to have been below the mandated minimum pressure of 1.60-bar (160 kPa). Abt was consequently demoted to 18th.^[26] Further grid penalties were applied when Engel and his teammate Sarrazin dropped ten places because of them changing their gearboxes.^[27] The application of Abt's penalty meant Turvey secured the first pole position of his career.^[23] After penalties, the rest of the field lined up as Bird, Félix da Costa, Buemi, Rosenqvist, Gutiérrez, Carroll, Evans, Engel, Prost, Frijns, di Grassi, Piquet, Sarrazin, Abt, d'Ambrosio and Duval.^[17]

Race

José María López (pictured in 2014), who moved into the lead, after Turvey retired, and held the first position for 13 laps.

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.^[14] For the Mexico City race, Abt, di Grassi and Buemi were handed the extra power and the results of the vote were announced on the sixth lap.^[28] Weather conditions at the start of the race were dry and sunny. The air temperature throughout the ePrix was between 26.9 to 27.5 °C (80.4 to 81.5 °F) and the track temperature ranged from 22.8 to 23.3 °C (73.0 to 73.9 °F);^[17] conditions were expected to remain consistent and no rain was forecast.^[3] When the race started at 16:00 Central Daylight Time (UTC–05:00) before 36,000 attendees,^[5][29] Turvey made a clean getaway to maintain his pole position advantage heading into the first corner with López close behind in second place.^[30] Vergne attempted to overtake López around the inside but Heidfeld turned right onto the outside line and took third from him.^[31] A concertina effect occurred between turns three and five,^[30] which saw Engel collide with the back of di Grassi's car, damaging the latter's rear wing. Di Grassi was required to make a pit stop for a rear wing replacement.^[31]

Duval and Abt made the best starts in the field, gaining two positions by the end of the first lap while Piquet lost three positions over the same distance. At the end of the first lap, Turvey led from López, who in turn, was followed by Heidfeld, Vergne, Bird, Félix da Costa, Rosenqvist, Buemi, Carroll, Evans, Gutiérrez, Engel, Prost, di Grassi, Frijns, Abt, d'Ambrosio, Duval, Piquet and Sarrazin.^[17] The stewards deployed the safety car on the second lap to allow marshals to clear debris in the chicane. Prost made a pit stop for a nose cone replacement while Sarrazin elected to switch into his second car. Di Grassi rejoined the race on the same lap as the leading drivers but was now at the back of the field.^[30][31] Turvey led the field back up to speed at the lap-five restart, closely followed by López. Buemi immediately attacked Rosenqvist, passing him for sixth place and started to draw closer to Bird.^[30] López began to pressure Turvey for the lead with Heidfeld and Vergne close in arrears. Jaguar teammates Evans and Carroll began battling for eighth while Gutiérrez lost tenth to both Andretti cars of Félix da Costa and Frijns. Abt gained further positions to run in 12th.^[31] At the entry to turn 13, Turvey had power issues with his car,^[32] and slowed on the start/finish straight, handing the lead to López. Turvey stopped at the turn one exit.^[33]

Turvey's team asked him to reset his vehicle and a yellow flag was shown to warn drivers about his stranded car. After three laps, however, he was unable to restart his vehicle and retired, causing the safety car to be sent onto the track for the second time.^[30][32] With the field closed up, di Grassi and d'Ambrosio opted to make the mandatory switch into their second cars on the 18th lap. Although the switch would allow di Grassi and d'Ambrosio to gain positions when other drivers made their stops, it required them to conserve electrical energy towards the race's conclusion.^[30][31] The race restarted when the safety car drove into the pit lane on the following lap with López remaining in first place, followed by Heidfeld, Vergne, Bird and Buemi.^[31] López built a small lead over the rest of the field and attention switched to Heidfeld who came under pressure from Vergne, Bird, Buemi and Rosenqvist.^[33] Although he had enough electrical energy to do another lap,^[31] Vergne became the first of the leading drivers to make a pit stop to switch into his second car at the end of lap 24 in an effort to drive in clean air and undercut the field.^[30] The rest of the field followed in response one lap later. Swift work from López's team allowed him to remain narrowly ahead of Vergne, who in turn, moved in front of Heidfeld.^[33] The Mahindra driver lost seven positions while Buemi moved from fifth to tenth, both as a result of slow pit stops.^[31] Prost led the field for one lap before making his stop on lap 26.^[28]

Di Grassi took over the lead with d'Ambrosio second; both drivers were half a lap ahead of the battling drivers, who had more available electrical energy. Félix da Costa and his teammate Frijns joined the leading group of drivers after being under the minimum pit stop time by three seconds. The safety was deployed for the third (and final) time when Duval stopped on track after leaving the chicane with a battery issue, ending his race prematurely. This allowed the field to close up to di Grassi and d'Ambrosio.^[33][34] The safety car drove into the pit lane on lap 30 and di Grassi held the lead at the restart.^[28] Vergne immediately pushed hard and attempted to pass López for third but the two drivers made contact at the turn three chicane. He attempted the same manoeuvre one lap later but López cut the chicane to avoid hitting Vergne who demanded over the radio that López cede the position.^[30] Both Andretti cars were investigated because their pit stop times were faster the minimum permitted time of one minute because the team believed it was 57 seconds.^[28][35] López drew near to d'Ambrosio and Vergne remained close behind López. The battle allowed di Grassi to pull away from the field.^[30][31]

Lucas di Grassi (pictured in 2016) made an early pit stop into his second car and conserved electrical energy to win the race.

Félix da Costa slowed and stopped his car on the 33rd lap with a broken driveshaft, causing him to retire. His teammate Frijns was issued with a drive-through penalty for being below the minimum pit stop time.^[28][33][36] Two laps later, López pushed hard and steered onto the outside line in an attempt to pass d'Ambrosio but spun under braking for the first corner, sliding into the turn's run-off area.^[30][31] Buemi activated FanBoost and lined up an overtake on Rosenqvist (who locked his front tyres) but spun under braking for turn one,^[37] and narrowly avoided striking López's stranded car. Both drivers fell down the order.^[31] The electrical power in Engel's car depleted slowly after exiting turns five and six, curtailing his race.^[36] Buemi earned one point for recording the race's fastest lap on lap 40, a one minute and 3.102 seconds.^[17] D'Ambrosio continued to hold back Vergne and the remaining seven cars behind him had more electrical energy available.^[31] D'Ambrosio locked his tyres under braking for the first corner, allowing Vergne to pass him for second place.^[28][33] Vergne then started to draw closer to di Grassi.^[30]

Prost attacked Heidfeld but collided with the rear of his car at turn eight, send him spinning into the path of his teammate Rosenqvist, who was unable to swerve to avoid him, and ploughed into his vehicle.^[28][31][33] It came after Rosenqvist was sent airborne following contact with Evans's rear wheel.^[36] Despite his vehicle's rear sustaining damage, Evans told his team over the radio that he could continue,^[38] but Rosenqvist was forced to retire.^[39] Prost however was delayed long enough to allow Evans move ahead of him for fifth place.^[38] Heidfeld was unhurt and was able to rejoin the race.^[39] On lap 44,^[31] D'Ambrosio lost third position to Bird who passed him around the outside at turn three.^[34] D'Ambrosio then ran out of electrical energy, allowing Gutiérrez into tenth. Di Grassi conserved his electrical energy usage and crossed the start/finish line after 45 laps to win his first race of the season and the fifth of his career.^[40][31] Di Grassi's victory ended e.Dams-Renault's streak of six consecutive victories, extending back to the 2016 Berlin ePrix.^[29] Vergne finished second, 1.966 seconds behind with Bird in third, Evans fourth and Prost fifth. López recovered from his lap 35 spin to secure sixth place, and Abt took seventh.^[33] Carroll, Piquet and Gutiérrez completed the top ten. Frijns, Heidfeld, Buemi and d'Ambrosio, Sarrazin and Rosenqvist were the last of the classified finishers.^[17] Four drivers led the field and the lead changed three times during the course of the ePrix. Di Grassi led once for a total of 19 laps, more than any other competitor.^[17]

Post-race

The top three drivers appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and spoke to the media in a later press conference. When asked about how he performed his comeback, di Grassi said he did not know but praised his mechanics for their work.^[41] He stated that the race showed that Formula E could switch to "Heaven to Hell in one go",^[42] and said he felt if the third safety car period had not intervened, he could have managed his advantage over Vergne. He also revealed that on three occasions during the race, he believed that the possibility of him securing the victory had ended.^[43] Vergne, who finished in second, had mixed emotions, spoke of his feeling that the victory was in his grasp but was happy that he secured a place on the podium and was in contention for the championship: "We started very far away but I know I’m in the right team with the right car to win the championship. I think we’re coming back a little bit better and we’re getting stronger every race as a team."^[34] Third-place finisher Bird said that it was "a good race" for everyone who watched the event on television and the sport. He stated that felt the action observed in the race was positive for the series. Bird also said he was happy with the passing manoeuvre he performed on d'Ambrosio and reserved praise for his team.^[34]

Vergne was angry with d'Ambrosio's defensive driving and found the manner d'Ambrosio performed the manoeuvres as not being "acceptable and fair". He described d'Ambrosio's tactics as "totally stupid" and that it prevented him from winning the race and questioned his intelligence. Vergne revealed that d'Ambrosio wanted to have a conservation about the manoeuvres but Vergne did not wish to speak to him.^[44] D'Ambrosio argued that his defensive driving was fair, saying that he was doing his own race. He argued that in the event that the sport's governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, felt he was overly aggressive, he would be notified and issued a warning D'Ambrosio said that from his point of view, he steered into the corner early and argued that he did not change his line: "Sure, I didn’t give much space but this is racing. I understand it can be frustrating but everyone is doing their own race and it’s what the fans want to see.”^[44] He felt he could have achieved a maximum finishing position of fifth but the energy targets displayed on his steering wheel dashboard did not match those provided to him by Dragon, which caused him to push hard until his team realised they were mistaken.^[44] Vergne changed his verdict on the clash weeks later after admitting he was not aware that d'Ambrosio had incorrect information relayed to him and felt he had performed "a great race". "Things like this can happen. I don't think there are any more worries about it", he said.^[45]

The stewards elected not to take any action over the incident between Prost and Heidfeld on the race's 44th lap.^[46] Heidfeld spoke of his belief the origins of the accident came from both Andretti cars being released under the minimum pit stop time, saying he drove onto the pit lane alongside Félix da Costa and ceded the position to the Andretti driver. He additionally stated that Bird was also involved and remained ahead of him.^[46] Prost was resolute that the contact was avoidable had he been given enough space by Heidfeld. He was confident the stewards would agree with his point of view. "I was on the kerb and he did not leave me any room at all when I was at his side", he said.^[46] Evans thought after he was hit by Rosenqvist, he could not finish the race and said he felt his Jaguar would not survive such a collision in a similar scenario. Nevertheless, he was delighted with his first points-scoring finish in the series, saying: "Those first points are always the hardest. We know we've not got the best package but we're making great progress and everyone should be really proud."^[38] Jaguar team principal James Barclay said the incident was the moment when "our hearts sunk". He stated he felt there was no possibility of finishing the race but praised the strength of the Jaguar's monocoque.^[38]

The result meant Buemi remained the Drivers' Championship leader on 76 points, but his advantage over di Grassi was reduced from 29 points to five. Prost remained in third position on 46 points while Vergne's second-place finish allowed him to be six points in arrears of the French driver. Bird's third-place result enabled him to move ahead of Rosenqvist for fifth.^[7] Audi Sport ABT's result allowed them to reduce the gap to Teams' Championship leaders e.Dams-Renault to 31 points behind the team. Virgin and Techeetah (on 43 and 41 points respectively) moved ahead of Mahindra with eight rounds left in the season.^[7]

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Grid
1	88	Oliver Turvey	NextEV NIO	1:02.867	—	1
2	5	Maro Engel	Venturi	1:03.045	+0.178	121
3	37	José María López	Virgin-Citröen	1:03.072	+0.205	2
4	25	Jean-Éric Vergne	Techeetah-Renault	1:03.202	+0.335	3
5	23	Nick Heidfeld	Mahindra	1:03.022	+0.155	4
6	2	Sam Bird	Virgin-Citröen	1:03.099	+0.232	5
7	28	António Félix da Costa	Andretti-BMW	1:03.363	+0.496	6
8	9	Sébastien Buemi	e.dams-Renault	1:03.402	+0.535	7
9	19	Felix Rosenqvist	Mahindra	1:03.425	+0.548	8
10	4	Stéphane Sarrazin	Venturi	1:03.491	+0.624	171
11	33	Esteban Gutiérrez	Techeetah-Renault	1:03.509	+0.642	9
12	47	Adam Carroll	Jaguar	1:03.553	+0.676	10
13	20	Mitch Evans	Jaguar	1:03.563	+0.686	11
14	8	Nico Prost	e.dams-Renault	1:03.589	+0.722	13
15	27	Robin Frijns	Andretti-BMW	1:03.688	+0.821	14
16	11	Lucas di Grassi	Audi Sport ABT	1:03.690	+0.823	15
17	3	Nelson Piquet Jr.	NextEV NIO	1:04.082	+1.285	16
18	6	Loïc Duval	Dragon-Penske	1:11.575	+8.718	20
19	66	Daniel Abt	Audi Sport ABT	—	—	182
20	7	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon-Penske	—	—	19
Source:[17]

Notes:

• ^1  — Maro Engel and Stéphane Sarrazin both received a ten-place grid penalty for changing their gearboxes.^[27]
• ^2  — Daniel Abt had his lap times deleted because his car's tyre pressure was found to be below the minimum mandated.^[26]

Race

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	11	Lucas di Grassi	Audi Sport ABT	45	56'27.535	15	25
2	25	Jean-Éric Vergne	Techeetah-Renault	45	+1.966	3	18
3	2	Sam Bird	Virgin-Citröen	45	+7.480	5	153
4	20	Mitch Evans	Jaguar	45	+9.770	11	12
5	8	Nico Prost	e.dams-Renault	45	+9.956	13	10
6	37	José María López	Virgin-Citröen	45	+10.631	2	8
7	66	Daniel Abt	Audi Sport ABT	45	+11.694	18	6
8	47	Adam Carroll	Jaguar	45	+13.722	10	4
9	3	Nelson Piquet Jr.	NextEV NIO	45	+14.156	16	2
10	33	Esteban Gutiérrez	Techeetah-Renault	45	+15.717	9	1
11	27	Robin Frijns	Andretti-BMW	45	+21.459	14
12	23	Nick Heidfeld	Mahindra	45	+27.232	4
13	7	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon-Penske	45	+1.01.365	19
14	9	Sébastien Buemi	e.dams-Renault	45	+1.09.646	7	12
15	4	Stéphane Sarrazin	Venturi	44	+1 Lap	17
16	19	Felix Rosenqvist	Mahindra	43	+2 Laps	8
Ret	5	Maro Engel	Venturi	38	Power	12
Ret	28	António Félix da Costa	Andretti-BMW	32	Gearbox	6
Ret	6	Loïc Duval	Dragon-Penske	25	Battery	20
Ret	88	Oliver Turvey	NextEV NIO	12	Battery	1	31
Source:[17]

Notes:

• ^1  — Three points for pole position.^[14]
• ^2  — One point for fastest lap.^[14]
• ^3  — Sam Bird had two seconds added to his race time for an unsafe pit stop release.^[29]