Sebastien Buemi became the ABB FIA Formula E Championship's ninth different winner of Season 5, ending a two-year winless streak in New York as the title fight goes down to the wire.
In qualifying, it was Buemi who came out on top, the Swiss racer securing his third pole position of the season ahead of Mahindra Racing's Pascal Wehrlein and Jaguar's Alex Lynn.
Securing a strong start from the front row, Buemi maintained his lead throughout the race, however, faced stiff opposition over the course of the 45-minute + 1 lap affair.
Lynn, who jumped Wehrlein into Turn 1, was Buemi's main challenger over the first half, however, a car shutdown forced the Briton into retirement, with this paving the way for Alexander Sims to move into second place.
Mitch Evans meanwhile, who started from 13th on the grid, was on a charge through the field. Finding himself in sixth place with 15-minutes + 1 lap remaining, the Kiwi overtook Sam Bird, Antonio Felix da Costa and Daniel Abt to move into the podium positions.
The Rome E-Prix race winner then overtook Sims to move into second place, emerging as Buemi's next challenger as the timing screen continued to tick down to zero.
Unable to challenge the Swiss racer, Buemi took the chequered flag in first place to secure his first Formula E win since the second leg of the 2017 Berlin E-Prix while also taking Nissan e.dams' maiden victory.
Facing a continuous threat from da Costa, Evans was able to hold on to take a second consecutive podium finish while the trailing Portuguese racer occupied the final step of the podium for BMW i Andretti Motorsport.
Sims took fourth place, equalling his best finish of his rookie season while Lucas di Grassi took fifth, ensuring that the Season 5 Drivers' Championship fight will go down to the wire in New York.
Daniel Abt took a provisional sixth in the second Audi while Pascal Wehrlein was seventh, dropping from second on the grid to take six points.
Following the application of a 10-second time penalty, Sam Bird took eighth while Jerome d'Ambrosio and Oliver Turvey completed the top 10.
Outside of the points-paying positions, Gary Paffett took 11th while Jose Maria Lopez was 12th for GEOX Dragon with Stoffel Vandoorne finishing in 13th.
For DS Techeetah and Jean-Eric Vergne, it was a difficult race, the championship leader getting caught up in an early incident involving Bird and Lopez with this dropping the Frenchman to the rear of the field after being forced to pit for repairs.
Running at the back of the field, Vergne gained from a safety car period following Lynn's retirement before using Attack Mode to move into the points. Batting against Massa, however, Vergne was involved in a final lap pile-up, with this relegating the Frenchman to 15th.
The ABB FIA Formula E Championship's fifth season of competition will come to a close tomorrow. While Vergne continues to lead, di Grassi trails the Frenchman by 22 points while Evans and Buemi are both 25 and 26 points adrift with a maximum of 29 points on offer.






Discussion about this post