Mexico City ePrix 2017

Mexico City ePrix 2017

Racing data
4th of 12 races in the FIA Formula E Championship 2016/17
Surname:	2017 FIA Formula E Mexico City ePrix
Date:	April 1, 2017
Place:	Mexico City , Mexico
Course:	Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez
Length:	94.185 km in 45 laps of 2.093 km
Pole position
Driver:	Oliver Turvey	NextEV NOK
Time:	1: 02.863 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Sébastien Buemi	Renault e.dams
Time:	1: 03.102 min (lap 40)
Podium
First:	Lucas di Grassi	ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport
Second:	Jean-Éric Vergne	Techeetah
Third:	Sam Bird	DS Virgin Racing Formula E Team

The Mexico City ePrix 2017 (officially: 2017 FIA Formula E Mexico City ePrix ) took place on April 1st at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City and was the fourth race of the 2016/17 FIA Formula E Championship . It was the second Mexico City ePrix.

report

background

After the Buenos Aires ePrix , Sébastien Buemi led the drivers' standings with 29 points ahead of Lucas di Grassi and with 31 points ahead of Nicolas Prost . In the team standings, Renault e.dams was 51 points ahead of ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport and 74 points ahead of Mahindra Racing .

There were two changes to the route compared to the previous year: the narrow left-right chicane after the start-finish straight was replaced by a right-hand bend, and the last chicane was significantly narrowed so that the drivers don't take short cuts here. This increased the length of the route by one meter to 2093 meters.

Before the race there was a driver change at Techeetah , the so far pointless Ma Qinghua will be replaced by Esteban Gutiérrez for the rest of the season .

With Jérôme D'Ambrosio , a former winner entered the race.

Before the race, Venturi announced that it would use a modified transmission on the Venturi VM200-FE-02 for the race. Since it is forbidden to change gear during the season, both drivers will be moved back ten starting positions in the race.

Daniel Abt , Buemi and di Grassi received a so-called FanBoost , they were allowed to increase the output of their second vehicle to up to 200 kW and thus use up to 100 kilojoules of additional energy. Buemi and di Grassi received the fourth FanBoost in the fourth race of the season and the eleventh each in the FIA ​​Formula E Championship, for Abt it was the third FanBoost in a row. For the first time, the same drivers received the FanBoost in three consecutive races .

training

In the first free practice session, Buemi set the fastest time in 1: 02.222 minutes, ahead of Loïc Duval and D'Ambrosio.

Buemi also set the fastest time in the second free practice with a lap time of 1: 02.164 minutes ahead of di Grassi and Jean-Éric Vergne .

Qualifying

Qualifying started at 12:00 p.m. and took place in four groups of five drivers each, each group had six minutes in which the drivers had a maximum of one timed lap with an output of 170 kW and then a maximum of one timed lap with an output of 200 kW were allowed to drive. Qualifying had to be interrupted after an accident by Duval, who therefore did not qualify for the race. Oliver Turvey was fastest with a lap time of 1: 02.712 minutes.

The five fastest drivers then drove in the first five positions in the individual time trial called Superpole . Abt secured pole position with a lap time of 1: 02.711 minutes and thus three points. The other positions were occupied by Turvey, Maro Engel , José María López and Vergne. During the technical inspection after qualifying, Abt discovered that the tire pressure was too low, so his times were canceled. The same happened to D'Ambrosio.

run

The race lasted 45 laps.

At the start, the positions at the top remained unchanged. Di Grassi came off the track slightly in turn one and lost several positions. When braking at the following chicane, Stéphane Sarrazin hit di Grassi, both of them initially drove on with their damaged vehicles. Even Nicolas Prost went on angel on and damaged his front wing.

Because of the large amount of debris, the race management sent the safety car out onto the track. Di Grassi used this to have his rear wing changed, Sarrazin had his defective front wing replaced. Both fell back to the bottom of the field. Prost was shown the fried egg flag and had the front wing changed one lap later. His pit crew worked much faster, so that he only dropped to 14th place. Turvey led ahead of López, Heidfeld, Vergne, Sam Bird , Rosenqvist, Buemi, Carroll, Mitch Evans and Gutiérrez.

At the end of the fourth lap, the race was released again. The positions initially remained unchanged, but on the sixth lap Buemi overtook Rosenqvist. Vergne attacked Heidfeld, who however fended off the attack.

In the twelfth lap, Turvey slowed down and then stopped completely. It tried to restart the vehicle, but it failed. Prost attacked Robin Frijns on lap 16 , who was able to fend off the attack. Abbot used the situation and overtook Prost immediately afterwards. Shortly thereafter, Turvey got out of his car and the safety car was sent out again to recover the car. D'Ambrosio took the opportunity to change vehicles and then caught up again on the field. One lap later, di Grassi also drove to change vehicles, he fell back to last place and caught up with the field again.

At the end of the 18th lap, the race was released again. António Félix da Costa overtook Engel on lap 20, who shortly thereafter also had to let Evans pass. Di Grassi overtook D'Ambrosio on lap 23. One lap later, Vergne, Carroll, Nelson Piquet jr. and Gutiérrez pits to change vehicles, the minimum time for changing vehicles was 60 seconds. On lap 25, López, Heidfeld, Bird, Buemi, Rosenqvist, Félix da Costa, Evans, Engel, Frijns and Abt changed their vehicle, Duval parked his car on the track with a technical defect. With Prost, the last driver changed vehicles on lap 26. Di Grassi was leading around three seconds ahead of D'Ambrosio, another 30 seconds behind were López, Vergne, Bird, Félix da Costa, Heidfeld, Rosenqvist, Frijns and Buemi. The safety car came out again so that Duval could recover the car. As a result, the entire field was back within around eight seconds, with di Grassi and D'Ambrosio at the front having around 30 percent less residual energy than all the other drivers due to their early vehicle change.

At the end of lap 30 the race was released again. Félix da Costa and Frijns received drive-through penalties for falling short of the minimum pit stop time. Di Grassi took the lead, D'Ambrosio managed to keep López behind him. Vergne attacked López, the vehicles touched lightly. Félix da Costa slowed significantly and gave up the race with a technical problem. On lap 35, López attacked on the outside when approaching turn one , braking and turning. Buemi used his FanBoost to attack Rosenqvist at the same point, he also spun and fell back to the end of the field. Since he no longer saw any chance of reaching the points, he dropped back in order to set the fastest lap and thus get at least one point.

D'Ambrosio received instructions from his mechanics to save even more energy, as this would not last until the end of the race if the driving style remained unchanged. Behind him were Vergne, Bird, Heidfeld, Rosenqvist, Evans, Prost and Carroll, one behind the other. Vergne attacked D'Ambrosio several times, who fended off the attacks each time. Rosenqvist attacked Heidfeld, who was also defending himself, so Evans and Prost walked past him. Prost passed Evans shortly afterwards.

Vergne passed D'Ambrosio on lap 43 and quickly pulled away from him. Bird also tried to overtake D'Ambrosio but couldn't get past. Prost Heidfeld attacked behind, a collision occurred. Heidfeld spun and was hit first by Evans and then by Rosenqvist. Rosenqvist fell out with a broken suspension, Evans and Heidfeld were able to continue with their damaged vehicles. After the race, Renault.edams said in a press release that Prost was able to avoid the accident between Heidfeld and Rosenqvist, which led Heidfeld to refer to the press release on Twitter as alternative truth based on alternative facts .

On the last lap, D'Ambrosio ran out of energy, he could only reach the finish at slow speed and fell back to 13th place.

Di Grassi won ahead of Vergne and Bird. It was di Grassi's fifth victory in the FIA ​​Formula E Championship, the first of which this season. Vergne and Bird both achieved the second podium finish of the season. The remaining points placed were occupied by Evans, Prost, López, Abt, Carroll, Piquet and Gutiérrez. It was the first points for Evans, Carroll and the Jaguar team, as well as for Gutiérrez. The point for the fastest race lap went to Buemi, who thus scored at least one point in the 20th ePrix in a row.

The first three positions in the drivers' standings remained unchanged, while DS Virgin took third place from Mahindra in the team standings .

Registration list

All teams and drivers used Michelin tires .

team	vehicle	No.	driver
Renault e.dams	Renault ZE16	08th	Nicolas Prost
		09	Sébastien Buemi
ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport	ABT Schaeffler FE02	11	Lucas di Grassi
		66	Daniel Dept.
DS Virgin Racing Formula E Team	Virgin DSV-02	02	Sam Bird
		37	José María López
Faraday Future Dragon Racing	Penske 701-EV	06th	Loïc Duval
		07th	Jérôme D'Ambrosio
Mahindra Racing Formula E Team	Mahindra M3ELECTRO	19th	Felix Rosenqvist
		23	Nick Heidfeld
Venturi Formula E team	Venturi VM200-FE-02	04th	Stéphane Sarrazin
		05	Maro Engel
Andretti Formula E.	Andretti ATEC-02	27	Robin Frijns
		28	António Félix da Costa
Techeetah	Renault ZE16	25th	Jean-Éric Vergne
		33	Esteban Gutiérrez
NextEV NOK	NextEV 700R	03	Nelson Piquet Jr.
		88	Oliver Turvey
Panasonic Jaguar Racing	Jaguar I-Type 1	20th	Mitch Evans
		47	Adam Carroll

Classifications

Qualifying

Item	driver	team	time	Super pole	begin
01	Oliver Turvey	NextEV NOK	1: 02.712	1: 02.863	01
02	Maro Engel	Venturi Formula E team	1: 02.974	1: 03.045	12
03	José María López	DS Virgin Racing Formula E Team	1: 02.831	1: 03.072	02
04th	Jean-Éric Vergne	Techeetah	1: 02.983	1: 03.202	03
05	Nick Heidfeld	Mahindra Racing Formula E Team	1: 03.022	-	04th
06th	Sam Bird	DS Virgin Racing Formula E Team	1: 03.099	-	05
07th	António Félix da Costa	Andretti Formula E.	1: 03.363	-	06th
08th	Sébastien Buemi	Renault e.dams	1: 03,402	-	07th
09	Felix Rosenqvist	Mahindra Racing Formula E Team	1: 03.425	-	08th
10	Stéphane Sarrazin	Venturi Formula E team	1: 03.491	-	17th
11	Esteban Gutiérrez	Techeetah	1: 03.509	-	09
12	Adam Carroll	Panasonic Jaguar Racing	1: 03.553	-	10
13	Mitch Evans	Panasonic Jaguar Racing	1: 03.563	-	11
14th	Nicolas Prost	Renault e.dams	1: 03.589	-	13
15th	Robin Frijns	Andretti Formula E.	1: 03.688	-	14th
16	Lucas di Grassi	ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport	1: 03.690	-	15th
17th	Nelson Piquet Jr.	NextEV NOK	1: 04.082	-	16
110 percent time : 1: 08.938 min (based on the best time of 1: 02.712 min)
DSQ	Daniel Dept.	ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport	1: 02.765	1: 02.711	18th
DSQ	Jérôme D'Ambrosio	Faraday Future Dragon Racing	1: 03.366	-	19th
-	Loïc Duval	Faraday Future Dragon Racing	1: 11.575	-	20th

Remarks

1. ↑ Engel was moved back ten starting positions due to a gearbox change.
2. ↑ Sarrazin was moved back ten starting positions because of a gear change.
3. ↑ Abt's qualifying times have been canceled due to insufficient tire pressure.
4. ↑ D'Ambrosio's qualifying times have been canceled due to insufficient tire pressure.
5. ↑ Although he did not qualify, Duval was allowed to start because he was fast enough in free practice.

run

Item	driver	team	Round	time	begin	Fastest lap
01	Lucas di Grassi	ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport	45	56: 27.335	15th	1: 04,360 (40th)
02	Jean-Éric Vergne	Techeetah	45	+ 1.966	03	1: 03.334 (26.)
03	Sam Bird	DS Virgin Racing Formula E Team	45	+ 7.480	05	1: 03,599 (27.)
04th	Mitch Evans	Panasonic Jaguar Racing	45	+ 9.770	11	1: 04,250 (36th)
05	Nicolas Prost	Renault e.dams	45	+ 9,956	13	1: 04,112 (34th)
06th	José María López	DS Virgin Racing Formula E Team	45	+ 10.631	02	1: 03.735 (21st)
07th	Daniel Dept.	ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport	45	+ 11.694	18th	1: 04.108 (39th)
08th	Adam Carroll	Panasonic Jaguar Racing	45	+ 13.722	10	1: 04.479 (39th)
09	Nelson Piquet Jr.	NextEV NOK	45	+ 14.156	16	1: 04.096 (32nd)
10	Esteban Gutiérrez	Techeetah	45	+ 15.717	09	1: 40.276 (20.)
11	Robin Frijns	Andretti Formula E.	45	+ 21,459	14th	1: 03.787 (27.)
12	Nick Heidfeld	Mahindra Racing Formula E Team	45	+ 27.232	04th	1: 03.864 (27.)
13	Sébastien Buemi	Renault e.dams	45	+1: 01.365	07th	1: 03.102 (40.)
14th	Jérôme D'Ambrosio	Faraday Future Dragon Racing	45	+1: 09.646	19th	1: 04.476 (10.)
15th	Stéphane Sarrazin	Venturi Formula E team	44	+ 1 lap	17th	1: 03,384 (40th)
16	Felix Rosenqvist	Mahindra Racing Formula E Team	43	DNF	08th	1: 04.021 (36th)
-	Maro Engel	Venturi Formula E team	38	DNF	12	1: 04.172 (22.)
-	António Félix da Costa	Andretti Formula E.	32	DNF	06th	1: 03.972 (27.)
-	Loïc Duval	Faraday Future Dragon Racing	25th	DNF	20th	1: 04,152 (14th)
-	Oliver Turvey	NextEV NOK	12	DNF	01	1: 04.636 (10.)

Remarks

1. ↑ Bird subsequently received a two-second time penalty for an unsafe release .
2. ↑ D'Ambrosio subsequently received a drive-through penalty, which was converted into a 37-second time penalty, because he had skipped a chicane and drove back onto the track without stopping.

Championship stands after the race

The first ten of the race got 25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1 point (s) respectively. There were also three points for pole position and one point for the fastest race lap.

Driver ranking

Item driver team Points 01  Sébastien Buemi  Renault e.dams 76 02  Lucas di Grassi  ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport 71 03  Nicolas Prost  Renault e.dams 46 04th  Jean-Éric Vergne  Techeetah 40 05  Sam Bird  DS Virgin Racing Formula E Team 33 06th  Felix Rosenqvist  Mahindra Racing Formula E Team 20th 07th  Daniel Dept.  ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport 20th 08th  Nick Heidfeld  Mahindra Racing Formula E Team 17th 09  Nelson Piquet Jr.  NextEV NOK 15th 10  Oliver Turvey  NextEV NOK 15th 11  Mitch Evans  Panasonic Jaguar Racing 12

Item driver team Points 12  António Félix da Costa  Andretti Formula E. 10 13  José María López  DS Virgin Racing Formula E Team 10 14th  Jérôme D'Ambrosio  Faraday Future Dragon Racing 10 15th  Loïc Duval  Faraday Future Dragon Racing 9 16  Robin Frijns  Andretti Formula E. 8th 17th  Adam Carroll  Panasonic Jaguar Racing 4th 18th  Maro Engel  Venturi Formula E team 2 19th  Stéphane Sarrazin  Venturi Formula E team 1 20th  Esteban Gutiérrez  Techeetah 1 21st  Qinghua Ma  Techeetah 0

Team evaluation

Item team Points 01  Renault e.dams 122 02  ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport 91 03  DS Virgin Racing Formula E Team 43 04th  Techeetah 41 05  Mahindra Racing Formula E Team 37

Item team Points 06th  NextEV NOK 30th 07th  Faraday Future Dragon Racing 19th 08th  Andretti Formula E. 18th 09  Panasonic Jaguar Racing 16 10  Venturi Formula E team 3

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tobias Bluhm: Mexico City: Small changes to the layout. e-Formel.de, March 31, 2017, accessed on March 31, 2017 . 
2. ↑ Tobias Bluhm: Officially: Esteban Gutierrez replaces Ma Qing Hua at Techeetah. e-Formel.de, March 9, 2017, accessed on March 13, 2017 . 
3. ↑ Venturi Modifies Gearbox - Penalties for Engel & Sarrazin in Mexico. e-Formel.de, March 31, 2017, accessed on March 31, 2017 . 
4. ↑ Tobias Bluhm: PENALTY! - Daniel Abt loses pole position in Mexico City. e-Formel.de, April 1, 2017, accessed April 1, 2017 . 
5. ↑ Maria Reyer: Formula E Mexico: Abt loses his pole, Turvey is happy! Motorsport-Total.com, April 1, 2017, accessed April 1, 2017 . 
6. ^ Norman Fischer: "Alternative Truth": Heidfeld is astonished about Renault. Motorsport-Total.com, April 3, 2017, accessed April 4, 2017 .