Paul Jeffrey
Premium
This weekend the Formula E circus visited Hong Kong - round five of the ABB FIA Formula E championship.
A dramatic and incident packed race unfolded in Hong Kong today, with Envision Virgin Racing driver Sam Bird coming out ahead of the mayhem to take his first win of the season - unless a late race steward investigation can undo his hard work in the coming hours.
Bird would be the first driver across the line in Hong Kong today, however the British former LMP2 World Champion would have to employ some aggressive tactics in order to pass race long rival Andre Lotterer for the victory, interesting the race officials enough to confirm an investigation will be taking place post race into the legality of the move from the Virgin Racing man... more to follow on that one later...
With the Hong Kong street circuit offering little grip thanks to overnight rain showers, the 36 lap race would certainly be a test of the patience for drivers and fans, with multiple accidents leading to no less than three safety car periods and a red flag stoppage, and producing some surprising results as several race and championship favourites would find themselves in varying degrees of strife throughout the race.
With a wet qualifying handing series rookie Stoffel Vandoorne his first Pole Position in the category, the field pulled away from the green flag and the former McLaren man would immediately begin his descent down the running order, passed first by the fast starting Oliver Rowland, then slipping behind Bird before the first major incident of the day would take place - Felipe Nasr dumping the car into the wall and subsequently collecting Pascal Wehrlein and Jerome D’Ambrosio - bringing out the red flag as marshals raced to clear the circuit and allow racing to continue.
Upon the restart it would be Rowland at the head of the field, however the Englishman would suffer a loss of power heading into his second tour of the circuit, handing the advantage to former Le Mans winner Lotterer, the German striking out at the front of the field and performing faultlessly for the remainder of the race, until a late challenge from Bird would eventually result in a puncture that would sadly put the impressive Techeeta driver out of the final points paying positions.
Mechanical issues would later account for both Vandoorne and Rowland, both causing race neutralising yellow flag periods, while the remainder of the 14 classified race finishers would bump and bang their way to the chequered flag in what was an incident and action packed race meeting.
Provisional Race Results:
- Sam Bird
- Edoardo Mortara
- Lucas di Grassi
- Robin Frijns
- Daniel Abt
- Felipe Massa
- Mitch Evans
- Gary Paffett
- Oliver Turvey
- Antonio Felix da Costa
- Jose Maria Lopez
- Tom Dillmann
- Jean-Eric Vergne
- Andre Lotterer
DNF Oliver Rowland
DNF Stoffel Vandoorne
DNF Sébastien Buemi
DNF Alexander Sims
DNF Felipe Nasr
DNF Pascal Wehrlein
DNF Jérôme d'Ambrosio
DNF Nelson Piquet Jr.
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