2014 Punta del Este ePrix

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]

Background[edit]

Jean-Éric Vergne, Salvador Duran and Antonio Garcia were brought in to replace Franck Montagny, Katherine Legge and Ho-Pin Tung respectively. Vergne, Durán and Nick Heidfeld were voted for to receive the FanBoost.

Race[edit]

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 the 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 as 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 the tenth position, and with that a championship point, by beating Antonio Garcia to the line by just three hundreds of a second.

"It’s a very nice location, next to the sea and the beach. I think the best overtaking places would be in the first chicane after the start/finish straight and in Turn 5 under braking. There are many places where the track is not that wide too, so it’s going to be a place where you really need to keep your concentration. The surface of the road is very different in places, meaning there is more grip in certain parts of the track, but the Formula E cars are well prepared for that kind of transition. They run very high off the ground and with a bit of work on the set-up it will be ok."

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