Nicolas Prost claimed pole position for the race for the e.dams-Renault team[3] and, with the exception of one lap during the pit stops, led the race up until the final corner. That was the moment when Nick Heidfeld had closed the gap to Prost and made an overtaking manoeuvre. Prost hit Heidfeld while they were side to side, sending the German driver into a spin. Heidfeld's car then hit the kerb sideways, and flipped into the barrier. The collision forced both drivers to retire from the race, and Lucas di Grassi went through to claim victory.[2] Montagny finished second, while Daniel Abt was third on track, but was penalised 57 seconds for exceeding "the maximum permitted electrical power during the race," relegating him to tenth position, which promoted Bird to the final place on the podium.[4] Jaime Alguersuari and Katherine Legge also received 57-second penalties for the same transgression.

Despite his retirement, Prost collected three championship points for his pole position, and Takuma Sato, who was also unable to complete the race, gained two points for recording the fastest lap of the race.[5] During the race, three drivers were able to gain benefit from a "fan boost" which gave them an extra 30 kilowatts of power for two five-second stints. The drivers voted to receive this were Bruno Senna, Legge, and Di Grassi. However, none of the drivers actually used the boost of energy during the race, leading the organization to mandate the use for coming races.[6]

Formula E, the street-racing series for electric vehicles, looks set to expand its Chinese calendar as sponsors seek a bigger slice of the world's largest car market.

The championship staged its inaugural race in Beijing in 2014 and returned the following year. It kicked off the current campaign by debuting in Hong Kong in November.

Now the series wants to include a third Chinese stop, with Shanghai very much in the running after "really positive" talks between Formula E CEO Alejandro Agag, the city's vice-mayor and prospective local partners last month.

"China is a key market that we really want to focus on and develop," said Agag.

"Electric cars are being developed a lot and becoming a lot more mainstream in China. Our mission is to promote electric cars, so we are here to see how we can expand Formula E in this country and attract a larger Chinese fan base."

While Agag described last year's Hong Kong race as "a big success" and said Formula E will return, a second race on the mainland is a priority, with many of the participating automakers keen to maximize their exposure.

The fourth race of Formula E's third season hit Mexico City on April 1 and saw ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport team's Lucas di Grassi notch a dramatic win.

Jean-Eric Vergne of China's Team Techeetah's was runner-up, just as he was in the previous race in Buenos Aires.

A new entry this season, Techeetah was founded by Chinese sports marketing company SECA following the acquisition of the former Team Aguri last July.

As the series gains traction, it is showcasing more Chinese flavor.

Racing as Team UK this term, NextEV NIO, a startup founded by Chinese internet entrepreneur William Li, started off as Team China Racing and carried Nelson Piquet Jr to the inaugural drivers' championship.

Faraday Future, an American startup backed by Chinese internet firm LeEco, partners with Dragon Racing.

What's more, Chinese partners are the third largest shareholder of Formula E, owning a stake of above 10 percent, according to Agag.

In February, CMC Capital Partners, parent company of SECA, announced a long-term multi-million-dollar investment into Formula E.

"It gives a strong signal that China is really betting on electric cars and electrification to realize clean mobility," said Agag.

"The more we can do to help with this change in China, the better. That's why we are so committed to China.

Electric vehicles are an obvious way of alleviating air pollution, so the Chinese government provides subsidies to EV manufacturers and consumers.

"China's EV market will be the biggest in the world very shortly," Nick Sampson, vice-president of research and development at Faraday Future, told China Daily at the race in Mexico City.

"The great thing for China at the present time is that it hasn't got so many vehicles on the road yet.

"So, while the US needs to replace a massive number of road cars with electric vehicles, China just needs to persuade people who haven't had a car to go with an electric one as the best choice."

Some of the existing EV technologies in China are basic, according to Sampson, and Formula E is a great platform for manufacturers to test and improve them.

But at this point, China-based EV manufacturers are conspicuously absent from the list of Formula E's constructors.

Despite being Chinese-backed, NextEV NIO and Faraday Future don't hold licenses as EV manufacturers in China.

"It's a little disappointing to see that the licensed EV manufacturers in China haven't taken advantage of the opportunity to test their technology on the front," Ivan Yim, managing director of Techeetah, told China Daily.

"It would be good to see at least one or two of them participating in the series because motor racing is a very good platform for them to demonstrate their technology.

"They can evolve season by season through testing their technology on the race track and then transfer it to street cars."

SAM BIRD WINS PUTRAJAYA EPRIX IN MALAYSIA; KARUN CHANDHOK 6TH

Sam Bird of ****** Racing flew to victory in the 2014 FIA Formula E Ycapital Management Putrajaya ePrix. He beat championship-leader Lucas di Grassi of Audi Sport ABT and Sebastien Buemi of e.dams-Renault who came in 2nd and 3rd respectively. The ****** Racing driver crossed the line to pick up the full 25 points and clinch his maiden ePrix win.

Bird also dedicated his win to former GP2 team-mate Jules Bianchi, who was severely injured in the Japanese Grand Prix. Bianchi who raced for Marussia sustained fatal head injuries in an F1 race in Japan. He is still in coma and has been shifted to Nice in France. “I have to dedicate this win to a good friend of mine who is very ill. It’s very sad what’s happened to him and this one is for Jules. The weekend went really well, we were quick from the first outing and we were quickest in practice. Qualifying didn’t quite go our way as I think we were not in the best group for doing a fast lap time but we put that right in the race. The first stint I was able to get a very good gap which meant we could take it easy and not make any silly mistakes, do some lift and coasting, and coast to the finish,” he said. Lucas di Grassi and Sebastien Buemi both managed to fight their way through the field to stand on the podium despite starting at the back of the grid, said a press statement from FIA Formula E.

Meanwhile, India's Karun Chandhok of Mahindra Racing Formula E team had a mixed day on the streets of Putrajaya, Malaysia after a pit stop problem cost him a podium position. Chandhok finished in 6th position after fighting back from 11th in an eventful race that saw him running in 3rd position for the first half of the race. Chandhok has moved up to 3rd position in the Championship after completion of two rounds of the inaugural FIA Formula E series. Chandhok’s teammate Bruno Senna crashed out of fourth place with just a few corners remaining.

Chandhok, who started 5th on the grid, made the most of a slow starting Daniel Abt to make his way into fourth place while Senna also made up a place passing the Abt car. Two separate incidents on the opening lap created the need for the safety car as debris were cleared from the circuit.

At the restart both Mahindra Racing cars remained in contention with Chandhok holding onto fourth, before making his way into third place by pulling off a great move on pole sitter Oriol Servia into turn 1. Chandhok was in third place putting pressure on 2nd placed ex-F1 driver Jarno Trulli for the first half of the race. Unfortunately a delay in the pits lost Chandhok 14 seconds and positions as he slipped back to 11th place as he exited the pits. Senna meanwhile had also swapped to his second Mahindra car, and was ninth.

Senna was keen to make progress through the field however and made up several positions due to overtakes and drive through penalties for other drivers. Using his Fan Boost, Senna passed Nicholas Prost to take fourth place. Chandhok was also making progress, up to seventh place after passing Daniel Abt.

Senna crashed on the last lap when following third placed man Sebastien Buemi closely and made heavy impact with the barriers while Chandhok meanwhile had done well to recover to sixth place.

Reflecting on his race, Chandhok said, “Unfortunately the pit stop didn’t go too well for us. One of our regular mechanics was taken to hospital yesterday so we’re a man down so it wasn’t quite a slick as normal. If we look at where the time we lost would have put us, I think we would have been easily on the podium. I was running in third place earlier on, feeling comfortable, not taking any risks but the pace was there. I’m driving well and we have a good car so we need to make sure everything comes together in Uruguay.”

Team Principal Dilbagh Gill added, “Again, it’s been a very eventful Formula E weekend with many ups and downs. As in Beijing we showed very good pace, we clearly have a handle on the technical side but it didn’t quite come together this weekend in terms of the podium results we deserved. There are positives to take away; strong pace again and the fantastic support of the fans who supported Bruno again through Fan Boost, for which we are very thankful. We now head to Uruguay confident of better results.”

The Mahindra Racing Formula E team will be back in action in three week’s time for round three of the season at the Punta Del Este, Uruguay. Chandhok is supported by long term supporters JK Tyre, as well as Tag Heuer, Sidvin and the AVT group.

Venturi’s Nick Heidfeld was excluded from the Putrajaya ePrix results after his pit stop car change was adjudged to have taken place outside of the permitted area.

His exclusion means his 19th-place finish cannot be counted as a dropped result at the end of the season.

Other penalties include the Trulli team being fined 5000 Euros for releasing Michela Cerruti from the pit in practice with one of the wheel nuts not having been properly tightened.

Katherine Legge will start with a 10-place grid penalty at her next race for Amlin Aguri as the team had to change the RESS device on her car. Legge was one of a number of drivers to pick up a drive-through penalty in the race. The others included Franck Montagny and Jarno Trulli.

The 2014 Punta del Este ePrix, formally the 2014 FIA Formula E Julius Baer Punta del Este ePrix[1] is a Formula E motor race held on 13 December 2014 at the Punta del Este Street Circuit in Punta del Este, Uruguay. It was the first Punta del Este ePrix and the third championship race of the single-seater, electrically powered racing car series' inaugural season, the first in the Americas.[2]

Jean-Éric Vergne started on pole position. Behind him were Nelson Piquet, Jr., Nicolas Prost, and Sébastien Buemi. Piquet immediately overtook Vergne and Buemi overtook Prost, while the whole field safely squeezed through the first chicane. Nick Heidfeld used his FanBoost and went up to fifth position. On the fourth lap, Sam Bird went over a kerb in the first corner and, unable to steer, hit the wall. This brought out the safety car.

Green flags were waved on the sixth lap, but the race was soon neutralized again when Da Costa had to retire on track. After that, Vergne managed to pass Piquet for the lead. Buemi tried to pass him as well, but locked up his front wheels. Both drivers had to use the run-off area, but kept their positions.

On the sixteenth lap, Piquet had fallen back behind both e.dams drivers, and Vergne made his pit stop. Meanwhile, Stéphane Sarrazin's suspension failed when he hit a kerb and he crashed out. This brought out a third safety car. Bruno Senna had hit the wall in the same incident, but managed to switch cars at the same time as his rivals, without losing much time.

On the twentieth lap, Heidfeld was leading the race, but received a drive-through penalty for exceeding the maximum power usage. Nicolas Prost was then penalized in the same manner. This left the top three as Buemi, Vergne, Piquet. A fourth safety car was called on lap 27 when Matthew Brabham crashed exactly like Sarrazin did earlier.

With two laps left to race, Vergne used his FanBoost as soon as the safety car pulled off, but did not manage to take the lead. Buemi, however, cut the chicane and it was debated whether he should relinquish his position. Before any action was carried out, however, Vergne ran out of power and retired. He did score three points for his pole position. Buemi took the victory with Piquet second and Di Grassi third. Further back, Heidfeld used his FanBoost and managed to take tenth position, and with that a championship point, by beating Antonio Garcia to the line by just three hundreds of a second.

The ABB FIA Formula E Championship is making its third visit to the Atlantic seafront in Uruguay this weekend (17 March), as the Punta del Este E-Prix returns after a year’s absence as round six of the 2017/18 season.

Fresh from a thrilling race in Mexico City just two weeks ago, which saw a breakthrough win for Daniel Abt and Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler, the 20 all-electric racers are preparing for the challenges of the street circuit by the sea, as the roads lining the idyllic coastline are converted to a challenging racetrack.

The 2.785km course features 20 corners, and is an exciting mixture of high speed sweeping curves and tight chicanes. The city hosted events in the first two seasons of Formula E, and notably was the place where season two champion Sebastien Buemi scored his first win, and where current standings leader Jean-Eric Vergne put his car on pole position for the first time.

Returning to the venue for the third time is also an opportunity to show how far the development of the Formula E car has come since the series’ inception. In 2014, the lap count for the Punta del Este E-Prix was 31, rising to 33 in 2015, and now in 2018 there is a marked increase to 37 laps.

The result of the fifth round of the championship in Mexico City surprisingly did not affect the top five positions on the points table, with Vergne leading for TECHEETAH, followed by Mahindra Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist and DS ****** Racing’s Sam Bird. Buemi’s brace of third places for Renault e.dams at the last two rounds cements his position in fourth, while Nelson Piquet Jr will be looking to break onto the podium this weekend for Panasonic Jaguar Racing having finished in fourth place three times this season.

NIO Formula E Team's Oliver Turvey scored a breakthrough podium for the manufacturer in Mexico City and will be hoping to build on that success, while Audi is confident it has resolved the reliability issues that have troubled reigning champion Lucas di Grassi so far this season which will likely see both he and recent winner Abt towards the front once again.