Jean-Eric Vergne claimed a spectacular victory at the Punta del Este ePrix for Techeetah, marking his second win of the 2017/18 season.
Vergne started from pole position after a sequence of penalties post-qualifying. The Frenchman was second-quickest in qualifying but was promoted to the top spot due to Lucas di Grassi's sanction for exceeding track limits.
Vergne had a perfect getaway from pole position to lead into Turn 1 from di Grassi, Alex Lynn and Oliver Turvey while Sebastien Buemi had a poor start from sixth on the grid to let Andre Lotterer and Sam Bird in front, dropping to eighth.
Through such a strong start, Vergne held a small lead over the rest of the field before this was removed when the Safety Car was deployed on lap four after Nick Heidfeld stopped out on track with a reliability problem for Mahindra Racing.
On the race restart, Vergne held onto the lead while di Grassi closely followed behind, maintaining a small gap up until the opening of the pit window at half-race distance.
In the pit phase of the race, Vergne and di Grassi had equally fast pit stops, maintaining their respective positions, while Bird jumped Lynn in the running order after the latter had a slow stop which cost him fourth place.
One lap after pitting, Daniel Abt, who had battled his way up to third after starting in fifth for Audi, was forced to pit once more after the driver's seatbelts were not correctly fastened, costing the German driver what could have been a second consecutive podium.
Despite matching Vergne on pace, di Grassi was unable to find a way around the Frenchman in a heated battle out in front, meaning that Vergne took the chequered flag on lap 37 to take a third career Formula E win and extend his lead at the top of the Drivers' Championship.
Di Grassi crossed the line in second place to take his first podium of season four after suffering from reliability problems from rounds one to five this season while Bird stood on the final step in third place for DS Virgin Racing.
Mitch Evans put in an impressive performance for Jaguar Racing to finish fourth after starting down in 16th while Felix Rosenqvist also impressed for Mahindra, finishing in fifth place after starting in 14th.
Having kept pace with Vergne and di Grassi in the early stages of the race, Lynn finished down in sixth place while Turvey finished in seventh for NIO Formula E.
Jose Maria Lopez scored another points finish for Dragon Racing with an eighth-placed finish and the fastest lap while his team-mate, Jerome d'Ambrosio, finished in ninth. Maro Engel completed the top 10 for Venturi.
Antonio Felix da Costa narrowly missed out on a points finish for Andretti, crossing the line in 11th while Renault e.dams' Sebastien Buemi ran into difficulties after clattering the outside wall on the entry to Turn 14 on lap 11, forcing him to pit earlier than scheduled, finishing in 18th.
Nelson Piquet Jr, who looked like a potential contender for victory, failed to finish after picking up damage on the first lap and later suffering from a drivetrain problem while Heidfeld failed to rejoin the race after stopping out on track in the opening laps.
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