Rome E-Prix 2018

Rome E-Prix 2018

Racing data
7th of 12 races of the FIA Formula E Championship 2017/18
Surname:	2018 CBMM Niobium Rome E-Prix Presented By Mercedes EQ
Date:	April 14, 2018
Place:	Rome
Course:	Circuito cittadino dell'EUR
Length:	93.43 km in 33 laps of 2.86 km
Pole position
Driver:	Felix Rosenqvist	Mahindra Racing Formula E Team
Time:	1: 36.311 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Daniel Dept.	Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler
Time:	1: 37.910 min (lap 30)
Podium
First:	Sam Bird	DS Virgin Racing Formula E Team
Second:	Lucas di Grassi	Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler
Third:	André Lotterer	Techeetah

The Rome E-Prix 2018 (officially: 2018 CBMM Niobium Rome E-Prix Presented By Mercedes EQ ) took place on April 14th at the Circuito cittadino dell'EUR in Rome and was the seventh race of the 2017 FIA Formula E Championship / 18 . It was the first Rome E-Prix and the first race of the season in Europe .

report

background

After the Punta del Este E-Prix , Jean-Éric Vergne led the drivers' standings with 30 points from Felix Rosenqvist and 33 points from Sam Bird . In the team standings, Techeetah was 27 points ahead of Mahindra Racing and 34 points ahead of DS Virgin .

Buemi, Lucas di Grassi and Luca Filippi received a so-called FANBOOST , they were allowed to increase the output of their second vehicle up to 200 kW and thus use up to 100 kilojoules of additional energy. For Buemi it was the sixth and for di Grassi the fourth FANBOOST this season. For Filippi it was the third FANBOOST of his career, he had previously received it at both races of the season opener in Hong Kong .

training

In the first free practice Nelson Piquet jr. fastest ahead of Bird and Mitch Evans with a lap time of 1: 36.134 minutes . The training was stopped three minutes before the end after an accident by Alex Lynn .

In the second free practice session, Rosenqvist was fastest with a lap time of 1: 35.467 minutes ahead of Bird and Lucas di Grassi . This training session was also canceled about three minutes before the end after an accident by Lynn.

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. André Lotterer was fastest with a lap time of 1: 36.683 minutes. In the fourth group there was a curious incident when António Félix da Costa drove out of the pits while José María López was at the height of the Andretti pits. The vehicles collided and both vehicles were so damaged that the drivers were unable to take part in qualifying.

The five fastest drivers then drove in the first five positions in the individual time trial called Superpole . Rosenqvist secured pole position with a lap time of 1: 36.311 minutes and thus three points. The other positions were occupied by Bird, Evans, Lotterer and Buemi.

Jérôme D'Ambrosio was moved two places back because he had seen the black and white checkered flag twice, and he was also given a penalty point. Félix da Costa was relocated ten starting positions due to an uncertain clearance. Since this was not possible from 20th place, he received a ten-second time penalty.

run

The race lasted 33 laps.

Rosenqvist stayed in the lead ahead of Bird and Evans at the start. When braking into the first corner, Abt drove past di Grassi and Vergne on the outside. In the second corner, Lynn hit Vergne and damaged the front wing. At the end of the first lap, Rosenqvist was leading ahead of Bird, Evans, Lotterer, Oliver Turvey , Buemi, Abt, di Grassi, Vergne and Nick Heidfeld .

The race management showed Lynn the fried egg flag so that he pitted for repairs on the second lap. He lost more than 30 seconds and fell back to the bottom of the field. The rest of the field had largely sorted itself out, so that there was hardly any fighting for space. Only Félix da Costa overtook several opponents and worked his way forward.

After about ten laps it became apparent that Turvey could not keep up with the pace of the leading group. Buemi passed him on the 14th lap. Félix da Costa, who had consumed more energy than his competitors in catching up, was the first driver to change his car on lap 15.

In the same round, events rolled over. First, Piquet dropped a few positions after a driving mistake. Buemi then attacked Lotterer and hit him. López overtook Turvey, the vehicles touched and Turvey collided with Heidfeld. Filippi approaching from behind crashed into Turvey's car, while Edoardo Mortara drove into Filippi. Lynn parked his vehicle on the side of the track.

At the end of the lap, Rosenqvist, Bird, Buemi, Engel, López, Nicolas Prost , Piquet, Mortara, Turvey, Filippi, Tom Blomqvist and Heidfeld switched to the second vehicle. Immediately after the pit stop, Piquet stopped in the pit lane with a problem with the seat belt that could not be properly tightened. He tried to put the seat belt on correctly, but lost so much time that he gave up the race.

One lap later, Evans, Lotterer, Abt, di Grassi and Vergne switched to the second car, so that D'Ambrosio was the only driver not yet in the pits and so took the lead. However, he was overtaken by Rosenqvist before pitting. The moment D'Ambrosio drove into the pit lane, the race management called out a full course yellow to rescue Lynn's vehicle. D'Ambrosio lost around ten seconds less when changing vehicles and was now able to catch up with midfield after he had previously been in 19th place. The race was reopened on the 19th lap.

After the pit stops, Rosenqvist led in front of Bird, Buemi, Evans, Lotterer, di Grassi, Abt, Vergne, Maro Engel and Félix da Costa.

Di Grassi overtook Lotterer on lap 21, and Evans passed Buemi shortly afterwards. D'Ambrosio also passed Félix da Costa and was now tenth. Abbot attacked Lotterer several times, but he was able to defend himself. Di Grassi pulled away from Lotterer and quickly caught up with Buemi.

On the 23rd lap, Rosenqvist parked his vehicle with a suspension damage at the rear left at the finish line on the track. Di Grassi attacked Buemi, who defended himself with the help of his FANBOOST . One lap later, di Grassi used the FANBOOST and overtook Buemi. At the end of the lap there was another full course yellow to recover the Rosenqvist vehicle. In the 25th lap the race was released again.

Lotterer attacked Buemi and overtook him on lap 26, while Prost overtook Félix da Costa at the same time. One lap later, D'Ambrosio passed Engel. Buemi stopped the drivers behind him, but successfully blocked Abt's attacks. Vergne took advantage of this and walked past Abbot, but when attacking Buemi he braked himself so that Abbot passed again.

At the front, Bird's lead melted, Evans and di Grassi were within striking distance on lap 29. At the same time, Abbot passed Buemi. Bird defended himself against the Evans attacks. Di Grassi took advantage of this on the 31st lap and in turn passed Evans. Bird used this to break away again.

Mortara overtook López, but came far out in a curve and had to brake so as not to collide with the track barrier. López was surprised and drove on Mortara. In this collision López damaged the suspension and retired. Mortara continued the race with a damaged rear wing.

Lotterer had in the meantime caught up with Evans, who defended himself however, so that Abbot also caught up. On the last lap, Evans ran out of energy, slowed down and fell back to ninth place. Di Grassi caught up with Bird again, but was no longer within striking distance.

Bird won the race ahead of di Grassi and Lotterer. It was the second win of the season for Bird, di Grassi and Lotterer achieved their second podium positions of the season. The remaining points were placed by Abt, Vergne, Buemi, D'Ambrosio, Engel, Evans and Mortara. The point for the fastest lap in the top ten went to Abt.

In the overall standings, Vergne stayed ahead, Bird was now second ahead of Rosenqvist. Techeetah extended its lead in the team standings; DS Virgin was now in second place ahead of Mahindra.

Registration list

All teams and drivers used Michelin tires .

team	vehicle	No.	driver
Renault e.dams	Renault ZE17	08th	Nicolas Prost
		09	Sébastien Buemi
Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler	Audi e-tron FE04	01	Lucas di Grassi
		66	Daniel Dept.
Mahindra Racing Formula E Team	Mahindra M4Electro	19th	Felix Rosenqvist
		23	Nick Heidfeld
DS Virgin Racing Formula E Team	Virgin DSV-03	02	Sam Bird
		36	Alex Lynn
Techeetah	Renault ZE17	18th	André Lotterer
		25th	Jean-Éric Vergne
NIO Formula E team	NextEV NIO Sport 003	16	Oliver Turvey
		68	Luca Filippi
Andretti Formula E.	Andretti ATEC-03	27	Tom Blomqvist
		28	António Félix da Costa
Dragon Racing	PENSKE EV-2	06th	José María López
		07th	Jérôme D'Ambrosio
Venturi Formula E team	Venturi VM200-FE-03	04th	Edoardo Mortara
		05	Maro Engel
Panasonic Jaguar Racing	Jaguar I-Type II	03	Nelson Piquet Jr.
		20th	Mitch Evans

Classifications

Qualifying

Item	driver	team	time	Super pole	begin
01	Felix Rosenqvist	Mahindra Racing Formula E Team	1: 36.683	1: 36.311	01
02	Sam Bird	DS Virgin Racing Formula E Team	1: 36.901	1: 36.987	02
03	Mitch Evans	Panasonic Jaguar Racing	1: 36.911	1: 37.199	03
04th	André Lotterer	Techeetah	1: 36.593	1: 37.235	04th
05	Sébastien Buemi	Renault e.dams	1: 36.732	1: 37.817	05
06th	Lucas di Grassi	Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler	1: 36.973	-	06th
07th	Oliver Turvey	NIO Formula E team	1: 37.045	-	07th
08th	Jean-Éric Vergne	Techeetah	1: 37.055	-	08th
09	Daniel Dept.	Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler	1: 37.117	-	09
10	Nick Heidfeld	Mahindra Racing Formula E Team	1: 37.365	-	10
11	Alex Lynn	DS Virgin Racing Formula E Team	1: 37.546	-	11
12	Tom Blomqvist	Andretti Formula E.	1: 37.561	-	12
13	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Panasonic Jaguar Racing	1: 38.066	-	13
14th	Maro Engel	Venturi Formula E team	1: 38.212	-	14th
15th	Nicolas Prost	Renault e.dams	1: 38.410	-	15th
16	Jérôme D'Ambrosio	Dragon Racing	1: 42.003	-	18th
110 percent time : 1: 46.252 min (based on the best time of 1: 36.593 min)
17th	Edoardo Mortara	Venturi Formula E team	1: 47.802	-	16
18th	Luca Filippi	NIO Formula E team	2: 09.829	-	17th
-	José María López	Dragon Racing	no time	-	19th
-	António Félix da Costa	Andretti Formula E.	no time	-	20th

Remarks

1. ↑ D'Ambrosio was moved two starting positions back because he had seen the black and white checkered flag twice.
2. ↑ Mortara was allowed to start because he was fast enough in free practice.
3. ↑ Filippi was allowed to start because he was fast enough in free practice.
4. ↑ López was allowed to start because he was fast enough in free practice.
5. ↑ Félix da Costa was allowed to start because he was fast enough in free practice.
6. ↑ Félix da Costa was moved ten starting places back due to an uncertain clearance. Since this was not possible, he received a ten-second time penalty.

run

Item	driver	team	Round	time	begin	Fastest lap
01	Sam Bird	DS Virgin Racing Formula E Team	33	58: 20.656	02	1: 38.955 (26.)
02	Lucas di Grassi	Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler	33	+ 0.970	06th	1: 38.503 (26.)
03	André Lotterer	Techeetah	33	+ 9.518	04th	1: 38.927 (29.)
04th	Daniel Dept.	Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler	33	+ 10.167	09	1: 37.910 (30.)
05	Jean-Éric Vergne	Techeetah	33	+ 17.444	08th	1: 39.974 (20.)
06th	Sébastien Buemi	Renault e.dams	33	+ 19.835	05	1: 39.573 (20.)
07th	Jérôme D'Ambrosio	Dragon Racing	33	+ 24.379	18th	1: 38,521 (25.)
08th	Maro Engel	Venturi Formula E team	33	+ 26,350	14th	1: 39.633 (25.)
09	Mitch Evans	Panasonic Jaguar Racing	33	+ 37,709	03	1: 38.677 (26.)
10	Edoardo Mortara	Venturi Formula E team	33	+ 40.739	16	1: 39.339 (14th)
11	António Félix da Costa	Andretti Formula E.	33	+ 42.680	20th	1: 40.042 (32nd)
12	Oliver Turvey	NIO Formula E team	33	+ 48.833	07th	1: 39.304 (28.)
13	Luca Filippi	NIO Formula E team	33	+ 49.331	17th	1: 39.312 (26.)
14th	Nicolas Prost	Renault e.dams	33	+1: 13.880	15th	1: 39.485 (21.)
15th	Tom Blomqvist	Andretti Formula E.	33	+1: 31.832	12	1: 40.191 (28th)
16	Nick Heidfeld	Mahindra Racing Formula E Team	33	+1: 44.774	10	1: 40.363 (29.)
17th	José María López	Dragon Racing	29	DNF	19th	1: 39.047 (25.)
-	Felix Rosenqvist	Mahindra Racing Formula E Team	22nd	DNF	01	1: 39.877 (21.)
-	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Panasonic Jaguar Racing	18th	DNF	13	1: 40,140 (18.)
-	Alex Lynn	DS Virgin Racing Formula E Team	15th	DNF	11	1: 40.466 ( 07.)

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 driver in the top ten who achieved the fastest race lap.

Driver ranking

Item driver team Points 01  Jean-Éric Vergne  Techeetah 119 02  Sam Bird  DS Virgin Racing Formula E Team 101 03  Felix Rosenqvist  Mahindra Racing Formula E Team 82 04th  Sébastien Buemi  Renault e.dams 60 05  Daniel Dept.  Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler 50 06th  Nelson Piquet Jr.  Panasonic Jaguar Racing 45 07th  Mitch Evans  Panasonic Jaguar Racing 43 08th  Lucas di Grassi  Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler 39 09  André Lotterer  Techeetah 33 10  Oliver Turvey  NIO Formula E team 32 11  Edoardo Mortara  Venturi Formula E team 29

Item driver team Points 12  Nick Heidfeld  Mahindra Racing Formula E Team 21st 13  Alex Lynn  DS Virgin Racing Formula E Team 17th 14th  António Félix da Costa  Andretti Formula E. 16 15th  José María López  Dragon Racing 13 16  Jérôme D'Ambrosio  Dragon Racing 12 17th  Maro Engel  Venturi Formula E team 11 18th  Nicolas Prost  Renault e.dams 7th 19th  Tom Blomqvist  Andretti Formula E. 4th 20th  Luca Filippi  NIO Formula E team 1 21st  Kamui Kobayashi  Andretti Formula E. 0 22nd  Neel Jani  Dragon Racing 0

Team evaluation

Item team Points 01  Techeetah 152 02  DS Virgin Racing Formula E Team 118 03  Mahindra Racing Formula E Team 103 04th  Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler 89 05  Panasonic Jaguar Racing 88

Item team Points 06th  Renault e.dams 67 07th  Venturi Formula E team 40 08th  NIO Formula E team 33 09  Dragon Racing 25th 10  Andretti Formula E. 20th

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Timo Pape: Formula E in Rome: Lynn accident ends 1st practice, Piquet with the best time. e-Formel.de, April 14, 2018, accessed on April 14, 2018 . 
2. ↑ Tobias Bluhm: Formula E in Rome: Rosenqvist wins 2nd practice, Lynn again with an accident. e-Formel.de, April 14, 2018, accessed on April 14, 2018 . 
3. ^ Tobias Bluhm: Fines & penalty points after qualifying in Rome. e-Formel.de, April 14, 2018, accessed on April 14, 2018 . 
4. ↑ Erich Hirsch: Jaguar in Rome: "Quite frustrated" Evans, belt problem at Piquet. e-Formel.de, April 20, 2018, accessed on April 21, 2018 .