Sam Bird took his and DS Virgin Racing's first win of the 2016/17 season at the first ever New York ePrix on Saturday, whilst championship contender Lucas di Grassi finished fourth to close the gap to leader Sébastien Buemi – who isn't present this weekend – to just 20 points.
Techeetah's Jean-Eric Vergne and Stéphane Sarrazin completed the podium positions in second and third respectively, handing the team their highest points total from a race so far.
The start of the race saw surprise polesitter Alex Lynn, who made his Formula E debut this weekend, drop back to second as Audi's Daniel Abt charged to the front, with Bird taking up third as he passed Vergne.
Bird quickly got past team-mate Lynn thanks to some team orders and then Abt to take the lead before the mid-race car swaps.
Vergne also past Abt before his stop, whilst Lynn slipped down the order and then retired with a driveshaft problem.
A safety car during the second phase of the race bunched the field up and put Vergne right on Bird's tail, but the Briton streaked clear at the restart and won the race without trouble, leaving Vergne to finish second, whilst Abt battled with Sarrazin for the final podium place.
Abt would throw away his third-place finish on the final lap with a small error and retired from the race a few corners later.
Loci Duval finished fifth two seconds behind Di Grassi, with Oliver Turvey sixth and debutant Pierre Gasly seventh. Nicolas Prost was eighth ahead of Andretti's Robin Frijns and Jaguar's Adam Carroll completing the top ten.
Nick Heidfeld was the cause of the safety car as he clipped a kerb and caused damage to his rear, forcing him to stop on circuit.






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