Paul Jeffrey
Premium
Sam Bird took his first win of the 2018/19 Formula E season in Chile today, taking victory is the Santiago E-Prix thanks to a mistake from pre-season favourite Sebastien Buemi.
Sam Bird took a dramatic victory in the Santiago E-Prix this weekend, taking his and the Virgin Racing outfit's first victory of the season, surviving a dramatic race as much of the field involved themselves in drama and contact around the unforgiving street circuit in Chile.
Under searing heat at the Parque O'Higgins Circuit, the race would be an event filled with bumps and bruises for the majority of the field - leaving the luckless Felipe Massa amongst others once again in the wall and out of the race - although this time the former Grand Prix winner managed to at least bag a few laps of running before his weekend came to a premature conclusion once again.
At the front of the field it would be Buemi who left the line quickest, the former champion converting his Pole Position into an early race lead ahead of the impressive Wehrlein and Daniel Abt, both drivers settling down to what would become a long duel under the punishing conditions at the challenging venue.
The lead group would slowly edge away from the following field as Buemi continued to press home his advantage, before the Red Bull Racing reserve driver made a crucial mistake heading into the 22nd lap, locking up and heading straight to the outside barriers of turn seven and into retirement, handing a surprise race lead to Bird, followed closely by the continually impressive Wehrlein in his most memorable event of his short Formula E career to date.
Bird would remain ice cool for the remainder of the race, holding off the challenge of Wehrlein and Alex Simms to eventually cross the line in first position, some 6 + seconds ahead as Wehrlein had to back down in the final minutes to conserve energy with his overheating battery - an issue affecting many of the drivers throughout the event.
Sadly for early series pace setter Simms, Santiago would be another disappointed event as he would suffer from a post race penalty that eventually dropped the Englishman to seventh in the final order, promoting Abt to the final podium position, Mortara fourth, Frijns fifth and Mitch Evans an impressive sixth for the struggling Jaguar outfit.
Santiago E-Prix Results:
- Sam Bird
- Pascal Wehrlein
- Daniel Abt
- Edoardo Mortara
- Robin Frijns
- Mitch Evans
- Alexander Sims
- Jérôme d'Ambrosio
- Oliver Turvey
- Jose Maria Lopez
- Nelson Piquet Jr.
- Lucas di Grassi
- Andre Lotterer
- Gary Paffett
DNF Oliver Rowland
DNF Antonio Felix da Costa
DNF Jean-Eric Vergne
DNF Sébastien Buemi
DNF Stoffel Vandoorne
DNF Maximilian Gunther
DNF Felipe Massa
DNF Tom Dillmann
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