2015 London ePrix I

2015 London ePrix I
The Battersea Park Street Circuit in 2015.
Race Information
Date	27 June 2015
E-Prix No.	10
Official Name	2015 Visa London ePrix
Location	Battersea Park Street Circuit, Battersea Park, London, UK
Format	{{{format}}}
Lap length	2.925 km (1.818 mi)
Distance	29 laps / 84.825 km (52.708 mi)
Support Race	{{{support}}}
Qualifying Result
Pole Sitter	Sébastien Buemi
Team	e.dams-Renault
Time	1:24.648
Fastest Lap
Driver	Lucas di Grassi
Team	Audi Sport ABT
Fastest Lap	1:28.239 on lap 25
ePrix Result
First	Second	Third
Sébastien Buemi	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Jean-Éric Vergne
Winner Team	e.dams-Renault
Time	47:54.784
ePrix Guide
Previous		Next
2015 Moscow ePrix		2015 London ePrix II
Post-Race Test	{{{test}}}

The 2015 Visa London ePrix I, otherwise known as the 2015 London ePrix I was the tenth and penultimate round of the 2014/15 FIA Formula E Championship, staged at the Battersea Park Street Circuit in Battersea Park, London, UK, on 27 June 2015. The ePrix would serve as the first of two races in London to conclude the inaugural FE season, and would see a couple of title pretenders knocked out of the hunt.

First blood in the title fight would go to Sébastien Buemi, whom claimed pole for the penultimate race ahead of Jérôme d'Ambrosio. Championship leader Nelson Piquet Jr., meanwhile, would line up in fourth behind Lucas di Grassi, with Nicolas Prost in sixth as the final man with a semi-realistic shot at the crown.

The race would start behind the BMW Qualcomm i8 safety car after modifications were made to the first corner, gifting Buemi the chance to sprint clear as Bruno Correia pulled aside. The Swiss ace duly did so to build a significant gap over d'Ambrosio in second, with the rest of the field chasing in grid order.

Piquet would cause controversy during his attack on di Grassi, physically squeezing his compatriot towards the barriers as the fought for third. The move would backfire however, for di Grassi managed to run the NextEV TCR wide at the following corner, handing fourth place to Jean-Éric Vergne in the Andretti.

Vergne would later pounce on a small mistake by di Grassi to claim third before the stops, which coincided with the first reappearance of the safety car. This time the Qualcomm i8 was required so that Sakon Yamamoto and Daniel Abt could be removed from the circuit, although the marshals were quick to get the circuit cleared.

The restart would allow Piquet to re-ignite his fight with di Grassi for fourth, although there was to be no change between the Brazilians to the flag. Buemi, meanwhile, was able to build a small lead over d'Ambrosio to claim victory from the Belgian, with Vergne harassing the Dragon all the way to the finish line, ending the day in third.

That result meant that Piquet would head into the final day still with the lead in the Championship, but with Buemi just five points behind. The Teams' Championship, meanwhile, had been settled with a round to spare, with e.dams-Renault proclaimed the inaugural Champions.

Background

The inaugural 2014/15 FIA Formula E Championship headed to Battersea Park in London, UK, for its season finale, with the first ever double-header weekend for the series set to conclude the season. Both races would be staged on the pathways around the 200 acre park, with the ever present barriers keeping the cars from tearing up the small piece of grass in the heart of London. The circuit itself presented a mix of corners and challenges, with many speculating that overtaking would be difficult given the narrow layout.

Into the entry list and despite being limited to just two nominated drivers and two reserves at the start of the season, Andretti Autosport named their eighth different driver for the season ahead of the finale. They drafted in Swiss driver Simona de Silvestro from their IndyCar programme ahead of the season finale, who replaced Brit Justin Wilson whom had raced in Moscow. Elsewhere, Sakon Yamamoto was enlisted by Amlin Aguri for the finale, becoming their fifth driver, replacing António Félix da Costa whom had DTM commitments that weekend.

Oliver Turvey also joined the Formula E fray for the London double header, with NextEV TCR handing him their second set of cars. Turvey had not driven the SRT_01E before the weekend, but was well known as a test driver for the McLaren F1 team. Changes were also made at Trulli, with GP3 ace Alex Fontana called into the second pair of cars for the season finale. He joined another late call up at Virgin Racing as World Endurance Championship racer Fabio Leimer replaced Jaime Alguersuari in London after the Spaniard withdrew from the meeting on medical grounds.

A Penultimate Push

Into the Teams Championship and e.dams-Renault, meanwhile, looked set to sew up the crown at the first attempt, holding a 44 point lead over Audi Sport ABT, with just 48 left to play for after the first race. ABT were therefore more likely in a battle for second with NextEV TCR, while Dragon Racing were hoping to fend off Andretti and Virgin for fourth. Yet, with the Teams' battle almost decided, the focus ahead of the first London ePrix was on the Drivers' Championship, where three drivers could be considered as genuine title challengers.

The first London ePrix represented the first of two chances for Championship leader Nelson Piquet Jr. to take the honours, requiring just 14 more points than bitter rival Lucas di Grassi. Sébastien Buemi sat in third ahead of the first London battle, a further six behind di Grassi, with three other drivers in mathematical contention. Nicolas Prost stood the best chance of the three, joined by Jérôme d'Ambrosio and Sam Bird, but would require a faultless weekend, and a double retirement from Piquet to stand any chance.

Entry List

The full entry list for the 2015 London ePrix I is displayed below:

2015 London ePrix I Entry List
No.	Name	Entrant	Constructor	Car
2	Sam Bird	Virgin Racing	Spark-Renault	SRT_01E
3	Fabio Leimer	Virgin Racing	Spark-Renault	SRT_01E
5	Karun Chandhok	Mahindra Racing	Spark-Renault	SRT_01E
6	Loïc Duval	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	Alex Fontana	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	Simona de Silvestro	Andretti Autosport	Spark-Renault	SRT_01E
30	Stéphane Sarrazin	Venturi Formula E Team	Spark-Renault	SRT_01E
55	Sakon Yamamoto	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	Oliver Turvey	NextEV TCR	Spark-Renault	SRT_01E
99	Nelson Piquet Jr.	NextEV TCR	Spark-Renault	SRT_01E
Source:

Qualifying

Qualifying started at 12:00 GMT in the heart of Battersea Park, with the qualifying groups announced during the second Practice session. The familiar qualifying format was followed in London, with the first of four ten minute sessions seeing the drivers get two attempts at setting a time on full power.

Group 1

The first of the title contenders were to be seen in group one, with Lucas di Grassi and Nicolas Prost first onto the circuit, along with 60 point outsider (and requiring pole) Sam Bird. They would be joined by Stéphane Sarrazin and debutante Fabio Leimer, although all the attention was on the Brazilian di Grassi, to see if he could qualify ahead of title rivals Sébastien Buemi and Nelson Piquet Jr.

Group 2

Jean-Éric Vergne was the standout name in group two, having sat on pole three times during the season, and using the newly founded Andretti Technologies livery. Also in the group would be Loïc Duval and Bruno Senna, while two debutants were also on show in Oliver Turvey and Alex Fontana.

Group 3

The fourth debutant on offer was Sakon Yamamoto, who was also joined in group three by two former pole sitters in Daniel Abt and Jarno Trulli. Nick Heidfeld and Karun Chandhok, hoping to end the season on a high, would also be seen in group three, although the attention was on the final group of the session.

Group 4

Championship leader Nelson Piquet Jr. would have to wait until the final group to get a chance at taking pole, and would be under pressure from third placed Sébastien Buemi too. Another title outsider could be found in Jérôme d'Ambrosio, with Salvador Duran and Simona de Silvestro (making her debut) rounding out the final group.

Post Qualifying

The grid order was unchanged after the session ended, although Trulli was dropped to the back of the grid due to his penalty obtained in Moscow.

The final qualifying results for the 2015 London ePrix I are outlined below:

2015 London ePrix I Qualifying Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Time	Gap	Grid	Group
1st	9	Sébastien Buemi	e.dams-Renault	1:24.648	—	1	G4
2nd	7	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon Racing	1:25.104	+0.456s	2	G4
3rd	11	Lucas di Grassi	Audi Sport ABT	1:25.105	+0.457s	3	G1
4th	99	Nelson Piquet Jr.	NextEV TCR	1:25.144	+0.496s	4	G4
5th	27	Jean-Éric Vergne	Andretti Autosport	1:25.182	+0.534s	5	G2
6th	8	Nicolas Prost	e.dams-Renault	1:25.258	+0.610s	6	G1
7th	88	Oliver Turvey	NextEV TCR	1:25.829	+1.181s	7	G2
8th	21	Bruno Senna	Mahindra Racing	1:25.879	+1.231s	8	G2
9th	2	Sam Bird	Virgin Racing	1:25.894	+1.246s	9	G1
10th	77	Salvador Duran	Amlin Aguri	1:25.964	+1.316s	10	G4
11th	6	Loïc Duval	Dragon Racing	1:25.988	+1.340s	11	G2
12th	23	Nick Heidfeld	Mahindra Racing	1:26.128	+1.480s	12	G3
13th	66	Daniel Abt	Audi Sport ABT	1:26.302	+1.654s	13	G3
14th	30	Stéphane Sarrazin	Venturi Formula E Team	1:26.318	+1.670s	14	G1
15th*	10	Jarno Trulli	Trulli Formula E Team	1:26.852	+2.204s	20	G3
16th	5	Karun Chandhok	Mahindra Racing	1:27.160	+2.512s	15	G3
17th	28	Simona de Silvestro	Andretti Autosport	1:27.208	+2.560s	16	G4
18th	55	Sakon Yamamoto	Amlin Aguri	1:27.456	+2.808s	17	G3
19th	18	Alex Fontana	Trulli Formula E Team	1:28.083	+3.435s	18	G2
20th	3	Fabio Leimer	Virgin Racing	1:28.152	+3.504s	19	G1
110% Time: 1:33.113
Source:

• * Trulli dropped five places for repeated track limit abuses during the 2015 Moscow ePrix.

Race

The race was scheduled to start at 16:00 GMT in London, although the modifications made to the first corner after practice meant the race would start behind the BMW Qualcomm i8 safety car. The unique FanBoost vote also came to a close as the race approached, with debutantes Sakon Yamamoto and Oliver Turvey, as well as Nelson Piquet Jr. all gaining the two five second power boosts on offer.

Report

Sébastien Buemi timed his start beautifully from behind the safety car to give himself a good advantage over Jérôme d'Ambrosio for the first racing lap, with status quo in terms of position being maintained throughout the field. Jean-Éric Vergne was the man on the move, however, as he latched himself onto the back of Piquet, while the Brazilian tried to find a way past his rival Lucas di Grassi for the final podium step. The narrow Battersea Park pathways meant space was a premium, and overtaking difficult at best.

It was Piquet who tried to overtake first, trying to sling his car around di Grassi into the turn eleven/twelve chicane, before trying to squeeze di Grassi onto the inside wall. Piquet's move meant he came across di Grassi's path, intentionally, with the two becoming locked together as Piquet tried to crowd his rival out of room. Di Grassi responded by steering into Piquet's car, compromising the Championship leader's exit, and allowing Vergne to put his orange Andretti machine around the outside of the NextEV TCR car through turn thirteen. Vergne completed a clean move into the final chicane, dropping Piquet down to fifth as Buemi set the fastest lap of the race out in the lead.

Di Grassi's joy was short lived, however, as he found himself in a battle with Vergne just a few laps later, with a banzai move by Vergne into the same corner seeing him move up into third. After that, the fears of a quiet race with no overtakes did emerge, with several drivers opting to chase energy conservation over outright pace. The result was that Vergne came in first with Piquet, while Sam Bird gained time by staying out an extra two laps, before the safety car came out once again.

A delay for Oliver Turvey during his stop, combined with the mix of cars emerging from the pits meant that he was in a quartet that involved Daniel Abt, Stéphane Sarrazin and Salvador Duran, with Nick Heidfeld scampering away in the distance. An issue for Abt on his second car caused him to lose pace, meaning that Turvey was able to out-drive the German out of the first chicane, while Sarrazin and Duran pushed him hard. Both made their way through with the Audi Sport ABT machine visibly suffering, before Abt's race came to an end when he hit the wall at the exit of the final corner.

The safety car emerged after some delay, as Sakon Yamamoto found himself stuck at the narrow pit exit, his race ended on the spot. Yet, Abt's car was removed in short order, meaning that Bird, whom had lost the time he gained by saving energy in his first car through a poor stop, was now back with a chance of solid points. Vergne, meanwhile, found himself staring at a potential win, although di Grassi and Piquet were quick to latch onto his tail as the race restarted.

Piquet was quick to launch another assault at the back of di Grassi's car after the restart, but di Grassi's careful placement saw him defend fourth with relative ease, leaving Piquet to come under pressure from Nicolas Prost in the second e.dams-Renault. Bird, meanwhile, had almost 15% more power available to him then those around him, meaning he was climbing through the pack with relative ease, Turvey in his wake.

Battles were being fought throughout the field, although the main focus was on Bird and di Grassi, the former having cleared Loïc Duval and staring solidly at the back of a now limping Piquet (down into his final dregs of power), while di Grassi began to throw his car around in Vergne's wake. No moves came however on the final lap, with Buemi taking victory from d'Ambrosio and Vergne, with the result meaning e.dams-Renault won the Teams' Championship with one race to spare. Buemi also became the favourite to take the title, despite remaining five points in arrears to Piquet before the final race of the season.

Result

The final classification of the 2015 London ePrix I is displayed below, with the fastest lap setter indicated in italics, and the pole sitter shown in bold.

2015 London ePrix I Race Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Laps	Race Time	Fastest lap	Pts.
1st	9	Sébastien Buemi	e.dams-Renault	29	47:54.784	1:28.804	28
2nd	7	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon Racing	29	+0.939s	1:29.339	18
3rd	27	Jean-Éric Vergne	Andretti Autosport	29	+1.667s	1:29.218	15
4th	11	Lucas di Grassi	Audi Sport ABT	29	+2.409s	1:28.229	14
5th	99	Nelson Piquet Jr.	NextEV TCR	29	+7.370s	1:29.379	10
6th	2	Sam Bird	Virgin Racing	29	+7.762s	1:29.364	8
7th	8	Nicolas Prost	e.dams-Renault	29	+8.553s	1:29.342	6
8th	6	Loïc Duval	Dragon Racing	29	+9.507s	1:29.379	4
9th	88	Oliver Turvey	NextEV TCR	29	+10.032s	1:29.501	2
10th	30	Stéphane Sarrazin	Venturi Formula E Team	29	+12.077s	1:29.409	1
11th	28	Simona de Silvestro	Andretti Autosport	29	+15.946s	1:29.709
12th	5	Karun Chandhok	Mahindra Racing	29	+35.595s	1:29.791
13th	23	Nick Heidfeld	Venturi Formula E Team	29	+41.034s	1:29.611
14th	3	Fabio Leimer	Virgin Racing	29	+42.697s	1:30.103
15th	10	Jarno Trulli	Trulli Formula E Team	29	+43.273s	1:30.250
16th	21	Bruno Senna	Mahindra Racing	29	+48.423s	1:28.512
17th	77	Salvador Duran	Amlin Aguri	29	+1:01.987	1:29.554
Ret	18	Alex Fontana	Trulli Formula E Team	25	Retired	1:30.643
Ret	66	Daniel Abt	Audi Sport ABT	15	Accident	1:30.065
Ret	55	Sakon Yamamoto	Amlin Aguri	15	Electrical	1:31.222
Source:

• Indicates a driver was awarded FanBoost during the race.

Milestones

• e.dams-Renault became the first FIA Formula E Championship Teams' Champions.
• First ePrix to be staged in London.
• Debut race for Fabio Leimer, Alex Fontana, Simona de Silvestro, Sakon Yamamoto and Oliver Turvey.
• Third pole position for Sébastien Buemi.
  • Also the fifth pole set by a driver entered by e.dams-Renault.
• Buemi claimed his third career victory in FE.
• e.dams-Renault secured their fourth triumph as an entrant in FE.
• Lucas di Grassi recorded his first fastest lap.
• Maiden points finish for Turvey.

Standings

Despite Sam Bird, Nicolas Prost and Jérôme d'Ambrosio all falling by the wayside, the Championship would still go down to the final race of the season with three drivers still in contention. Nelson Piquet Jr. still held the lead, but his margin was now just five points, and Sébastien Buemi looked to be the stronger of the two. Lucas di Grassi, who had led the Championship since the start of the season apart from a brief couple of races now became the outsider, but with just thirteen points separating him from glory, he was far from out of the fight.

e.dams-Renault, meanwhile, successfully took the Teams' Championship with a race to spare, after Audi Sport ABT lost Daniel Abt's car during the race. That left the German team in a battle with NextEV TCR for second, while Dragon Racing and Andretti Autosport were locked together in a battle to be best of the American teams once more. The Trulli Formula E Team looked set to finish the season at the foot of the table, while Venturi hoped for a strong finale to overhaul Amlin Aguri for seventh.

2014/15 Drivers' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Nelson Piquet Jr. 138 ◄0 2nd Sébastien Buemi 133 ▲1 3rd Lucas di Grassi 125 ▼1 4th Jérôme d'Ambrosio 95 ▲1 5th Nicolas Prost 88 ▼1 6th Sam Bird 76 ◄0 7th Jean-Éric Vergne 70 ◄0 8th António Félix da Costa 51 ◄0 9th Daniel Abt 32 ◄0 10th Nick Heidfeld 31 ◄0 11th Jaime Alguersuari 30 ◄0 12th Bruno Senna 28 ◄0 13th Loïc Duval 27 ◄0 14th Stéphane Sarrazin 19 ▲3 15th Scott Speed 18 ▼1 16th Franck Montagny 18 ▼1 17th Karun Chandhok 18 ▼1 18th Charles Pic 16 ◄0 19th Oriol Servià 16 ◄0 20th Jarno Trulli 15 ◄0 21st Salvador Duran 9 ◄0 22nd Vitantonio Liuzzi 2 ◄0 23rd Oliver Turvey 2 ▲8 24th Takuma Sato 2 ▼1 25th Justin Wilson 1 ▼1

2014/15 Teams' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st e.dams-Renault 221 ◄0 2nd Audi Sport ABT 157 ◄0 3rd NextEV TCR 144 ◄0 4th Dragon Racing 138 ◄0 5th Andretti Autosport 119 ◄0 6th Virgin Racing 106 ◄0 7th Amlin Aguri 62 ◄0 8th Venturi Formula E Team 50 ◄0 9th Mahindra Racing 46 ◄0 10th Trulli Formula E Team 17 ◄0

Only point scoring drivers are shown.

References

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