This morning saw the second race of the 2015/16 Formula E season take place in Putrajaya, Malaysia. Sophie Barker talks us through the more memorable points of what proved to be an extremely action-packed affair…
Lucas Di Grassi took the lead of the championship today after the e.Dams boys found themselves having some issues.
Buemi took yet another pole, so we were all expecting yet another win from him. He looked very dominant during qualifying but had Sarrazin to contend with.
Sarrazin spent a lot of time frantically waving his arms on the dummy grid at the start, before the marshals and a single mechanic came to take the car away. Before the car was off the grid, the marshals almost managed to park it in the side of a Mahindra. Eventually, it was removed from the grid. The Venturi team managed to get the car started back up again and got it to the end in P4 despite being 13 seconds down at the start.
Buemi didn’t have the easiest of days. Part way through the race he was starting to slow down drastically. He eventually crawled back to the pits behind his teammate who had been told to come in. They finished the race by driving at a snail’s pace, lifting and costing like it was going out of style to finish P10 and P12.
It was one literal big step for Sam Bird as he got onto the P2 podium spot. It did look rather big for a man only 5’2 in stature! Sam had fought all day and, when he was in P4, everything looked towards the Brit. After the Dragon boys nearly went to ‘shuntsville’, as Jack Nicholls called it in Beijing, it was obvious that everyone was on edge. The first Dragon car of Duval went wide and onto the concrete marbles before clouting the wall. A lap or so later, teammate D’Ambrosio ended up in the wall after a similar incident.
Daniel Abt was slightly off the pace this weekend. Qualifying saw him start in p10. After losing a place to Bird on the third lap, his energy conservation seemed to go out of the cockpit. His race seemed to be over during the pitstop as a hydraulic issue stopped the car from starting. After several flicks of the switch, the German was out and onto the track after over a minute in the garage. Due to the several DNFs that occurred with a few laps to go, Daniel and his gorgeous hair finished P6 without a lot of energy conservation.
However, Lucas was in control of the race after overtaking Prost, who was driving at a snail’s pace to conserve energy. He was held up at the start as Da Costa was acting like some sort of road block, but the Brazilian was quicker in the pits. Eventually, unaware of the madness going on behind him, Di Grassi finished in P1. The cameras panned onto the Abt team owner who was doing his best not to look nervous.
So, can we get another race as mad as this? Let’s find out in Punta Del Este…
