Home / Sport / Motorsport / Formula E / 2016-2017 / Montreal ePrix Race 1

Event
Montreal ePrix Race 1


Date
Sat 29th July 2017 (UTC)

Timestamp


Time
00:00:00 UTC

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League
Formula E

Season
2016-2017

Round
11

Status


Location
Montreal Street Circuit

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Description
The 2017 Montreal ePrix (formally the 2017 FIA Formula E Hydro-Québec Montréal ePrix) were a pair of Formula E races held on 29 and 30 July 2017 at the Montreal Street Circuit in Montreal, Quebec before an two-day crowd of 45,000 people. There were the eleventh and twelfth races of the 2016–17 Formula E season and the inaugural running of the event. The first race, contested over 35 laps on 29 July, was won by Audi Sport ABT driver Lucas di Grassi after starting from pole position. Jean-Éric Vergne finished second for the Techeetah team and his teammate Stéphane Sarrazin came in third. The longer 37-lap race held the following day was won by Vergne from a third place start. Felix Rosenqvist took second for the Mahindra team and Virgin driver José María López secured a third-place finish.

Di Grassi won the pole position for the first race by recording the fastest lap in qualifying and held off an challenge from Sarrazin to maintain the lead at the start of the event. He pulled away from the field and attention focused on his championship rival Sébastien Buemi, demoted from second to twelfth on the starting grid for changing his battery, after sustaining steering arm damage on the first lap but was able to move up the field during the course of the race. The race was neutralised with a full course yellow flag when Loïc Duval and Nick Heidfeld collided on the 14th lap. Most drivers made pit stops to switch into a second car and di Grassi remained the leader following the end of the pit stops. Sarrazin ceded second to teammate Vergne who then started to draw closer to di Grassi but his chase was neutralised when López crashed on lap 24, necessitating the safety car's deployment. Di Grassi kept the lead at the restart five laps later and held off Vergne for the remainder of the race to secure his second victory of the season and the sixth of his career. No lead changes occurred as di Grassi was the only driver to lead laps in the first race.

Rosenqvist was the fastest driver for qualifying for the second race and maintained his startline advantage on the first lap. After Sarrazin spun at the first turn from contact with Daniel Abt and Nelson Piquet Jr., Buemi was hit from behind by António Félix da Costa , damaging his right-rear wheel guard which flailed in the wind before detaching itself. Buemi was required to make a pit stop which dropped him down the order. With more electrical energy to use, Vergne began attacking Rosenqvist for the lead after ten laps and took over the lead for one lap when the change into second cars began on the 18th lap. After the pit stops had been completed, Rosenqvist reclaimed the lead with a five-second advantage over Vergne who began regaining the lost time having made his stop one lap later than Rosenqvist. Vergne had more usage electrical energy and took advantage of Rosenqvist running slower to overtake him on the 29th lap. Vergne kept the lead for the rest of the ePrix to clinch his maiden Formula E victory. There were four lead changes among three different drivers during the course of the second race.

Di Grassi overturned Buemi's advantage in the Drivers' Championship and became the third champion in Formula E history with a 24-point advantage over his rival. Rosenqvist's performances enabled him to secure third, five points ahead of Sam Bird. Vergne's strong performance in both races allowed him to consolidate fifth position. Despite poor form in the second race, e.Dams-Renault secured their third consecutive Teams' Championship with a 20-point lead over their rivals Audi Sport ABT. Mahindra finished the season in third place with Virgin a further 25 points behind in fourth. Techeetah's strong performance in both races allowed the team to consolidate fifth place.

Practice and qualifying
Two practice sessions—both on Saturday morning—were held before the late afternoon race. The first session ran for 45 minutes and the second lasted 30 minutes. Both practice sessions took place in dry and warm weather conditions. Di Grassi used the full 200 kilowatts (270 hp) available to him and recorded the first practice session's fastest lap at one minute and 22.451 seconds, almost 1.2 seconds faster than Bird in second and Vergne third. Buemi was fourth-fastest, ahead of Nico Prost and Rosenqvist. Sarrazin, Mitch Evans, Daniel Abt and Nelson Piquet Jr. rounded out the session's top ten drivers. The track's surface caught several drivers off guard after locking their tyres, causing them to slide into the run-off areas, while multiple cars were affected by oversteer. Abt broke the left-front rim on his car following an collision the barriers lining the track. In the second practice session, Prost was the quickest driver with a time of one minute and 22.180 seconds; Vergne was second and Rosenqvist placed third. Sarrazin was fourth-fastest; Heidfeld was fifth and Bird took sixth. Loïc Duval was seventh-fastest, Robin Frijns eighth and the two NextEV cars of Oliver Turvey and Piquet completed the top ten ahead of qualifying. During the session where di Grassi and Adam Carroll skidded under braking on the dusty surface and slid into the track's run-off areas, Sarrazin stopped at the pit lane exit but restarted his car without external aid. Buemi glanced the Bus Stop chicane inside barrier, and speared straight into the exit wall at high speed. Buemi was unhurt and exited his car without external assistance, but because his vehicle was signifiantly damaged, he was forced to use his second car for qualifying. The crash prompted the premature end to the session five minutes before it was due to conclude as there was damage to the barrier and debris was strewn across the circuit. e.Dams-Renault mechanics worked for the next five hours to build a new car around a spare monocoque.


Sam Bird (pictured in 2015) could not use the maximum power available to him and qualify down the field.
Saturday's afternoon qualifying session ran for 60 minutes and was divided into four groups of five cars. Each group was determined by a lottery system and was permitted six minutes of on-track activity. All drivers were limited to two timed laps with one at maximum power. The fastest five overall competitors in the four groups participated in a "Super Pole" session with one driver on the track at any time going out in reverse order. Each of the five drivers was limited to one timed lap; the starting order was determined by the participants' fastest times. The driver and team who recorded the fastest time were awarded three points towards their respective championships. Qualifying was held in dry and warm weather conditions, and the track appeared slower than in practice. In the first group of five runners, where drivers waited three and a half minutes before venturing onto the track, Duval was fastest, three-tenths of a seconds quicker than Abt. The two were followed by Bird who could not use the maximum amount of power available to him because of a mapping issue. Piquet heavily locked his tyres on his maximum power lap, and Jérôme d'Ambrosio was the first group's slowest (and overall) driver having failed to reach the timing line to start his full power lap. Track conditions improved in the second group which saw the five drivers wait until the closing seconds to begin their maximum power laps. Sarrazin recorded the fastest lap time and Prost took second. Frijns was third-fastest. António Félix da Costa attacked but struggled with understeer and slid his car to go half a second slower than Sarrazin, and López was the second group's slowest participant after a similar mapping error to teammate Bird left him driving at a slower pace.

In the third group, di Grassi set the fastest overall lap time of any driver at one minute and 23.026 seconds. He was followed by Buemi in second position, followed by the third-placed Rosenqvist. Vergne made an error en route to fourth place and Evans was the third group's slowest competitor. Carroll set the fastest lap time of the fourth group with Turvey in second. Tom Dillmann was third-fastest, ahead of the fourth group's slowest two drivers: Heidfeld and Engel. Heidfeld slow form was caused by him sliding through the first turn and Engel appeared to have a similar problem to both Virgin cars. At the end of group qualifying, the lap times set by di Grassi, Buemi, Sarrazin, Rosenqvist and Prost were fast enough to enable progression into super pole. Di Grassi clinched his third pole position of the season with a time of one minute and 22.869 seconds, despite going four hundredths of a second slower in the first sector but regained time in the second sector. He was joined on the grid's front row by Buemi who recorded a lap 0.196 seconds off di Grassi's pace. Sarrazin took third place by judging the first braking point correctly and demonstrated strong rear-end grip despite losing seven hundredths of a second through a driving error. Although he had minor oversteer moments which cost him time Prost secured fourth. Rosenqvist locked his rear brakes going into the first corner, losing him one second worth of time and could only muster fifth. After qualifying ended, Buemi was demoted ten places on the starting grid because he changed his car's battery following his heavy second practice crash.

Race

Nick Heidfeld (pictured in 2014) retired after 14 laps following a collision with Loïc Duval.
The first race began at 16:00 Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-05:00). Weather conditions at the start of the race were dry with an air temperature between 24.10 to 24.55 °C (75.38 to 76.19 °F) and a track temperature ranging from 28.90 to 29.45 °C (84.02 to 85.01 °F). A special feature of Formula E is the "Fan Boost" feature, an additional 100 kilowatts (130 hp) of power to use in the driver's second car. The three drivers who were allowed to use the boost were determined by a fan vote. For the first Montreal race, di Grassi, Vergne and Buemi were handed the extra power. When the race started, di Grassi fended off an attack from Sarrazin to lead the field heading into the first corner. Buemi drove conservatively resulting in him being delayed in a closely bunched pack of cars in the middle of the field. He sustained handling damage from contact with Frijns's front-left wheel in the second turn and fell to 16th place. Evans and teammate Carroll made fast getaways and moved into fourth and eighth positions. Prost struggled at the start and lost two positions to fall to sixth position after making contact with one of the Jaguar cars. Heidfeld made the best start in the field, gaining four positions by the end of the first lap while Buemi lost four places over the same distance.

At the end of the first lap, di Grassi led Sarrazin, Rosenqvist, Evans, Vergne, Prost, Carroll, Turvey, Duval, Dillmann, Heidfeld, Abt, Félix da Costa, Frijns, Engel, Buemi, López, d'Ambrosio, Bird and Piquet. Di Grassi began to pull away from the rest of the field. Sarrazin was put under pressure by Rosenqvist but defended his position from him. Attention then switched to Buemi who was beginning his move up the field. He adopted the positioning of his left hand on his steering wheel against his bent steering arm. Heidfeld and Abt were able to enter the top-ten places and both battled for position. Abt passed Heidfeld for ninth place on the ninth lap. After ten laps Buemi had passed four drivers to run in 12th place. After Buemi had overtaken Duval for tenth position on the 14th lap, Heidfeld attempted to overtake Duval on the outside line, but Duval defended his position, leaving Heidfeld without any space on the dirty part of the track and the two made contact at turn six. Duval resumed but Heidfeld's front-right suspension was bent and drove to the side of the track at turn 12 to retire. Heidfeld's stricken car prompted the activation of the full course yellow procedure to enable marshals to remove it from the circuit and most drivers elected to make pit stops for the mandatory change into their second cars.

Buemi and Abt were the first drivers to enter the pit lane in an attempt to undercut the field. Buemi was close behind the rear-end of Abt's car entering the pit lane and made minor contact with the slow-moving Abt, gesticulating angrily. Buemi was released from his pit stall alongside Abt, and passed him who then applied his brakes to avoid hitting Buemi. After Buemi appeared to reduce his speed at the pit lane exit, Abt drove into the rear-end of his car, prompting Buemi to complain furiously over the radio. Rosenqvist's pit stop was two seconds longer than expected and fell behind Vergne. Having opted not to make a pit stop under full course yellow conditions, Carroll moved into a points-scoring position, and rejoined in 14th after making his pit stop. Sarrazin later allowed Vergne to take over second place. Duval recorded the race's fastest lap on lap 19, completing a circuit in one minute and 24.536, earning him one championship point. Upfront, Vergne began reducing the time deficit to di Grassi. Buemi overtook Turvey for seventh place on lap 21 and passed Evans two laps later but could not establish a healthy advantage over Abt.


Lucas di Grassi (pictured in 2016) started from pole position and led every lap to win the first race.
López lost control of his car's rear-end on lap 24, and spun into the turn eight wall, necessitating the deployment of the safety car, eliminating the time gaps in the field. The safety car was withdrawn at the end of lap 29, and racing resumed with di Grassi using FanBoost to pull clear from Vergne who was being pressured by teammate Sarrazin but both drivers remained in their positions. Prost moved aside to allow teammate Buemi through for fifth place. Abt aggressively overtook Prost shortly after to move into sixth place and continued his goal of drawing closer to Buemi. On the 31st lap, Rosenqvist, who was challenging for a podium place, impacted the wall exiting the chicane, damaging his left-rear suspension and causing the Mahindra's steering arm to become bent. This enabled Buemi to take over fourth place and Rosenqvist fell down the order. Vergne drew close to di Grassi and was close behind him in the closing two laps. He feigned an overtaking manoeuvre on di Grassi but the latter defended the lead.

Buemi closed up to Sarrazin on the final lap, starting an battle for third position. He was unable to get past Sarrazin after the two battled for the complex comprising turns six and eight which included wheel-to-wheel contact. Vergne continued to push di Grassi for the remainder of the race but was unable to draw close enough to mount a serious attempt at passing, and di Grassi held on to the lead to secure the victory. Vergne finished three-tenths of a second adrift in second with teammate Sarrazin taking third. Buemi was fourth on the road, ahead of Abt in fifth and Bird who gained twelve positions over the course of the event to clinch sixth. Prost, Evans, Frijns, and the limping Rosenqvist rounded out the top-ten points scoring positions. Dillmann, d'Ambrosio, Engel, Piquet and Félix da Costa filled the next five positions with Turvey and Carroll were the last of the classified finishers. It was di Grassi's second victory of the season, his first in Montreal, and the sixth of his career. There were no lead changes during the course of the race as di Grassi led every lap contested.

Post-race
The top three drivers appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and in a later press conference. Di Grassi was delighted with his victory, calling it "the best day in my Formula E career" and reserved praise for his team after they used much of their energy to understand their lack of competitiveness at the preceding New York City races. He felt the secret was to remain calm and exercise what the driver could do to motivate the people he/she is surrounded by for the season's remaining races, "Formula E can go from heaven to hell in one lap or one decision or one problem. Today we did the job. Tomorrow is a completely different day, a completely different environment. We’re going to try to do the same as we did here.” Vergne spoke of his happiness over his team's growing strength and their double podium finish. He said he was hit from both sides at the race's start, causing him to lose positions, but spoke highly of his car, " I thought the car was just perfect and was able to push really hard. I was catching everyone in front, using less energy than them, so I think the strategy was really nice.” Third-place finisher Sarrazin stated that he was down on pace and became aware of Buemi closing on him by glancing at his rear-view mirrors. However, he was aware Buemi was challenging for the championship.


Sébastien Buemi (pictured in 2016) confronted three drivers after the race and was later disqualified for an underweight car.
After the race ended, the pit lane atmosphere became turbulent when a visibly angered Buemi went to Félix da Costa and accused him of braking his car's steering in the second turn. When Félix da Costa replied he had not made contact, Buemi walked to his teammate Frijns and engaged in a heated argument. Frijns argued he the choices he had were either to hitting Buemi's rear-wing or driving around the outside of the driver. He threatened to drive into Buemi's rear-end the next time he was anywhere near him. Buemi confronted Abt shortly after and accused the latter of hitting him deliberately. When Buemi walked away, he turned to Abt and called him "a dirty guy". More than half an hour after the rant, Buemi called Audi Sport Abt "a dirty team" through the press and claimed the company went beyond what was allowed in the rules. Frijns was perplexed by Buemi's confrontation as he was expecting to be thanked by Buemi and believed he avoided being caught up in a more serious incident in the opening lap, "I had actually already taken him before I turned in and I felt a small touch on the left rear but nothing much. Then five or six laps later he was behind me and I chose to let him go so I don’t know what he is crying about." Ten days after the ePrix, Buemi apologised to his team and both Andretti drivers on Twitter.

Buemi, having risen from 12th to finish fourth, was disqualified from the race after technical stewards in post-race scrutineering determined that his second car was under the minimum weight limit of 880 kilograms (1,940 lb) and the team were reported to have added an additional 4 kilograms (8.8 lb) to compensate any weight variation in his vehicle. This was partly due to the insufficient amount of time to get the car weighed after the car was rebuilt following his heavy second practice accident. The team elected not to appeal the penalty. e.Dams-Renault team principal Jean-Paul Driot said he could not understand why the car's weight was not within the limit and revealed the team attempted to file an appeal to allow the battery to be weighed but the large amount of difference in the component made the situation harder.

The result meant di Grassi moved into the lead of the Drivers' Championship with 175 points. Buemi's disqualification meant he fell to second and was 18 points in arrears of his championship rival. Bird's fifth-place finish meant he took over third place with 110 points but was mathematically excluded from winning the championship. Rosenqvist's poor form resulted in him dropping from third to fourth and was also prevented from securing the title. Vergne and Prost were equal on points in the battle for fifth place. e.Dams-Renault still led the Teams' Championship on 267 points but their advantage over Audi Sport ABT had been narrowed to 33 points. Mahindra remained in third position but Virgin moved further towards the team while Techeetah consolidated fifth with one race left in the season. For the second event, Di Grassi only now required a fifth-place finish or better to secure the championship regardless of where Buemi finished.


Reports


Result List


Result Description
1 11 Brazil Lucas di Grassi Audi Sport ABT 35 56:55.592 1 284
2 25 France Jean-Éric Vergne Techeetah-Renault 35 +0.350 5 18
3 33 France Stéphane Sarrazin Techeetah-Renault 35 +7.869 2 15
4 66 Germany Daniel Abt Audi Sport ABT 35 +8.592 11 12
5 2 United Kingdom Sam Bird Virgin-Citröen 35 +8.913 18 10
6 8 France Nico Prost e.Dams-Renault 35 +10.058 4 8
7 20 New Zealand Mitch Evans Jaguar 35 +10.457 6 6
8 27 Netherlands Robin Frijns Andretti-BMW 35 +15.836 13 4
9 19 Sweden Felix Rosenqvist Mahindra 35 +16.764 3 2
10 4 France Tom Dillmann Venturi 35 +19.320 9 1
11 7 Belgium Jérôme d'Ambrosio Dragon-Penske 35 +20.229 20
12 5 Germany Maro Engel Venturi 35 +22.314 17
13 3 Brazil Nelson Piquet Jr. NextEV NIO 35 +23.145 19
14 28 Portugal António Félix da Costa Andretti-BMW 35 +34.786 15
15 88 United Kingdom Oliver Turvey NextEV NIO 35 +46.996 8
16 47 United Kingdom Adam Carroll Jaguar 35 +49.612 7
Ret 6 France Loïc Duval Dragon-Penske 26 Electrical 10 15
Ret 37 Argentina José María López Virgin-Citröen 23 Accident 16
Ret 23 Germany Nick Heidfeld Mahindra 23 Suspension 14
DSQ 9 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi e.Dams-Renault 35 Disqualified6 2


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