Sports

PUNTA DEL ESTE FIA E-PRIX

SEBASTIEN BUEMI CLINCHES FIRST WIN


Punta del Este, Uruguay (Source: Formula E)
USPA NEWS - Great race by Sebastien Buemi (e-dams Renault) who holds off Jean-Eric Vergne (Andretti) and Nelson Piquet Jr. (China Racing) at the green light and goes on to a well-deserved victory.Vergne started from pole, but lost to a quick Nelson Piquet Jr.
The China Racing driver seeking to bring home an early advantage pushed a bit too hard and brushed the wall.
The damage was minor, but it meant that the handling of his car was compromised. Vergne took the lead with a well-judged lunge into the Turn 8 hairpin and instantly pulled away as Piquet battled with e.dams-Renault team-mates Buemi and Nico Prost, as well as a poor-handling car.
When Venturi´s Stephane Sarrazin hit a curb hard breaking his suspension and spinning, the Safety Car came out. Its mid-race timing was perfect and all the drivers dashed into the pits. This was especially well-timed for Mahindra´s Bruno Senna, who´d tagged the wall avoiding the spinning Sarrazin.
The Venturi driver made it to the pits on three wheels, swapped to a freshly charged car and continued the race.
The caution period came a lap after Vergne had pitted and he lost the lead to Buemi, who had finally found a way by Piquet, during the stops.
For the rest of the race Buemi had Vergne on his tail.. But with four laps to go, the safety car was deployed again, this time after Matthew Brabham slammed his Andretti into the wall on the exit of T15 chicane.
At the restart Vergne used his FanBoost, and although he closed right in, it wasn´t enough to make a the pass. It seemed set for an epic final lap battle, only for Vergne to be betrayed by a broken suspension.
With Piquet too far back, Buemi could relax and take checkered flag.
For the third time in three races Lucas di Grassi scored a podium finish, extending his championship lead to 18 points in the process.Virgin Racing´s Sam Bird remains in second, level on points with Buemi, but it was a race to forget for the Putrajaya winner. He crashed out early on at T2, causing the first of the three safety car periods.
Jarno Trulli, co-founder and driver of Trulli Formula E Team, scored his first Formula E points after an enthusiastic drive to fourth. The Italian enjoyed race-long battles with Brabham and Sarrazin.
“It´s a reasonable result for us,“said Trulli. “It´s a good result for the team, but I seem to be in the wrong place at the wrong time a lot!“
Michela Cerruti (Trulli Formula E Team), the Italian woman driver crosses the finish line in 12th place. After the unfortunate episode that occured in Round 2 in Putrajaya when Katherine Legge, in an attempt to overtake Michela in the early stage of the race hit the back-end of her car causing her to spin and ending her race, finally gets her personal revenge in Punta del Este finishing the race and making important progress in the development of the car and increasing her experience in Formula E.
The Trulli Formula E Team can consider this week-end a very positive one.

FIA Formula E Championship ““ Punta del Este ePrix (Rd 3) ““ Results:

1-Sebastien Buemi, (e.dams-Renault) 49:08.990
2-Nelson Piquet Jr, (China Racing) +0.732s
3-Lucas di Grassi, (Audi Sport ABT) +2.635s
4-Jarno Trulli, (Trulli) +4.163s
5-Jaime Alguersuari, (Virgin Racing)+4.698s
6-Bruno Senna, (Mahindra Racing) +5.197s
7-Nicolas Prost, (e.dams-Renault) +6.514s
8-Jerome d´Ambrosio, (Dragon Racing) +7.567s
9-Oriol Servia, (Dragon Racing) +8.646s
10-Nick Heidfeld, (Venturi) +10.563s
11-Antonio Garcia, (China Racing) +10.594s
12-Michela Cerruti, (Trulli) +19.617
Jarno Trulli
Source: © formulae
Michela Cerruti
Source: © formulae

more information: https://www.trulliformulae.com ; www.michelacerruti.com

Liability for this article lies with the author, who also holds the copyright. Editorial content from USPA may be quoted on other websites as long as the quote comprises no more than 5% of the entire text, is marked as such and the source is named (via hyperlink).