First Blood to Buemi in Battersea as eDams Crowned Champions

Sebastien Buemi converted pole to race win in the first of two Formula E events in London and moves a step closer to overhauling Piquet Jnr’s position as Championship leader.

The race was started behind the safety car as the first corner was amended under safety concerns. The track was altered to avoid a large bump in Turn 1 that was causing a lot of drivers to lose control.

Piquet used his Fan Boost early on in the race to try to pass di Grassi in 3rd, but lost out to a charging Vergne and was bumped down to 5th place.

The first half of the race was dominated by Vergne’s pace. After making a daring attempt on di Grassi for 3rd, he successfully made it stick, even locking up his left front.

The pit window came in lap 14 as Abt lost out to several cars. On lap 17 Abt crashed into the barriers prompting a safety car period. The young German drivers’ accident was caused by potential steering issues.

With the pack suitably bunched up, the safety car pulled into the pits on lap 20. Buemi kept his composure and leapt away from the field on the restart.

On lap 24, Piquet used his Fan Boost to get close to di Grassi and almost made it past. From then on, di Grassi put his foot down and Piquet didn’t’ have an answer; in fact the Championship leading Brazilian driver was close to being overtaken by a surging Sam Bird who had passed both Duval and Prost.

Buemi crossed the line to win his 3rd race of the season putting him within 5 points of Piquet’s lead who has 138 points. Di Grassi, who couldn’t quite make it to the podium, is a further 8 points behind with 125.

Buemi’s win, along with Prosts’ 7th place ensured that eDams are crowned team champions before the final race of the double header.

#fe