Monaco ePrix 2017-05-13 - TheSportsDB.com

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Event
Monaco ePrix

Date
Sat 13th May 2017 (UTC)

Timestamp

Time

00:00:00 UTC

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League
Formula E

Season
2016-2017

Round
5

Status

Location
Circuit de Monaco

Video Highlights

Description

The 2017 Monaco ePrix (formally the 2017 FIA Formula E Monaco ePrix) was a Formula E motor race held on 13 May 2017 at the Circuit de Monaco in Monte Carlo before a crowd of 18,000 people. It was the fifth round of the 2016–17 Formula E season and the second running of the event. The 51-lap race was won by e.Dams-Renault driver Sébastien Buemi after starting from pole position. Lucas di Grassi finished second for Audi Sport ABT and Mahindra driver Nick Heidfeld came in third.

Buemi won the pole position by recording the fastest lap in qualifying and maintained his advantage on the first lap. He pulled away from di Grassi until the race was neutralised on the 22nd lap when the safety car was deployed following a collision between Nelson Piquet Jr. and Jean-Éric Vergne on the previous lap. All drivers elected to switch into their second cars, and Buemi kept the lead at the lap-26 restart. Buemi reduced his pace to conserve electrical energy to ensure that he could finish the race and di Grassi began to narrow the deficit to him in the race's closing stages. He was unable to overtake the defensive Buemi who held the lead to secure the victory.

It was Buemi's fourth victory of the season, his second consecutive in Monaco, and the tenth of his career. The result meant Buemi moved further ahead of di Grassi in the Drivers' Championship to be 15 points ahead of him while Nico Prost kept third despite a poor result. Vergne remained in fourth despite his retirement but Sam Bird was one point closer to him in fifth place. e.Dams-Renaut increased their Teams' Championship over Audi Sport ABT by a further six points while Mahindra's strong result enabled them to move from fifth to third with seven races left in the season.

The Monaco ePrix was confirmed as part of Formula E's 2016-17 series schedule in September 2016 by the FIA World Motor Sport Council. It was the fifth of twelve scheduled single-seater electric car races of the 2016-17 season, the second running of the event, and was held on 13 May 2017 at the Circuit de Monaco in Monte Carlo. The race returned after a one-year absence from the series because it takes the slot on the calendar filled by the Historic Grand Prix in the principality every other year. It had been proposed Monaco hold a race following the cancellation of the Moscow ePrix the previous season but it did not proceed because of a lack of prepration time. The Circuit de Monaco is 1.765 kilometres (1.097 mi) long and consists of 12 turns. It was shortest track on the 2016-17 calendar and was heavily modified from the version used by Formula One for the Monaco Grand Prix. The event was contested by ten teams of two drivers each. The teams were e.Dams-Renault, Audi Sport ABT, Virgin, Dragon, Mahindra, Venturi, Andretti, Techeetah, NextEV and Jaguar.

Before the race e.Dams-Renault driver Sébastien Buemi led the Drivers' Championship with 76 points, six ahead of nearest rival Lucas di Grassi in second and a further 25 points ahead of Buemi's teammate Nico Prost in third. Jean-Éric Vergne was fourth on 46 points and Sam Bird rounded out the top five with 33 points. e.Dams-Renault were leading the Teams' Championship with 122 points; Audi Sport ABT were in second place on 91 points. Virgin (43 points), Techeetah (41) and Mahindra (37) contended for third place. e.Dams-Renault and Buemi had dominated the championship with di Grassi winning the preceding Mexico City ePrix. Di Grassi, Bird and Vergne (twice) had all finished in second place and Mahindra teammates Nick Heidfeld and Felix Rosenqvist along with di Grassi and Bird had all achieved at least one third-place result.

Following a difficult Mexico City race where he finished 14th, Buemi, the pre-race favourite, went into the Monaco event with a lot of hope and expectation, saying: "Monaco is one of the best tracks on the calendar. I have great memories from 2015 and I will do my best to win a second time here." Di Grassi was looking forward to his "home race" because he had knowledge of the entire track having lived in Monaco at the time of the event and wanted to carry over his momentum from his Mexico City win into the principality: "We made an important step with the victory in Mexico to keep the championship exciting. We are once again in striking distance." However, he did not have the championship in this thoughts because his team wanted to focus on securing race victories and amassing points. Heidfeld said he was looking forward to racing in Monaco where he has extensive experience competing in other motorsport series and felt his chances of winning were improved with an competitive car. He stated Mahindra displayed good performance and were targeting the objective of scoring more points than in the previous two races.

José María López's participation was under risk after damaging two vertebrae in a heavy crash at the 6 Hours of Silverstone. He stressed he would take part in Monaco if he was allowed to by his doctors and hoped it would not be aggravated which would prevent him from participating in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It was reported that Virgin would have their reserve driver Alex Lynn on standby to take over López's seat should the need arise. López was cleared to participate in the event after meeting with the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile's medical team following the first practice session's conclusion. Robin Frijns injured his right knee ligaments while training and it forced him to miss the season-opening Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup round at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza. His team Andretti were concerned the injury would be worsened by the mandatory switch into his second car and drafted BMW factory driver Alexander Sims as a replacement if Frijns proved to have further problems. After reporting an handing imbalance in the Mexico City ePrix (possibly due to chassis damage caused from multiple crashes by his prececessor Ma Qinghua), Esteban Gutiérrez received a new Techeetah chassis after the team made an successful request to the stewards to change it.

Reports

Result List

Result Description
1 9 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi e.Dams-Renault 51 51:05.488 1 281
2 11 Brazil Lucas di Grassi Audi Sport ABT 51 +0.320 2 18
3 23 Germany Nick Heidfeld Mahindra 51 +13.678 8 15
4 3 Brazil Nelson Piquet Jr. NextEV NIO 51 +19.074 3 12
5 5 Germany Maro Engel Venturi 51 +19.518 5 10
6 19 Sweden Felix Rosenqvist Mahindra 51 +19.599 6 8
7 66 Germany Daniel Abt Audi Sport ABT 51 +20.430 9 6
8 33 Mexico Esteban Gutiérrez Techeetah-Renault 51 +32.295 13 4
9 8 France Nico Prost e.Dams-Renault 51 +35.667 18 2
10 20 New Zealand Mitch Evans Jaguar 51 +38.410 14 1
11 28 Portugal António Félix da Costa Andretti-BMW 51 +1:08.330 163
12 27 Netherlands Robin Frijns Andretti-BMW 51 +1:14.053 12
13 88 United Kingdom Oliver Turvey NextEV NIO 50 +1 Lap 15
14 47 United Kingdom Adam Carroll Jaguar 50 +1 Lap 17
15 4 France Stéphane Sarrazin Venturi 49 +2 Laps 11
Ret 37 Argentina José María López Virgin-Citröen 43 Suspension 7
Ret 7 Belgium Jérôme d'Ambrosio Dragon-Penske 43 Powertrain 19
Ret 6 France Loïc Duval Dragon-Penske 40 Brakes 20
Ret 2 United Kingdom Sam Bird Virgin-Citröen 36 Suspension 10 12
Ret 25 France Jean-Éric Vergne Techeetah-Renault 20 Collision 4

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