2015 Buenos Aires ePrix

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2015 Buenos Aires ePrix
Race 4 of 11 of the 2014–15 Formula E season
Buenos Aires Formula e.svg
Layout of the Puerto Madero Street Circuit
Race details
Date10 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 miles)
Distance 35 laps, 84.245 km (52.347 miles)
Pole position
Driver e.dams-Renault
Time 1:09.134
Fastest lap
Driver Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Sam Bird Virgin Racing
Time 1:11.540 on lap 29
Podium
First Amlin Aguri
Second e.dams-Renault
Third China Racing
Lap leaders
  • 2015 Buenos Aires ePrix
Puerto Madero Street Circuit, previous to the 2015 Buenos Aires ePrix. Largada y grilla.jpg
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.

Contents

Report

Background

Nick Heidfeld, Jean-Éric Vergne, and Bruno Senna were voted to receive the FanBoost (an extra 30 kW 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.DriverTeamTimeGapGrid
19 Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Sébastien Buemi e.dams-Renault 1:09.134-1
23 Flag of Spain.svg Jaime Alguersuari Virgin Racing 1:09.161+0.0272
323 Flag of Germany.svg Nick Heidfeld Venturi 1:09.367+0.2333
42 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Sam Bird Virgin Racing 1:09.388+0.2544
511 Flag of Brazil.svg Lucas di Grassi Audi Sport ABT 1:09.521+0.3875
627 Flag of France.svg Jean-Éric Vergne Andretti 1:09.527+0.3936
78 Flag of France.svg Nicolas Prost e.dams-Renault 1:09.636+0.5027
855 Flag of Portugal.svg António Félix da Costa Amlin Aguri 1:09.658+0.5248
999 Flag of Brazil.svg Nelson Piquet Jr. China Racing 1:09.742+0.6089
105 Flag of India.svg Karun Chandhok Mahindra Racing 1:09.875+0.74110
1130 Flag of France.svg Stéphane Sarrazin Venturi 1:10.165+1.03111
1266 Flag of Germany.svg Daniel Abt Audi Sport ABT 1:10.329+1.19512
136 Flag of Spain.svg Oriol Servià Dragon Racing 1:10.588+1.45413
1428 Flag of the United States.svg Marco Andretti Andretti 1:10.713+1.57914
1588 Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Ho-Pin Tung China Racing 1:11.049+1.91515
1623 Flag of Mexico.svg Salvador Durán Amlin Aguri 1:11.331+2.19716
1718 Flag of Italy.svg Michela Cerruti Trulli 1:11.785+2.65117
187 Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Jérôme d'Ambrosio Dragon Racing 1:12.239+3.105PL
1921 Flag of Brazil.svg Bruno Senna Mahindra Racing 1:13.209+4.07519
2010 Flag of Italy.svg Jarno Trulli Trulli No time20 1

Race

Pos.No.DriverTeamLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
155 Flag of Portugal.svg António Félix da Costa Amlin Aguri 3548:52.100825
28 Flag of France.svg Nicolas Prost e.dams-Renault 35+5.354s718
399 Flag of Brazil.svg Nelson Piquet Jr. China Racing 35+8.552s915
43 Flag of Spain.svg Jaime Alguersuari Virgin Racing 35+11.148s212
521 Flag of Brazil.svg Bruno Senna Mahindra Racing 35+11.535s1910
627 Flag of France.svg Jean-Éric Vergne Andretti 35+13.319s68
72 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Sam Bird Virgin Racing 35+13.617s46+2 2
823 Flag of Germany.svg Nick Heidfeld Venturi 35+15.46434
96 Flag of Spain.svg Oriol Servià Dragon Racing 35+19.334132
1030 Flag of France.svg Stéphane Sarrazin Venturi 35+28.973111
1188 Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Ho-Pin Tung China Racing 35+37.858 3 15
1228 Flag of the United States.svg Marco Andretti Andretti 34+1 lap14
1366 Flag of Germany.svg Daniel Abt Audi Sport ABT 33Collision 4 12
147 Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Jérôme d'Ambrosio Dragon Racing 33+2 lapsPL
Ret10 Flag of Italy.svg Jarno Trulli Trulli 30Mechanical20
Ret11 Flag of Brazil.svg Lucas di Grassi Audi Sport ABT 26Suspension5
Ret9 Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Sébastien Buemi e.dams-Renault 23Suspension13 1
Ret18 Flag of Italy.svg Michela Cerruti Trulli 20Mechanical17
Ret5 Flag of India.svg Karun Chandhok Mahindra Racing 15Suspension10
DSQ77 Flag of Mexico.svg Salvador Durán Amlin Aguri 35+14.724s 5 16

Notes:

Standings after the race

References

  1. "Post-race penalties Buenos Aires ePrix - Official FIA Formula E Championship". Archived from the original on 2015-01-14. Retrieved 2015-01-12.
Previous race:
2014 Punta del Este ePrix
FIA Formula E Championship
2014–15 season
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2015 Miami ePrix
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Buenos Aires ePrix Next race:
2016 Buenos Aires ePrix