Buemi Takes Dominant Beijing Victory
- Oct 24, 2015
- 2 min read
Renault eDams driver and previous seasons’ championship runner up took a dominant victory at the season opening Beijing ePrix.
The ex-F1 man bagged the maximum points available by scoring the win, pole, and fastest lap to lead the field by 11 seconds when the chequered flag was brought out.
It was all happening behind however; last seasons’ winner Lucas di Grassi finished a distant second whilst third placed Heidfeld held on in a titanic battle with the two Dragon cars who touched briefly as D’Ambrosio tried to make a move on Duval.
Prost, who started in P2 on the grid, was forced to retire his car after his rear wing failed. The Frenchman was in a battle for second place with Lucas di Grassi and wanted to continue but the stewards deemed the damage to be too dangerous to continue and he was asked to return to the pits.
This race marked the first time that we saw the new season’s regulations. Two full course yellows were introduced to clear up two accidents.
The first was to recover the damaged Andretti of Simona de Silvestro who put it into the wall at the chicane, whilst the second was to clear the cars of Antonio Felix da Costa and championship rookie Jacques Villeneuve who collided after the pitstop window.
The key moment was on the second restart when Prost caught Heidfeld napping and darted up the inside of the German.
As per the new regulations, the FanBoost winners were declared six minutes into the race. Sam Bird, Piquet, and Turvey had the chance to capitalise on a poor qualifying performance.
The pit window opened on lap 13 where Buemi was the first to stop. Duval, D’Ambrosio, Turvey, Berthon, and Piquet all stayed out an extra lap which helped those who finished leapfrog cars that they were racing ahead.
It was mixed fortunes for NEXTEV TCR; Nelson Piquet was forced to retire from the race with a mechanical failure whilst returning Briton Oliver Turvey managed to keep out of trouble and finish an impressive sixth.
Powertrain efficiency was important for this race as we saw that some drivers were marginal on remaining power. Some drivers including Senna and Frijns, who drove an impressive race, had to slow down considerably to prevent dipping below 0%.
There were five retirees; VIlleneuve, Prost, Da Costa, and De Silvestro retired with accident damage whilst Piquet was the only driver who retired with a technical problem. Both Trulli cars did not start the race.
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