2014 Punta del Este ePrix

2014 Punta del Este ePrix
The Punta del Este circuit layout
Race Information
Date	13 December 2014
E-Prix No.	3
Official Name	2014 Julius Baer Punta del Este ePrix
Location	Playa Brava Beach Circuit, Playa Brava Beach, Punta del Este, Uruguay
Format	{{{format}}}
Lap length	2.808 km (1.745 mi)
Distance	31 laps / 87.048 km (54.089 mi)
Support Race	{{{support}}}
Qualifying Result
Pole Sitter	Jean-Éric Vergne
Team	Andretti Autosport
Time	1:15.408
Fastest Lap
Driver	Daniel Abt
Team	Audi Sport ABT
Fastest Lap	1:18.451 on lap 18
ePrix Result
First	Second	Third
Sébastien Buemi	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Lucas di Grassi
Winner Team	e.dams-Renault
Time	49.08.990
ePrix Guide
Previous		Next
2014 Putrajaya ePrix		2015 Buenos Aires ePrix
Post-Race Test	{{{test}}}

 

The 2014 Punta del Este ePrix, officially known as the 2014 Julius Baer Punta del Este ePrix, was the third round of the 2014/15 FIA Formula E Championship, staged on the edge on the Playa Brava Beach Circuit in Punta del Este, Uruguay, on 13 December 2014. Punta de Este was the first ePrix to be held outside of Asia, the first race to be staged in South America, and would see a third FE winner in three races.

Debutante Jean-Éric Vergne would cause a stir in qualifying, the Frenchman snatching a maiden pole position for himself and Andretti, despite having only driven the Spark-Renault SRT_01E for the first time during the pre-race shakedown. Nelson Piquet Jr. would start from second ahead of Nicolas Prost, whom shared the second row with teammate Sébastien Buemi.

Unfortunately pole would be as good as it got for Vergne, for Piquet went surging past on the cleaner side of the grid to snatch the lead at the start, fending off a lunge from Vergne into the first chicane. Otherwise the start was very clean, with only Daniel Abt and Karun Chandhok managing to rub against one-another as the field sorted itself out.

Vergne would, however, regain the lead partway around the opening tour, taking advantage of a small mistake by Piquet at turn eight to surge through. This was then secured early in the second lap as Sam Bird crashed out of the race at the first chicane, bringing out the BMW Qualcomm i8 safety car.

Vergne held the lead at the restart, with no significant changes to the order coming until the pitstops loomed mid-race. That, however, would prove chaotic, for the safety car made it's second appearance as the first drivers made their stops, for Stéphane Sarrazin had buried his Venturi into the barriers.

Vergne lost the lead during the stops, with Nick Heidfeld briefly appearing at the head of the field, before being slapped with a stop-go penalty for a power usage issue. That handed the lead to Sébastien Buemi, who began to pull clear of Vergne and Piquet, until the safety car was called up in the closing stages to recover Matthew Brabham.

Buemi and Vernge would streak clear at the restart, engaging in a four lap duel for victory as Piquet drifted into the sights of Lucas di Grassi. Ultimately, Vergne could not find a way through, and duly made his first mistake of the afternoon by hitting a kerb and smashing his suspension on the final lap. Buemi was duly left to cruise home to claim his first FE victory as Vergne climbed out of his cockpit, with Piquet just fending off di Grassi for second.

Background

After the turmoil surrounding his Formula One future, Jean-Éric Vergne announced that he was joining the Formula E Championship with Andretti Autosport, driving alongside Matthew Brabham in the team. His arrival followed the rumours that Franck Montagny had failed a drugs test after the 2014 Putrajaya ePrix, with the Frenchman maintaining radio silence about the topic. Indeed, it was a rather chaotic period for Andretti on the driver front, with the loss of Montagny coming after Charles Pic announced that he would not be rejoining to team, meaning Brabham retained his seat.

Elsewhere, Amlin Aguri also announced a driver change for the first South American ePrix, with Mexican Salvador Duran replacing Katherine Legge in two of their Spark-Renault SRT_01Es for the weekend. Her withdrawal from the team came as a surprise, although Legge was not happy with her performances at the first two rounds. The only other change to the entry would be an expected one, with Antonio Garcia replacing Ho-Pin Tung at China Racing, for the Chinese racer was away at the Dubai 12 Hours.

Putrajaya Performance

Championship wise, the lead of Lucas di Grassi had been cut to three points after Sam Bird's victory in Putrajaya, with their respective teams separated by four points in the team's championship. Franck Montagny, Nicolas Prost and Jerome d'Ambrosio, meanwhile, were tied on eighteen points coming into the weekend. Sebastien Buemi and Nelson Piquet, Jr. also threatened to break into the top five, as did Jaime Alguersuari, although all three needed a podium to confirm their ambitions.

With Audi Sport ABT and Virgin Racing seemingly favourites for the championship at an early stage, e. dams Renault would have to have a clean weekend, leading the counter charge on 33 points. Andretti Autosport and Dragon Racing seemed to be locked in a duel to become the best American based team even in the season's early stages, with Andretti hampered by frequent driver changes, and Dragon suffering from a fairly significant luck deficit.

Entry List

The full entry list for the 2014 Punta del Este ePrix is displayed below:

2014 Punta del Este ePrix Entry List
No.	Name	Entrant	Constructor	Car
2	Sam Bird	Virgin Racing	Spark-Renault	SRT_01E
3	Jaime Alguersuari	Virgin Racing	Spark-Renault	SRT_01E
5	Karun Chandhok	Mahindra Racing	Spark-Renault	SRT_01E
6	Oriol Servià	Dragon Racing	Spark-Renault	SRT_01E
7	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon Racing	Spark-Renault	SRT_01E
8	Nicolas Prost	e.dams-Renault	Spark-Renault	SRT_01E
9	Sébastien Buemi	e.dams-Renault	Spark-Renault	SRT_01E
10	Jarno Trulli	Trulli Formula E Team	Spark-Renault	SRT_01E
11	Lucas di Grassi	Audi Sport ABT	Spark-Renault	SRT_01E
18	Michela Cerruti	Trulli Formula E Team	Spark-Renault	SRT_01E
21	Bruno Senna	Mahindra Racing	Spark-Renault	SRT_01E
23	Nick Heidfeld	Venturi Formula E Team	Spark-Renault	SRT_01E
27	Jean-Éric Vergne	Andretti Autosport	Spark-Renault	SRT_01E
28	Matthew Brabham	Andretti Autosport	Spark-Renault	SRT_01E
30	Stéphane Sarrazin	Venturi Formula E Team	Spark-Renault	SRT_01E
55	António Félix da Costa	Amlin Aguri	Spark-Renault	SRT_01E
66	Daniel Abt	Audi Sport ABT	Spark-Renault	SRT_01E
77	Salvador Duran	Amlin Aguri	Spark-Renault	SRT_01E
88	Antonio Garcia	China Racing	Spark-Renault	SRT_01E
99	Nelson Piquet Jr.	China Racing	Spark-Renault	SRT_01E
Source:

Practice

FP1

Free practice 1 for the first Punta del Este ePrix ended with Nicolas Prost topping the time sheets with a 1:16.696 for his E.Dams team, just one and a half tenths in front of Daniel Abt clocking in a 1:16.828 in the Audi Sport ABT car. For the most part, the field managed to close up a lot compared to the first couple of races, other than Salvador Duran in last however he did suffer from a few issues during the laps he completed.

FP2

FP2 saw a new driver topping the timings with Jaime Alguersuari lapping at a 1:15.930, a tenth and a half ahead of Lucas di Grassi and six tenths faster than Stéphane Sarrazin. The pack spread out a little further in this session as some showed they could learn the fast and intricate circuit faster than others, with the E.Dams pairing of Nicolas Prost and Sébastien Buemi showing once again they would be competitive as they had done in FP1.

Practice Results

The full results from both practice sessions is outlined below:

• FP1 Results
• FP2 Results

2014 Punta del Este ePrix FP1 Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Time	Gap
1st	8	Nicolas Prost	E.Dams	1:16.696	—
2nd	66	Daniel Abt	Audi Sport ABT	1:16.828	+0.132s
3rd	7	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon Racing	1:16.959	+0.263s
4th	9	Sébastien Buemi	E.Dams	1:17.192	+0.496s
5th	30	Stéphane Sarrazin	Venturi Formula E Team	1:17.222	+0.526s
6th	27	Jean-Éric Vergne	Andretti Formula E	1:17.395	+0.699s
7th	10	Jarno Trulli	Trulli Formula E Team	1:17.581	+0.885s
8th	21	Bruno Senna	Mahindra Racing	1:17.628	+0.932s
9th	28	Matthew Brabham	Andretti Formula E	1:17.675	+0.979s
10th	5	Karun Chandhok	Mahindra Racing	1:17.999	+1.303s
11th	6	Oriol Servià	Dragon Racing	1:18.013	+1.317s
12th	55	António Félix da Costa	Amlin Aguri	1:18.275	+1.579s
13th	23	Nick Heidfeld	Venturi Formula E Team	1:18.319	+1.623s
14th	88	Antonio Garcia	China Racing	1:18.504	+1.808s
15th	99	Nelson Piquet Jr.	China Racing	1:18.713	+2.017s
16th	11	Lucas di Grassi	Audi Sport ABT	1:19.058	+2.362s
17th	2	Sam Bird	Virgin Racing	1:19.611	+2.915s
18th	3	Jaime Alguersuari	Virgin Racing	1:19.791	+3.095s
19th	18	Michela Cerruti	Trulli Formula E Team	1:20.358	+3.662s
20th	77	Salvador Duran	Amlin Aguri	1:22.751	+6.055s

2014 Punta del Este ePrix FP2 Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Time	Gap
1st	3	Jaime Alguersuari	Virgin Racing	1:15.930	—
2nd	11	Lucas di Grassi	Audi Sport ABT	1:16.075	+0.145s
3rd	30	Stéphane Sarrazin	Venturi Formula E Team	1:16.548	+0.618s
4th	8	Nicolas Prost	E.Dams	1:16.548	+0.618s
5th	9	Sébastien Buemi	E.Dams	1:16.600	+0.670s
6th	99	Nelson Piquet Jr.	China Racing	1:16.689	+0.759s
7th	55	António Félix da Costa	Amlin Aguri	1:16.716	+0.786s
8th	7	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon Racing	1:17.006	+1.076s
9th	23	Nick Heidfeld	Venturi Formula E Team	1:17.214	+1.284s
10th	2	Sam Bird	Virgin Racing	1:17.233	+1.303s
11th	6	Oriol Servià	Dragon Racing	1:17.502	+1.572s
12th	10	Jarno Trulli	Trulli Formula E Team	1:17.660	+1.730s
13th	66	Daniel Abt	Audi Sport ABT	1:17.885	+1.955s
14th	27	Jean-Éric Vergne	Andretti Formula E	1:18.052	+2.122s
15th	21	Bruno Senna	Mahindra Racing	1:18.355	+2.425s
16th	77	Salvador Duran	Amlin Aguri	1:18.701	+2.771s
17th	88	Antonio Garcia	China Racing	1:19.232	+3.302s
18th	18	Michela Cerruti	Trulli Formula E Team	1:20.615	+4.685s
19th	28	Matthew Brabham	Andretti Formula E	1:20.856	+4.926s
20th	5	Karun Chandhok	Mahindra Racing	1:22.910	+6.980s

Qualifying

As usual, the members of the four qualifying groups were drawn in-between the practice sessions, and announced shortly after. Qualifying would also proceed as normal from 12:00 local time, with each group having ten minutes on track to set their fastest time.

Group 1

Karun Chandhok would be joined on track by Jarno Trulli, Nick Heidfeld, Daniel Abt and Formula E newbie Jean-Eric Vergne in the first group's battle around the Uruguayan coastal city. Amazingly, despite only having driven the car in the practice sessions earlier in the day, Vergne set the fastest time, not only in the group, but of the session, his time of 1:15.408 remaining unbeaten.

Abt looked on course for pole position in the group initially, although his time was soon beaten by his rivals as he dropped to tenth on the grid. Heidfeld would take ninth overall to beat his compatriot, while pushed harder still to take seventh overall and second in the group. Chandhok, meanwhile, finished last in the group, although his time was less than four hundredths behind Abt, meaning he finished eleventh overall.

Group 2

Group 2 featured the remaining debutants as Salvador Duran and Antonio Garcia joined Nicolas Prost, Sebastien Buemi and Matthew Brabham on the circuit. It would be a quick session for Brabham, whom slapped the wall hard enough on his opening lap to damage his steering, meaning he failed to set a time. Prost, meanwhile, was favourite to take pole, as he had done at Beijing and (although it was taken away from him by a penalty) Putrajaya.

Yet, Prost could not best his compatriot's qualifying time, and despite topping his group would only claim third overall. Buemi was the closest man to his team mate in the group, and duly took fourth behind him, while Garcia and Duran were almost two seconds down on them, setting times good enough for fifteenth and sixteenth respectively.

Group 3

Sam Bird, Jerome d'Ambrosio, Antonio Felix da Costa, Nelson Piquet Jr. and Bruno Senna were the next group to be unleashed on the circuit, with early dramas for the former and the latter. Bird hit the wall at turn seventeen, ending his qualifying session before he had set a time, while Senna was under investigation after work continued on his car after Parc Ferme rules were enforced five minutes before the session. As a result, the Brazilian was excluded from qualifying, although would be allowed to race.

Piquet proved to be the class of the group, although he could not best Vergne's earlier time, having to settle for second overall. Senna was the next fastest in group with a time good enough for eighth (before his exclusion), while problems for d'Ambrosio prevented him from appearing. Da Costa, meanwhile, had a quiet and problem free session, taking thirteenth overall.

Group 4

The final group allowed Jaime Alguersuari, Oriol Servià, Lucas di Grassi, Michela Cerruti and Stephane Sarrazin to attack the track. Cerruti would have a trouble free session, although she would also be the slowest driver of the session, and the only driver to fail to set a time under 1:20.000. Sarrazin and Servià also disappointed, taking fourteenth and twelfth respectively, while di Grassi and Alguersuari battled into the top ten, taking fifth and sixth.

Post Qualifying

The final qualifying result for the 2014 Punta del Este ePrix are outlined below:

2014 Punta del Este ePrix Qualifying Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Time	Gap	Grid	Group
1st	27	Jean-Éric Vergne	Andretti Autosport	1:15.408	—	1	G1
2nd	99	Nelson Piquet Jr.	China Racing	1:15.530	+0.122s	2	G3
3rd	8	Nicolas Prost	e.dams-Renault	1:15.722	+0.314s	3	G2
4th	9	Sébastien Buemi	e.dams-Renault	1:15.842	+0.434s	4	G2
5th	3	Jaime Alguersuari	Virgin Racing	1:16.053	+0.645s	5	G4
6th	11	Lucas di Grassi	Audi Sport ABT	1:16.108	+0.700s	6	G4
7th	10	Jarno Trulli	Trulli Formula E Team	1:16.144	+0.736s	7	G1
8th	23	Nick Heidfeld	Venturi Formula E Team	1:16.225	+0.817s	8	G1
9th	66	Daniel Abt	Audi Sport ABT	1:16.374	+0.966s	9	G1
10th	5	Karun Chandhok	Mahindra Racing	1:16.416	+1.008s	10	G1
11th	6	Oriol Servià	Dragon Racing	1:16.811	+1.403s	11	G4
12th	55	António Félix da Costa	Amlin Aguri	1:16.865	+1.457s	12	G3
13th	30	Stéphane Sarrazin	Venturi Formula E Team	1:17.025	+1.617s	13	G4
14th	88	Antonio Garcia	China Racing	1:17.653	+2.245s	14	G2
15th	77	Salvador Duran	Amlin Aguri	1:17.810	+2.402s	15	G2
16th	18	Michela Cerruti	Trulli Formula E Team	1:20.206	+4.798s	16	G4
107% Time: 1:22.948
NC*	2	Sam Bird	Virgin Racing	—		17	G3
NC*	7	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon Racing	—		18	G3
NC*	28	Matthew Brabham	Andretti Autosport	—		19	G2
EXC†	21	Bruno Senna	Mahindra Racing	1:16.211	+0.803s	20	G3
Source:

• * Bird, d'Ambrosio and Brabham were to race at the steward's discretion. 
• ^† Senna was excluded from the result after qualifying after work was carried out on his car after the session.

Race

Shortly before the start of the race, the FanBoost vote was closed, with Nick Heidfeld, Jean-Éric Vergne and Salvador Duran the fan favourites for the day. They would be able to use their additional power in one five second burst at their own discretion, a fact which gave Vergne another advantage heading into the race itself.

Report

Vergne's day would not, however, go as planned as pole position was located on the dirty side of the grid. This meant that Nelson Piquet Jr. got the jump on him at the start, and was on the inside for turn two. Further down the grid was generally well behave heading into the tight first chicane, with Daniel Abt and Karun Chandhok the only two to make even the slightest contact with one another. Piquet's clean run would not last, however, as a brush against the wall into turn eight let Vergne back through, and damaged the Brazilian's steering meaning he would have to defend from the e.dams-Renault duo of Sebastien Buemi and Nicolas Prost.

As this was going on, Sam Bird's poor day continued, as the Brit hit the inside curb of the first chicane and launched his car into the air. Unable to steer, Bird hit the wall and broke his suspension, putting him out of the race. This accident brought out the first safety car period of the day, with Antonio Felix da Costa the next to fall, this time with an unspecified problem.

The field was released after the safety car, with the order remaining stable, despite the best efforts of Buemi to pass Piquet into the tight chicane. As the pitstop window opened the second safety car of the day emerged, after Stephane Sarrazin hit the curb hard enough to break his suspension and put himself into a spin. Bruno Senna took avoiding action to miss the rotating Venturi and hit the wall, but was able to get back to the pits and change cars.

Sarrazin's crash was also well timed for team mate Nick Heidfeld, whom emerged from the pits in the lead. However, in the German's haste to get round, he exceeded the maximum power usage and was penalised. Heidfeld was also punished for exceeding the minimum pitstop time (i.e. changing cars under the minimum safety time deemed by the FIA), meaning he would drop down the order after a drive-through penalty.

Vergne had stopped shortly before the safety car, but missed out as Buemi beat Piquet in the pits to take the lead after Heidfeld peeled off. Vergne remained in his shadow, although was not close enough to challenge. But, with four laps to go, Matthew Brabham spun in the same place that Sarrazin had done, hitting the wall after bouncing sideways over the inside curb. A third safety car, and Vergne was now right behind Buemi at the restart.

Yet, try as he might, and equipped with Fan Boost, Vergne could not force his way past the Swiss driver. Although Buemi was making ever more frequent mistakes, the pressure took its toll on the Andretti machine, with a suspension failure on the final lap ending Vergne's hopes of victory. Buemi was left with a big lead over Piquet and consequently cruised over the line to take his first win of the season, with Piquet defending from Lucas di Grassi for second and third.

Further down, Heidfeld was able to take his first point of the season after taking debutant Antonio Garcia on the final lap for tenth. Daniel Abt, meanwhile, had to battle with a car that refused to remain turned on, although this did not prevent him from taking the fastest lap of the race. Prost was penalised for using too much power meaning he dropped to seventh, while Jarno Trulli claimed his first points after being promoted to fourth.

Result

The final classification of the 2014 Punta del Este ePrix is displayed below, with the fastest lap setter indicated in italics, and the pole sitter shown in bold.

2014 Punta del Este ePrix Race Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Laps	Race Time	Fastest lap	Pts.
1st	9	Sébastien Buemi	e.dams-Renault	31	49:08.990	1:19.055	25
2nd	99	Nelson Piquet Jr.	China Racing	31	+0.732s	1:18.958	18
3rd	11	Lucas di Grassi	Audi Sport ABT	31	+2.635s	1:18.881	15
4th	10	Jarno Trulli	Trulli Formula E Team	31	+4.163s	1:20.163	12
5th	3	Jaime Alguersuari	Virgin Racing	31	+4.698s	1:20.072	10
6th	21	Bruno Senna	Mahindra Racing	31	+5.197s	1:19.365	8
7th	8	Nicolas Prost	e.dams-Renault	31	+6.514s	1:19.270	6
8th	7	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon Racing	31	+7.567s	1:20.094	4
9th	6	Oriol Servià	Dragon Racing	31	+8.646s	1:20.509	2
10th	23	Nick Heidfeld	Venturi Formula E Team	31	+10.567s	1:19.963	1
11th	88	Antonio Garcia	China Racing	31	+10.594s	1:21.364
12th	18	Michela Cerruti	Trulli Formula E Team	31	+19.617s	1:21.684
13th	5	Karun Chandhok	Mahindra Racing	31	+54.175s	1:18.847
14th*	27	Jean-Éric Vergne	Andretti Autosport	29	+2 Laps	1:19.077	3
15th	66	Daniel Abt	Audi Sport ABT	28	+3 Laps	1:18.451	2
16th	77	Salvador Duran	Amlin Aguri	27	+4 Laps	1:21.003
Ret	28	Matthew Brabham	Andretti Autosport	26	Accident	1:19.791
Ret	30	Stéphane Sarrazin	Venturi Formula E Team	15	Accident	1:19.789
Ret	55	António Félix da Costa	Amlin Aguri	6	Retired	1:21.505
Ret	2	Sam Bird	Virgin Racing	3	Accident	1:21.493
Source:

• Indicates a driver was awarded FanBoost during the race.
• * Vergne was still classified despite retiring as he had completed 90% of the race distance.

Milestones

• Maiden ePrix to be staged in Punta del Este.
  • Punta also became the first South American city to host an ePrix.
• Debut for Jean-Éric Vergne, Salvador Duran and Antonio Garcia.
• Vergne claimed his first FE pole position.
  • This was also the first pole recorded by an Andretti Autosport entry.
• First win for Sébastien Buemi.
• e.dams-Renault claimed their first victory as an entrant.
  • First podium for Nelson Piquet Jr.
• Nick Heidfeld and Jarno Trulli claimed their maiden points finishes.

Standings

Victory for Sébastien Buemi saw him gain five places in the championship to sit level with Sam Bird in second, although both would have to overhaul an 18 point gap to Lucas di Grassi. Nicolas Prost dropped to fourth, with Jérôme d'Ambrosio and Nelson Piquet Jr. tied for fifth. Nick Heidfeld was last of the point scoring drivers, although his season was hampered already by collisions that arguably were not his fault.

e.dams-Renault now led the Teams' Championship by virtue of Buemi's victory, leaping ahead of Audi Sport ABT and Virgin Racing. Dragon Racing took a three point advantage over Andretti Autosport, with Mahindra Racing now an isolated sixth. The big news, however, was that Trulli were off the mark, and now sat in eighth, entirely due to Jarno Trulli's strong fourth place in Uruguay.

2014/15 Drivers' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Lucas di Grassi 58 ◄0 2nd Sébastien Buemi 40 ▲5 3rd Sam Bird 40 ▼1 4th Nicolas Prost 24 ◄0 5th Nelson Piquet Jr. 22 ▲5 6th Jérôme d'Ambrosio 22 ◄0 7th Franck Montagny 18 ▼4 8th Karun Chandhok 18 ▼3 9th Jaime Alguersuari 14 ▲3 10th Oriol Servià 14 ▼1 11th Jarno Trulli 12 ▲11 12th Charles Pic 12 ▼4 13th Bruno Senna 8 ▲7 14th António Félix da Costa 4 ▼3 15th Daniel Abt 4 ▼1 16th Jean-Éric Vergne 3 ▲6 17th Stéphane Sarrazin 2 ▼4 18th Takuma Sato 2 ▼3 19th Nick Heidfeld 1 ▼1

2014/15 Teams' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st e.dams-Renault 64 ▲2 2nd Audi Sport ABT 62 ▼1 3rd Virgin Racing 54 ▼1 4th Dragon Racing 35 ▲1 5th Andretti Autosport 33 ▼1 6th Mahindra Racing 26 ◄0 7th China Racing 22 ▲1 8th Trulli Formula E Team 12 ▲2 9th Amlin Aguri 6 ▼2 10th Venturi Formula E Team 3 ▼1

Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown.

References

Images and Videos:

References: