Question: Who won the 2017 Mexico City ePrix?

2017 Mexico City ePrix



The 2017 Mexico City ePrix (officially the 2017 FIA Formula E Julius Baer Mexico City ePrix) was a Formula E electric car race held on 1 April 2017 before a crowd of 36,000 people at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City, Mexico. It was the fourth round of the 2016–17 Formula E season, and the second running of the event. The 45-lap race was won by Audi Sport ABT driver Lucas di Grassi after starting from 15th position. Jean-Éric Vergne finished second for the Techeetah team and Virgin driver Sam Bird came in third.
Oliver Turvey won the pole position after Daniel Abt was penalised for a tyre pressure infringement and maintained his advantage on the first lap. He came under pressure from José María López until he retired from the ePrix with power issues, handing the lead to López. Di Grassi and Jérôme d'Ambrosio made early pit stops for the switch into their second cars and di Grassi became the leader on lap 26 when the rest of the field made their stops. D'Ambrosio held off pressure from Vergne for second place until he was passed on the 43rd lap and di Grassi remained the leader for the rest of the race after conserving electrical energy to win. There were three lead changes among four different drivers and three safety car periods during the course of the race.
It was di Grassi's first victory of the season and the fifth of his career. The result meant Sébastien Buemi's advantage over di Grassi in the Drivers' Championship was reduced from 29 to five after finishing outside of the points-scoring positions, but he earned one point for setting the race's fastest lap. Nico Prost and Vergne remained in third and fourth places while Bird moved ahead of Felix Rosenqvist to move into fifth. Audi Sport ABT reduced the Teams' Championship deficit to e.Dams-Renault to 31 points behind, with Virgin moving from sixth to third with eight races left in the season.
Report
Background
The Mexico City ePrix was confirmed as part of Formula E's 2016–17 series schedule in September 2016 by the FIA World Motor Sport Council.[2] It was the fourth of twelve scheduled single-seater electric car races of the 2016–17 season, the second running of the event, and was held on 1 April 2017 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.[3] The ePrix was the only race of the season that took place on a permanent race track which consists of a mixture between the Grand Prix and oval layouts and is 2.092 kilometres (1.300mi) long with 17 corners.[4][5] The circuit underwent changes following the previous year's running of the race with the first corner altered to become a right-hand turn and the final chicane was modified to prevent drivers from short-cutting the corner in order to gain an advantage.[6]
Before the race, e.Dams-Renault driver Sébastien Buemi led the Drivers' Championship with 75 points, ahead of nearest rival Lucas di Grassi in second and third-placed Nico Prost. Jean-Éric Vergne was fourth on 22 points and Felix Rosenqvist rounded out the top five with 20 points.[7] e.Dams-Renault were leading the Teams' Championship with 111 points; Audi Sport ABT were in second place on 60 points, and Mahindra in third with 37 points. NextEV stood in fourth on 25 points and were three points ahead of Techeetah in the battle for the position.[7] e.Dams-Renault and Buemi had dominated the championship, winning the season's three previous races. Di Grassi, Sam Bird and Vergne had all finished in second place once, while Mahindra drivers Nick Heidfeld and Rosenqvist, along with Di Grassi, had each secured third position results.[7]
After being stripped of the victory in previous year's race because of an underweight car, Audi Sport ABT team principal Hans-Jurgen Abt said his team's objective was to get onto the podium. He acknowledged that getting the victory would not be easy because of the competitiveness of the field.[8] After retiring from the preceding Buenos Aires ePrix, Bird stated that he would enter the Mexico City race with a positive attitude and affirmed his belief in his team and he felt there was a possibility of getting onto the podium in the event they perform well in qualifying.[9] Mitch Evans reiterated that despite Jaguar not scoring points in the season's opening three races, the Buenos Aires race showed that he was becoming more confident and wanted to carry over his momentum from the four-month break. He also said he was excited to compete in the Mexico City ePrix.[10]
There was one driver change going into the race. Having been in one of the Techeetah cars since the opening round of the season in Hong Kong, Ma Qinghua was replaced by the former Haas driver Esteban Gutiérrez.[11] Gutiérrez announced he was entering the series in January 2017 and explored seats with three teams before signing a contract with Techeetah.[12] The change was prompted because of Ma's poor performance in the seven races he competed in Formula E,[12] but remained with Techeetah as their third driver.[11] Gutiérrez stated in a press release that he was thankful to join the team and hoped he would perform well among the presence of the Mexican spectators at the track. "After four years of incredible experience in F1, I’m now taking a step forward in the future of motorsports. I am especially excited about my debut race in Mexico City," he said.[11] Buemi, Stéphane Sarrazin (Venturi) and José María López (Virgin) missed shakedown because they attended the launch of the 2017 Toyota TS050 Hybrid at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza. The latter two were deputised by defending Formula V8 3.5 Series champion Tom Dillmann and former GP2 Series driver Alex Lynn.[13]
Practice and qualifying
Two practice sessions—both on Saturday morning—were held before the Saturday late afternoon race. The first session ran for 45 minutes; the second for 30 minutes.[14] The 30-minute shakedown session took place on Friday afternoon and had Bird record the fastest lap at one minute and 8.737 seconds. Evans placed second and Oliver Turvey in placed third.[15] Vergne and his teammate Gutiérrez were handed three-place suspended grid penalties for exceeding their electrical power allowances under full course yellow conditions in shakedown.[16] Both practice sessions took place in warm and dry weather conditions.[17] After arriving in Mexico City early on Saturday morning, Buemi (despite being delayed by Gutiérrez) used the 200 kilowatts (270hp) available to him and was quickest in the first practice session with a time of one minute and 2.222 seconds, half a second faster than Loïc Duval, who placed second. Duval's Dragon teammate Jérôme d'Ambrosio placed third. Vergne was the fourth-fastest, ahead of Robin Frijns and Bird. Sarrazin, di Grassi, Daniel Abt and Evans rounded out the session's top ten drivers.[16] The first practice session was held on a dusty track,[18] causing Felix Rosenqvist, Frijns, López and Nelson Piquet Jr. all spun and Maro Engel temporarily stopped his car on track with a battery management system fault, necessitating a brief showing of the full course yellow flag.[16][19] Frijns was investigated for performing a dangerous manoeuvre but no action was taken.[18]
In the second practice session, Buemi was the fastest driver with a lap time of one minute and 2.164 seconds; Di Grassi and Vergne were one-tenth of a second behind in second and third. Heidfeld placed fourth; Abt was fifth-fastest and Piquet sixth. Engel was seventh-fastest, António Félix da Costa eighth, Turvey ninth and Duval completed the top ten ahead of qualifying.[20] During the session, where teams assessed their car's thermal management in preparation for the race,[21] Bird and Piquet locked their tyres and went off into the turn one run-off area,[20][22] while Abt stopped on the start/finish straight but was able to restart his car. Duval and Frijns spun within moments of each other. López lost control of his car at the final chicane,[20] and later heavily damaged his vehicle's front-right corner in the session's closing minutes by steering too early for turn 14 and collided with the barrier.[22] The fastest 13 drivers were covered by under one second, indicating there would be a tightly-contested midfield battle.[21]

Saturday afternoon's 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 from fifth to first. Each of the five drivers was limited to one timed lap and the starting order was determined by the competitor's fastest times (Super Pole from first to fifth, and group qualifying from sixth to twentieth) The driver and team who recorded the fastest time were awarded three points towards their respective championships.[14] The session was held in dry and warm weather conditions.[17] Drivers complained of a lack of grip early in qualifying but the track was cleaned by cars driving on it and lap times were thus lowered.[23][24]
In the first group of five runners, Heidfeld paced the session, almost one-tenth of a second faster than Bird in second, who in turn, was a further three-tenths of a second in front of third-placed Buemi who went wide at the first corner on his first timed lap despite being in clean air.[23][24] Evans and di Grassi (who made a mistake in turn 17) were the group's slowest two drivers.[23] Turvey was fastest in the second group and set the quickest overall group stage time of any driver at one minute and 2.712 seconds, 0.053 seconds faster than Abt. López, Félix da Costa and Sarrazin rounded out the top five.[24] In the third group, after the previous four drivers went onto the track, Duval was on his maximum power lap when he spun heading towards the first corner and made contact with the barriers lining the circuit,[24] causing the session to be stopped to allow his car to be extracted from the track.[23] After the session restarted with three minutes remaining,[24] Vergne was the third group's fastest driver,[23] followed by Prost who lost half a second in the second sector. Frijns, Piquet and Duval filled the next three positions.[24]
Engel was the quickest driver in the fourth group, and finished ahead of d'Ambrosio and Rosenqvist who struggled for decent pace.[24] Gutiérrez and Adam Carroll were the fourth group's slowest two drivers. At the end of group qualifying, the lap times set by Abt, Engel, López, Turvey and Vergne were fast enough to enable them progression into super pole.[23] Vergne was the first to attempt to record a super pole lap time; he was unable to achieve a rhythm and placed fifth.[23][24] Engel was slower in the track's first sector,[24] but went faster in the second part of the track by two-tenths of a second to clinch third.[23] López went quicker in the circuit's first two sectors but was unable to go faster in the final sector and was restricted to qualifying fourth.[24] Abt was two-tenths of a second quicker than the previous three drivers in the first sector. Although he lost a small amount of time in the second sector, Abt took provisional pole position with a time of one minute and 2.711 seconds.[23][24] Turvey lost time while completing his lap and qualified second. The result would have meant Abt securing his first pole position of the season, the second of his career,[24] and his first since the 2015 Long Beach ePrix,[25] but his car's tyre pressures were found to have been below the mandated minimum pressure of 1.60-bar (160kPa). Abt was consequently demoted to 18th.[26] Further grid penalties were applied when Engel and his teammate Sarrazin dropped ten places because of them changing their gearboxes.[27] The application of Abt's penalty meant Turvey secured the first pole position of his career.[23] After penalties, the rest of the field lined up as Bird, Félix da Costa, Buemi, Rosenqvist, Gutiérrez, Carroll, Evans, Engel, Prost,  Frijns, di Grassi, Piquet, Sarrazin, Abt, d'Ambrosio and Duval.[17]
Race

A special feature of Formula E is the "Fan Boost" feature, an additional 100 kilowatts (130hp) 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.[14] For the Mexico City race, Abt, di Grassi and Buemi were handed the extra power and the results of the vote were announced on the sixth lap.[28] Weather conditions at the start of the race were dry and sunny. The air temperature throughout the ePrix was between 26.9 to 27.5°C (80.4 to 81.5°F) and the track temperature ranged from 22.8 to 23.3°C (73.0 to 73.9°F);[17] conditions were expected to remain consistent and no rain was forecast.[3] When the race started at 16:00 Central Daylight Time (UTC–05:00) before 36,000 attendees,[5][29] Turvey made a clean getaway to maintain his pole position advantage heading into the first corner with López close behind in second place.[30] Vergne attempted to overtake López around the inside but Heidfeld turned right onto the outside line and took third from him.[31] A concertina effect occurred between turns three and five,[30] which saw Engel collide with the back of di Grassi's car, damaging the latter's rear wing. Di Grassi was required to make a pit stop for a rear wing replacement.[31]
Duval and Abt made the best starts in the field, gaining two positions by the end of the first lap while Piquet lost three positions over the same distance. At the end of the first lap, Turvey led from López, who in turn, was followed by Heidfeld, Vergne, Bird, Félix da Costa, Rosenqvist, Buemi, Carroll, Evans, Gutiérrez, Engel, Prost, di Grassi, Frijns, Abt, d'Ambrosio, Duval, Piquet and Sarrazin.[17] The stewards deployed the safety car on the second lap to allow marshals to clear debris in the chicane. Prost made a pit stop for a nose cone replacement while Sarrazin elected to switch into his second car. Di Grassi rejoined the race on the same lap as the leading drivers but was now at the back of the field.[30][31] Turvey led the field back up to speed at the lap-five restart, closely followed by López. Buemi immediately attacked Rosenqvist, passing him for sixth place and started to draw closer to Bird.[30] López began to pressure Turvey for the lead with Heidfeld and Vergne close in arrears. Jaguar teammates Evans and Carroll began battling for eighth while Gutiérrez lost tenth to both Andretti cars of Félix da Costa and Frijns. Abt gained further positions to run in 12th.[31] At the entry to turn 13, Turvey had power issues with his car,[32] and slowed on the start/finish straight, handing the lead to López. Turvey stopped at the turn one exit.[33]
Turvey's team asked him to reset his vehicle and a yellow flag was shown to warn drivers about his stranded car. After three laps, however, he was unable to restart his vehicle and retired, causing the safety car to be sent onto the track for the second time.[30][32] With the field closed up, di Grassi and d'Ambrosio opted to make the mandatory switch into their second cars on the 18th lap. Although the switch would allow di Grassi and d'Ambrosio to gain positions when other drivers made their stops, it required them to conserve electrical energy towards the race's conclusion.[30][31] The race restarted when the safety car drove into the pit lane on the following lap with López remaining in first place, followed by Heidfeld, Vergne, Bird and Buemi.[31] López built a small lead over the rest of the field and attention switched to Heidfeld who came under pressure from Vergne, Bird, Buemi and Rosenqvist.[33] Although he had enough electrical energy to do another lap,[31] Vergne became the first of the leading drivers to make a pit stop to switch into his second car at the end of lap 24 in an effort to drive in clean air and undercut the field.[30] The rest of the field followed in response one lap later. Swift work from López's team allowed him to remain narrowly ahead of Vergne, who in turn, moved in front of Heidfeld.[33] The Mahindra driver lost seven positions while Buemi moved from fifth to tenth, both as a result of slow pit stops.[31] Prost led the field for one lap before making his stop on lap 26.[28]
Di Grassi took over the lead with d'Ambrosio second; both drivers were half a lap ahead of the battling drivers, who had more available electrical energy. Félix da Costa and his teammate Frijns joined the leading group of drivers after being under the minimum pit stop time by three seconds. The safety was deployed for the third (and final) time when Duval stopped on track after leaving the chicane with a battery issue, ending his race prematurely. This allowed the field to close up to di Grassi and d'Ambrosio.[33][34] The safety car drove into the pit lane on lap 30 and di Grassi held the lead at the restart.[28] Vergne immediately pushed hard and attempted to pass López for third but the two drivers made contact at the turn three chicane. He attempted the same manoeuvre one lap later but López cut the chicane to avoid hitting Vergne who demanded over the radio that López cede the position.[30] Both Andretti cars were investigated because their pit stop times were faster the minimum permitted time of one minute because the team believed it was 57 seconds.[28][35] López drew near to d'Ambrosio and Vergne remained close behind López. The battle allowed di Grassi to pull away from the field.[30][31]

Félix da Costa slowed and stopped his car on the 33rd lap with a broken driveshaft, causing his retirement. His teammate Frijns was issued with a drive-through penalty for being below the minimum pit stop time.[28][33][36] Two laps later, López pushed hard and steered onto the outside line in an attempt to pass d'Ambrosio but spun under braking for the first corner, sliding into the turn's run-off area.[30][31] Buemi activated FanBoost and lined up an overtake on Rosenqvist (who locked his front tyres) but spun under braking for turn one,[37] and narrowly avoided striking López's stranded car. Both drivers fell down the order.[31] The electrical power in Engel's car depleted slowly after exiting turns five and six, curtailing his race.[36] Buemi earned one point for recording the race's fastest lap on lap 40, a one minute and 3.102 seconds.[17] D'Ambrosio continued to hold back Vergne and the remaining seven cars behind him had more electrical energy available.[31] D'Ambrosio locked his tyres under braking for the first corner, allowing Vergne to pass him for second place.[28][33] Vergne then started to draw closer to di Grassi.[30]
Prost attacked Heidfeld but collided with the rear of his car at turn eight, send him spinning into the path of his teammate Rosenqvist, who was unable to swerve to avoid him, and ploughed into his vehicle.[28][31][33] It came after Rosenqvist was sent airborne following contact with Evans's rear wheel.[36] Despite his vehicle's rear sustaining damage, Evans told his team over the radio that he could continue,[38] but Rosenqvist retired.[39] Prost however was delayed long enough to allow Evans move ahead of him for fifth place.[38] Heidfeld was unhurt and rejoined the race.[39] On lap 44,[31] D'Ambrosio lost third position to Bird who passed him around the outside at turn three.[34] D'Ambrosio then ran out of electrical energy, allowing Gutiérrez into tenth. Di Grassi conserved his electrical energy usage and crossed the start/finish line after 45 laps to win his first race of the season and the fifth of his career.[40][31] His victory ended e.Dams-Renault's streak of six consecutive wins, extending back to the 2016 Berlin ePrix.[29] Vergne finished second, 1.966 seconds behind with Bird in third, Evans fourth and Prost fifth. López recovered from his lap 35 spin to secure sixth place, and Abt took seventh.[33] Carroll, Piquet and Gutiérrez completed the top ten. Frijns, Heidfeld, Buemi and d'Ambrosio, Sarrazin and Rosenqvist were the last of the classified finishers.[17]  Four drivers led the field and the lead changed three times during the course of the ePrix. Di Grassi led once for a total of 19 laps, more than any other competitor.[17]
Post-race
The top three drivers appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and spoke to the media in a later press conference. When asked about how he performed his comeback, di Grassi said he did not know but praised his mechanics for their work.[41] He stated that the race showed that Formula E could switch to "Heaven to Hell in one go",[42] and said he felt if the third safety car period had not intervened, he could have managed his advantage over Vergne. He also revealed that on three occasions during the race, he believed that the possibility of him securing the victory had ended.[43] Vergne, who finished in second, had mixed emotions, spoke of his feeling that the victory was in his grasp but was happy that he secured a place on the podium and was in contention for the championship: "We started very far away but I know I’m in the right team with the right car to win the championship. I think we’re coming back a little bit better and we’re getting stronger every race as a team."[34] Third-place finisher Bird said that it was "a good race" for everyone who watched the event on television and the sport. He stated that felt the action observed in the race was positive for the series. Bird also said he was happy with the passing manoeuvre he performed on d'Ambrosio and reserved praise for his team.[34]
Vergne was angry with d'Ambrosio's defensive driving and found the manner d'Ambrosio performed the manoeuvres as not being "acceptable and fair". He described d'Ambrosio's tactics as "totally stupid" and that it prevented him from winning the race and questioned his intelligence. Vergne revealed that d'Ambrosio wanted to have a conservation about the manoeuvres but Vergne did not wish to speak to him.[44] D'Ambrosio argued that his defensive driving was fair, saying that he was doing his own race. He argued that in the event that the sport's governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, felt he was overly aggressive, he would be notified and issued a warning D'Ambrosio said that from his point of view, he steered into the corner early and argued that he did not change his line: "Sure, I didn’t give much space but this is racing. I understand it can be frustrating but everyone is doing their own race and it’s what the fans want to see.”[44] He felt he could have achieved a maximum finishing position of fifth but the energy targets displayed on his steering wheel dashboard did not match those provided to him by Dragon, which caused him to push hard until his team realised they were mistaken.[44] Vergne changed his verdict on the clash weeks later after admitting he was not aware that d'Ambrosio had incorrect information relayed to him and felt he had performed "a great race". "Things like this can happen. I don't think there are any more worries about it", he said.[45]
The stewards elected not to take any action over the incident between Prost and Heidfeld on the race's 44th lap.[46] Heidfeld spoke of his belief the origins of the accident came from both Andretti cars being released under the minimum pit stop time, saying he drove onto the pit lane alongside Félix da Costa and ceded the position to the Andretti driver. He additionally stated that Bird was also involved and remained ahead of him.[46] Prost was resolute that the contact was avoidable had he been given enough space by Heidfeld. He was confident the stewards would agree with his point of view. "I was on the kerb and he did not leave me any room at all when I was at his side", he said.[46] Evans thought after he was hit by Rosenqvist, he could not finish the race and said he felt his Jaguar would not survive such a collision in a similar scenario. Nevertheless, he was delighted with his first points-scoring finish in the series, saying: "Those first points are always the hardest. We know we've not got the best package but we're making great progress and everyone should be really proud."[38] Jaguar team principal James Barclay said the incident was the moment when "our hearts sunk". He stated he felt there was no possibility of finishing the race but praised the strength of the Jaguar's monocoque.[38]
The result meant Buemi remained the Drivers' Championship leader on 76 points, but his advantage over di Grassi was reduced from 29 points to five. Prost remained in third position on 46 points while Vergne's second-place finish allowed him to be six points in arrears of the French driver. Bird's third-place result enabled him to move ahead of Rosenqvist for fifth.[7] Audi Sport ABT's result allowed them to reduce the gap to Teams' Championship leaders e.Dams-Renault to 31 points behind the team. Virgin and Techeetah (on 43 and 41 points respectively) moved ahead of Mahindra with eight rounds left in the season.[7]
Classification
Qualifying

Notes:
— Maro Engel and Stéphane Sarrazin both received a ten-place grid penalty for changing their gearboxes.[27]
— Daniel Abt had his lap times deleted because his car's tyre pressure was found to be below the minimum mandated.[26]
Race

Notes:
— Three points for pole position.[14]
— One point for fastest lap.[14]
— Sam Bird had two seconds added to his race time for an unsafe pit stop release.[29]
Standings after the race





Drivers' Championship standings[7]


Teams' Championship standings[7]


Notes: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.