2014 Putrajaya ePrix | ||
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Circuit diagram of the 2014 Putrajaya ePrix | ||
Race Information | ||
Date | 22 November 2014 | |
E-Prix No. | 2 | |
Official Name | 2014 FIA Formula E Ycapital Management Putrajaya ePrix | |
Location | Putrajaya Street Circuit, Persiaran Perdana, Putrajaya, Malaysia | |
Lap length | 2.560 km (1.591 mi) | |
Distance | 31 laps / 79.360 km (49.312 mi) | |
Qualifying Result | ||
Pole Sitter | Nicolas Prost | |
Team | Renault-e.dams | |
Time | 1:21.779 | |
Fastest Lap | ||
Driver | Jaime Alguersuari | |
Team | Virgin Racing | |
Fastest Lap | 1:24.429 on lap 20 | |
ePrix Result | ||
First | Second | Third |
Sam Bird | Lucas di Grassi | Sebastien Buemi |
Winner Team | Virgin Racing | |
Time | 51:11.979 | |
ePrix Guide | ||
Previous | Next | |
2014 Beijing ePrix | 2014 Punta del Este ePrix |
The 2014 Putrajaya ePrix, otherwise officially known as the 2014 FIA Formula E Y capital Management Putrajaya ePrix, the second round of the 2014/15 FIA Formula E Championship, staged on the Putrajaya Street Circuit in Persiaran Perdana, Putrajaya, Malaysia, on 22 November 2014.[1] The ePrix, which was originally postponed due to the wishes of the Malaysia Prime minister, would see Sam Bird claim his maiden FE victory after a battling performance.[2]
Qualifying would see Nicolas Prost claim his second straight pole position at the head of the field, although a ten place grid penalty meant Oriol Servià would actually lead the field onto the grid.[3] Bird was next ahead of Daniel Abt, while Jérôme d'Ambrosio and Sébastien Buemi were both excluded from the results for various infringements.[3]
Servià duly sprinted clear at the start of the race, only to have his small lead over Bird destroyed by a first lap appearance for the BMW Qualcomm i8 safety car.[2] Indeed, FE's two female racers Katherine Legge and Michela Cerruti had smacked into each other halfway around the opening tour, with Cerruti left on the side lines.[2]
Things got worse for Servià at the restart, with the Spaniard unable to shake the attentions of Bird as he had at the original start.[2] Indeed, the Brit was in a very attacking move, and duly sold the Spaniard a dummy into turn five to snatch the lead, before making an aborted attempt to sprint clear.[2]
His sprint was halted by the safety car's second appearance of the afternoon, this time to remove Nick Heidfeld from the barriers after contact with Franck Montagny.[2] A messy restart then saw Bird sprint clear, just as Nelson Piquet Jr. locked up at the hairpin, prompting Bruno Senna and Montagny to hit one another.[2] Regardless, Bird would be allowed to sprint clear of Servià, as more bruising incidents thinned the field.[2]
Indeed, Piquet would be removed from the race a few laps later, an ambitious move on Jarno Trulli ultimately ending with the Brazilian smacking into the barriers.[2] Fortunately that incident was cleared without any safety car intervention, meaning the pit window could pass without issue.[2]
The rest of the race proved rather tame, with Bird easing clear at the front of the field to claim victory, while Servià went tumbling down the order after his stop.[2] That allowed Lucas di Grassi to finish ahead of Sébastien Buemi in second, with the Swiss racer having to put up a furious defence from Bruno Senna in the closing stages.[2] Indeed, Senna pushed so hard on the final lap that he crashed at the hairpin, throwing away fourth.[2]
After the race it was revealed that Montagny, whom finished fifteenth, had been retroactively disqualified for failing a post-race drug test.[4]
Background[]
It was Lucas di Grassi whom came to Putrajaya with the Championship lead by virtue of his victory in Beijing, while Nicolas Prost was handed a ten place grid penalty for his collision with Nick Heidfeld at the same event. Franck Montagny sat in second place with Brit Sam Bird in third, with twelve of the original twenty drivers already having secured points.
Andretti Autosport's double points finish in Beijing meant that they held the lead in the championship, with Audi Sport ABT four behind. Virgin Racing, Dragon Racing and Mahindra Racing had all arrived in Malaysia in double figures, while the Trulli Formula E Team left China as the only team without a point.
Elsewhere there were changes at Amlin Aguri, as António Félix da Costa replaced Takuma Sato, his DTM duties now over until May 2015.[5] Andretti also had a driver change, with Matthew Brabham, grandson of Formula One legend Jack Brabham, replacing the ousted Charles Pic for the day, whom was himself away on F1 duty.[6] Brabham was only expected to race for the team in Putrajaya alone, with Pic set to return in Punta del Este.
The FanBoost system was opened on the 22 October, one month before race day.
Entry List[]
The full entry list for the 2014 Putrajaya ePrix is displayed below:
Practice[]
FP1[]
The first free practice session to be held at the Putrajaya street circuit was topped by Virgin Racing driver Sam Bird who would prove to be quick all throughout the weekend, with a fastest time of 1:21.496, over half a second ahead of second fastest Jérôme d'Ambrosio for Dragon Racing. Michela Cerruti was last on the time sheet with a 1:27.360 in her Amlin Aguri, almost 6 seconds off the pace. With only a single practice session for this weekend, every corner counted for learning the track and would pay dividends to those who learnt it best for qualifying and the race.
Practice Results[]
The full results from both practice sessions is outlined below:
2014 Putrajaya ePrix FP1 Result | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pos. | No. | Name | Team | Time | Gap |
1st | 2 | Sam Bird | Virgin Racing | 1:21.496 | — |
2nd | 7 | Jérôme d'Ambrosio | Dragon Racing | 1:22.043 | +0.547s |
3rd | 9 | Sébastien Buemi | E.Dams | 1:22.256 | +0.760s |
4th | 6 | Oriol Servià | Dragon Racing | 1:22.584 | +1.088s |
5th | 8 | Nicolas Prost | E.Dams | 1:22.674 | +1.178s |
6th | 5 | Karun Chandhok | Mahindra Racing | 1:22.825 | +1.329s |
7th | 28 | Matthew Brabham | Andretti Formula E | 1:22.961 | +1.465s |
8th | 27 | Franck Montagny | Andretti Formula E | 1:23.287 | +1.791s |
9th | 99 | Nelson Piquet Jr. | China Racing | 1:23.370 | +1.874s |
10th | 10 | Jarno Trulli | Trulli Formula E Team | 1:23.414 | +1.918s |
11th | 21 | Bruno Senna | Mahindra Racing | 1:24.532 | +3.036s |
12th | 3 | Jaime Alguersuari | Virgin Racing | 1:24.671 | +3.175s |
13th | 11 | Lucas di Grassi | Audi Sport ABT | 1:24.825 | +3.329s |
14th | 66 | Daniel Abt | Audi Sport ABT | 1:24.826 | +3.330s |
15th | 30 | Stéphane Sarrazin | Venturi Formula E Team | 1:25.287 | +3.791s |
16th | 23 | Nick Heidfeld | Venturi Formula E Team | 1:25.338 | +3.842s |
17th | 77 | Katherine Legge | Amlin Aguri | 1:26.174 | +4.678s |
18th | 55 | António Félix da Costa | Amlin Aguri | 1:26.373 | +4.877s |
19th | 88 | Ho-Pin Tung | China Racing | 1:26.620 | +5.124s |
20th | 18 | Michela Cerruti | Trulli Formula E Team | 1:27.360 | +5.864s |
Qualifying[]
Qualifying was held at 10:00 local time, with the draw for the qualifying groups made during the Driver's Briefing earlier in the morning.[8] Each group had 10 minutes to complete their fastest lap.
Group 1[]
Group 1 saw Bruno Senna, Stéphane Sarrazin, Daniel Abt, Nelson Piquet Jr. and Formula E new boy Matthew Brabham take to the track at the start of the session.[8] Abt set the pace for the group, with his time of 1:22.342s the best of the group, and enough to see him take third on the grid after the other groups had taken part.[3] Piquet was second in the group but fell to sixth overall, with Senna two places behind in eighth.[3] Brabham pushed the Brazilian hard, taking ninth on the grid, while Sarrazin claimed twelfth overall.[3]
Group 2[]
Next on track were Jarno Trulli and Michela Cerruti (both from the Trulli Formula E Team), Karun Chandhok, Franck Montagny and Ho-Pin Tung.[8] Trulli was unlucky not to beat the time set by Abt in the first group, missing out by five thousandths of a second to the young German.[3] Chandhok was next, both in group and overall, setting a time good enough for fifth overall, while Montagny, Cerruti and Tung occupied thirteenth through to fifteenth, their times all within two tenths of each other.[3]
Group 3[]
Dragon Racing and e.dams-Renault were to field both their drivers in the third group of the day, and were joined by Nick Heidfeld of the Venturi Formula E Team.[8] Nicolas Prost (e.dams) became the first man to dip under the 1:22.000 barrier, with his time of 1:21.779 remaining unbeaten for the rest of the session.[3] Unfortunately for the Frenchman, his involvement in the accident that cost him victory in Beijing meant that he took a ten place grid penalty, and hence would start in eleventh.[3]
Hence, Oriol Servià was promoted to pole, with team mate Jérôme d'Ambrosio taking second, although the Belgian was later excluded from the results after exceeding the maximum power usage.[3] Sébastien Buemi was also excluded from the results for being underweight, while Heidfeld set a time good enough for seventh.[3]
Group 4[]
Last to qualify were the Amlin Aguri duo of Katherine Legge and António Félix da Costa, the Virgin Racing pair Sam Bird and Jaime Alguersuari and the remaining Abt Audi of Lucas di Grassi.[8] Bird proved to be the quickest in the group, although he could not beat Servià's time and would start the ePrix in second.[3] Di Grassi clipped the wall early on in the group's session, with the damage too severe for him to continue.[3] As the Brazilian limped back to the pits, the sight of his slow car appeared to distract Alguersuari, whom ran wide and hit the wall, meaning that the pair would line up on the ninth row without either setting a time in qualifying.[3] Legge went on to take sixteenth place on the grid, with da Costa pushing himself into the top ten.[3]
Post Qualifying[]
Below is a table containing the results from qualifying, with the grid positions identified next to each driver. Di Grassi was not penalised despite his incident with Alguersuari, as there was no contact between the pair.[3]
The final qualifying result for the 2014 Putrajaya ePrix are outlined below:
2014 Putrajaya ePrix Qualifying Result | |||||||
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Pos. | No. | Name | Team | Time | Gap | Grid | Group |
1st* | 8 | Nicolas Prost | e.dams-Renault | 1:21.779 | — | 11 | G3 |
2nd | 6 | Oriol Servià | Dragon Racing | 1:22.010 | +0.231s | 1 | G3 |
3rd | 2 | Sam Bird | Virgin Racing | 1:22.235 | +0.456s | 2 | G4 |
4th | 66 | Daniel Abt | Audi Sport ABT | 1:22.342 | +0.563s | 3 | G1 |
5th | 10 | Jarno Trulli | Trulli Formula E Team | 1:22.347 | +0.568s | 4 | G2 |
6th | 5 | Karun Chandhok | Mahindra Racing | 1:22.612 | +0.833s | 5 | G2 |
7th | 99 | Nelson Piquet Jr. | China Racing | 1:22.620 | +0.841s | 6 | G1 |
8th | 23 | Nick Heidfeld | Venturi Formula E Team | 1:22.720 | +0.941s | 7 | G3 |
9th | 21 | Bruno Senna | Mahindra Racing | 1:22.816 | +1.037s | 8 | G1 |
10th | 28 | Matthew Brabham | Andretti Autosport | 1:22.941 | +1.162s | 9 | G1 |
11th | 55 | António Félix da Costa | Amlin Aguri | 1:23.194 | +1.415s | 10 | G4 |
12th | 30 | Stéphane Sarrazin | Venturi Formula E Team | 1:23.240 | +1.461s | 12 | G1 |
13th | 27 | Franck Montagny | Andretti Autosport | 1:23.697 | +1.918s | 13 | G2 |
14th | 18 | Michela Cerruti | Trulli Formula E Team | 1:23.857 | +2.078s | 14 | G2 |
15th | 88 | Ho-Pin Tung | China Racing | 1:23.894 | +2.115s | 15 | G2 |
16th | 77 | Katherine Legge | Amlin Aguri | 1:25.823 | +4.044s | 16 | G4 |
107% Time: 1:29.956[7] | |||||||
NC† | 3 | Jaime Alguersuari | Virgin Racing | — | 17 | G4 | |
NC† | 11 | Lucas di Grassi | Audi Sport ABT | — | 18 | G4 | |
EXC‡ | 7 | Jérôme d'Ambrosio | Dragon Racing | 1:22.215 | +0.436s | 20 | G3 |
EXC§ | 9 | Sébastien Buemi | e.dams-Renault | 1:25.319 | +3.540s | 19 | G3 |
Source:[7] |
- * Prost serves a ten place grid penalty awarded in Beijing.[3]
- † Alguersuari and di Grassi race at the steward's discretion.[3]
- ‡ d'Ambrosio disqualified for exceeding the maximum power allowance.[3]
- § Buemi excluded from the result for being underweight.[3]
Race[]
The ePrix was pushed forward two hours due to a storm which was expected to hit Putrajaya during the ePrix at its original time later that afternoon.[2] Otherwise, the race would proceed as scheduled, with Bruno Senna, Katherine Legge and Beijing victim Nick Heidfeld announced as the three recipients of the FanBoost, to be used at their discretion during the race.[9]
Report[]
Oriol Servià took full advantage of his inherited pole position to lead into the first corner, with Daniel Abt tumbling down the order after a poor start.[2] Unfortunately for the Spaniard, he was unable to build a lead as the safety car made its first appearance of the season to allow the wreckage of Legge and Michela Cerruti's accident to be cleared.[2] The boosted Brit looked to the inside of the Italian going into the hairpin, only to lock the rear axle on the brakes, sending the Amlin Aguri driver into a spin.[2] Legge collected the innocent Cerruti sending Cerruti into the wall while Legge continued, although her fault in the collision would be identified later.[2]
At the restart, Servià could not lose Sam Bird, whose Virgin Racer was set up perfectly for the Malaysian streets.[2] After sending Servià a dummy into turn four, the Brit was on the inside for turn five, taking the lead from the experienced Spaniard with relative ease.[2] His small lead would not last long, however, as the safety car made its second appearance of the day so that Heidfeld's car could be pulled from the barriers.[2] It had been through no fault of the German's that his race had ended that way, as Franck Montagny made an ambitious move down the inside to overtake the Venturi, although the place he chose to do it in was not wide enough for two to go through.[2]
As the safety car pulled off for the second time there was more drama at the hairpin.[2] As Bird released the throttle on the Virgin to exit the corner and restart the race, Nelson Piquet Jr. locked up, sending himself into a slide.[10] Although he remained unscathed, the resulting action by Senna and Montagny resulted in the latter losing his front wing and the Brazilian waving furiously at the back of his compatriot.[10] Regardless, the race continued, with Bird slowly building a gap to the rest of the field.[2]
Unsurprisingly, Piquet would be the next driver to be repaid for his actions, as an attempted move on Jarno Trulli put the young Brazilian into the wall.[10] Going for a gap that was always closing, Piquet was forced between a Trulli and a hard place, with damage to his steering resulting in his retirement from the race.[2] The veteran Italian would later receive a penalty for his part in the incident, although this would be a contentious issue afterwards.[2]
A flurry of pitstops saw the order remain unchanged, although Abt was now back in contention, having stopped early on to change cars during the second safety car period.[2] Unfortunately, he lacked the power required to keep fighting, and slowly tumbled through the order.[2] Senna, meanwhile, stalked the back of Nicolas Prost, and with just a handful of laps remaining used the fan boost to dive past the son of his uncle's great rival into the first corner.[2]
Bird remained unchallenged, however, and duly took his first ePrix victory, leading home Lucas di Grassi and Sebastien Buemi, both of whom had quiet races.[2] Their positions were under serious threat, however, as Senna came charging on, looking to take the Swiss driver into the hairpin.[2] Alas, the Mahindra master was pushing too hard, slipping wide on the way up to the hairpin and slamming into the barrier.[2] Prost was back into fourth, while Jerome d'Ambrosio completed an excellent day to claim fifth, having started dead last.[2]
Result[]
The final classification of the 2014 Putrajaya ePrix is displayed below, with the fastest lap setter indicated in italics, and the pole sitter shown in bold.
2014 Putrajaya ePrix Race Result | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pos. | No. | Name | Team | Laps | Race Time | Fastest lap | Pts. |
1st | 2 | Sam Bird | Virgin Racing | 31 | 51:11.979 | 1:25.565 | 25 |
2nd | 11 | Lucas di Grassi | Audi Sport ABT | 31 | +4.175s | 1:25.224 | 18 |
3rd | 9 | Sébastien Buemi | e.dams-Renault | 31 | +5.739s | 1:25.125 | 15 |
4th | 8 | Nicolas Prost | e.dams-Renault | 31 | +9.552s | 1:25.306 | 15 |
5th | 7 | Jérôme d'Ambrosio | Dragon Racing | 31 | +13.722s | 1:25.449 | 10 |
6th | 5 | Karun Chandhok | Mahindra Racing | 31 | +17.158s | 1:25.087 | 8 |
7th | 6 | Oriol Servià | Dragon Racing | 31 | +18.621s | 1:25.582 | 6 |
8th | 55 | António Félix da Costa | Amlin Aguri | 31 | +19.926s | 1:25.334 | 4 |
9th | 3 | Jaime Alguersuari | Virgin Racing | 31 | +20.053s | 1:24.429 | 4 |
10th | 66 | Daniel Abt | Audi Sport ABT | 31 | +45.663s | 1:26.210 | 1 |
11th | 88 | Ho-Pin Tung | China Racing | 31 | +55.833s | 1:26.800 | |
12th | 30 | Stéphane Sarrazin | Venturi Formula E Team | 31 | +56.626s | 1:24.551 | |
13th | 28 | Matthew Brabham | Andretti Autosport | 31 | +1:05.036 | 1:24.583 | |
14th | 21 | Bruno Senna | Mahindra Racing | 30 | +1 Lap | 1:24.599 | |
DSQ* | 27 | Franck Montagny | Andretti Autosport | 30 | Disqualified | 1:24.446 | |
15th† | 77 | Katherine Legge | Amlin Aguri | 28 | +3 Laps | 1:26.498 | |
16th‡ | 10 | Jarno Trulli | Trulli Formula E Team | 28 | +3 Laps | 1:26.712 | |
Ret | 99 | Nelson Piquet Jr. | China Racing | 22 | Accident | 1:25.252 | |
DSQ§ | 23 | Nick Heidfeld | Venturi Formula E Team | 14 | Disqualified | 1:26.425 | |
Ret | 18 | Michela Cerruti | Trulli Formula E Team | 7 | Accident | 1:30.227 | |
Source:[7] |
- Indicates a driver was awarded FanBoost during the race.
- * Montagny (who was hit with a 23 second penalty for causing a collision) was later disqualified from the result on the 27th of March 2015, having tested positive for Benzoylecgonine, a fact which the FIA had investigated after the race meeting.[4]
- † Legge served a 23 second penalty for causing a collision, and serves an additional ten place grid penalty for changing her RESS system.[2].
- ‡ Trulli awarded a 23 second penalty for causing a collision.
- § Heidfeld was excluded from the race result after changing to his second car outside of the permitted area.[2]
Milestones[]
- Maiden Putrajaya ePrix to be staged.
- Only the second ePrix to be held.
- Second and final race for Franck Montagny.
- Debut for Matthew Brabham and António Félix da Costa.
- Second pole position for Nicolas Prost.
- Renault-e.dams claimed their second pole start.
- Maiden victory for Sam Bird.
- Virgin Racing claimed their first victory as an entrant.
- Sébastien Buemi earned his first podium an points finish.
- Maiden points finish for da Costa and Daniel Abt.
- Jaime Alguersuari recorded his first fastest lap and points finish.
- This was also Virgin's first fastest lap as an entrant.
Standings[]
Lucas di Grassi retained the lead in the table by taking second, with Sam Bird now his closest contender due to his victory. Franck Montagny's disqualification (and ban) meant he would begin an inevitable plummet down the table although he would only slip to third in Malayasia. The Frenchman was, however, matched on eighteen points by Nicolas Prost, Jérôme d'Ambrosio and Karun Chandhok although Montagny remained ahead courtesy of his unmolested second place in Beijing.
The Team's Championship lead switched to Audi Sport ABT after di Grassi's second place, although their lead was just one point over Virgin Racing. e.dams-Renault leapt into the top three after a strong weekend, with Andretti Autosport heading the other way due to their failure to score. Elsewhere the Trulli Formula E Team remained at the foot of the table, and were likewise the only team yet to register a point.
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Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown.
References[]
Videos and Images:
- Legge takes Cerruti: http://www.electricautosport.com/2014/11/video-formula-e-putrajaya-eprix-race-highlights/
References:
- ↑ 'Putrajaya Circuit', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 2014), http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/calendar/2014-putrajaya/putrajaya-circuit.aspx, (Accessed 25/04/2015)
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 2.21 2.22 2.23 2.24 2.25 2.26 2.27 2.28 2.29 2.30 2.31 2.32 2.33 2.34 'Sam Bird seals victory in the Putrajaya ePrix', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 22/11/2014), http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2014/november/sam-bird-seals-victory-in-the-putrajaya-eprix.aspx (Accessed 25/04/2015)
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 3.19 'Nicolas Prost clinches pole position for the Putrajaya ePrix', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 21/11/2014), http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2014/november/nicolas-prost-clinches-pole-position-for-the-putrajaya-eprix.aspx, (Accessed 25/04/2015)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 'Franck Montagny disqualified from Putrajaya ePrix', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 27/03/2015), http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2015/march/franck-montagny-disqualified-from-putrajaya-eprix.aspx, (Accessed 25/04/2015)
- ↑ 'Antonio Felix da Costa to race for Amlin Aguri in Malaysia', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 22/10/2014), http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2014/october/antonio-felix-da-costa-to-race-for-amlin-aguri-in-malaysia.aspx, (Accessed 25/04/2015)
- ↑ 'Matthew Brabham to race for Andretti in Putrajaya', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 20/11/2014), http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2014/november/matthew-brabham-to-race-for-andretti-in-putrajaya.aspx, (Accessed 25/04/2015)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 'Round 2 - Putrajaya ePrix: Results Booklet', fiaformulae.alkamelsystems.com, (FIA Formula E, 2014), http://fiaformulae.alkamelsystems.com/Results/00_2014-15/03_Putrajaya/62_FIA%20Formula%20E%20Championship/Putrajaya%20ePrix_BOOKLET.pdf, (Accessed 28/07/2018)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 'Putrajaya ePrix: Qualifying groups', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 21/11/2014), http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2014/november/putrajaya-eprix-qualifying-groups.aspx (Accessed 25/04/2015)
- ↑ 'Heidfeld, Legge and Senna to receive FanBoost', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 21/11/2014), http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2014/november/heidfeld-legge-and-senna-to-receive-fanboost.aspx (Accessed 25/04/2015)
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 'Race Highlights: Y Capital Management Putrajaya ePrix', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 23/11/2014), http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2014/november/highlights-putrajaya-eprix.aspx (Accessed 25/04/2015)