page_title: 2017 Montreal ePrix
section_title: Race
hierarchical_section_title: 2017 Montreal ePrix / Race one / Race
caption_attribution_description: English: Lucas di Grassi Paris EGP 2016 winner
context_page_description: The 2017 Montreal ePrix was a pair of Formula E electric car races held on 29 and 30 July at the Montreal Street Circuit in Montreal, Quebec before a two-day crowd of 45,000 people. They were the 11th and 12th races of the 2016–17 Formula E season and the only running of the event. The first 35-lap race contested on 29 July, was won by Audi Sport ABT driver Lucas di Grassi from pole position. The Techeetah duo of Jean-Éric Vergne and Stéphane Sarrazin finished in second and third places. The longer 37-lap race held on 31 July was won by Vergne from a third place start. Mahindra's Felix Rosenqvist took second with Virgin driver José María López third.
  Di Grassi won pole position for the first race by recording the fastest lap in qualifying and held off Sarrazin to maintain the lead at the start and pulled away from the field. Attention focused on Sébastien Buemi, demoted from second to twelfth for changing his battery, who sustained steering arm damage on the first lap but was able to move up the field during the course of the race. It was neutralised with a full course yellow flag when Loïc Duval and Nick Heidfeld collided on the 14th lap.
context_section_description: The weather at the start was dry with the air temperature between 24.10 to 24.55 °C (75.38 to 76.19 °F) and a track temperature 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 began at 16:00 Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−04:00), di Grassi held off Sarrazin to lead the field at 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 his teammate Carroll made fast getaways and moved to fourth and eighth. Prost struggled at the start and lost two positions to fall to sixth position after making contact with one of the Jaguar cars. Heidfeld gained 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, and Dillmann. Di Grassi began to pull away from the rest of the field. Rosenqvist pressured Sarrazin but the latter defended third place. Attention switched to Buemi who began to move through the field. He put his left hand on his steering wheel against his bent steering arm. Heidfeld and Abt were able to enter the top-ten and both battled for position. Abt passed Heidfeld for ninth place on lap nine. After ten laps Buemi had passed four drivers to be in 12th place. After Buemi had overtaken Duval for tenth position on the 14th lap, Heidfeld attempted to pass Duval on the outside, but Duval defended his position, leaving Heidfeld without any space on some dirt 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 allow 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 to try and pass drivers through an alternative strategy. Buemi was close behind the rear of Abt's car and made minor contact with the slow-moving Abt, gesticulating angrily. Buemi was released from his pit stall alongside Abt, and passed him. Abt then applied his brakes to avoid hitting Buemi. After Buemi appeared to slow at the pit lane exit, Abt drove into the rear 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 the full course yellow which concluded on lap 17, Carroll moved into the top ten, and rejoined in 14th after making his pit stop. Sarrazin later allowed Vergne through to take over second place. Duval recorded the race's fastest lap on lap 19. He set a lap of 1 minute, 24.536 seconds, earning him one championship point.
  At the front, Vergne began to reduce the time deficit to di Grassi. Buemi overtook Turvey for seventh place on lap 21 and he passed Evans two laps later but could not establish a healthy advantage over Abt. López lost control of his car's rear on lap 24, and spun into the turn eight wall, necessitating the deployment of the safety car, and eliminating the time gaps in the field. The safety car was withdrawn at the end of lap 29, and racing resumed as di Grassi used his FanBoost to pull clear from Vergne whom Sarrazin challenged. Prost allowed his teammate Buemi through to fifth place. Abt aggressively overtook Prost soon after for sixth and continued his goal of drawing closer to Buemi. On the 31st lap, Rosenqvist, who aimed for a podium position, struck the wall exiting the chicane, damaging his left-rear suspen
caption: Lucas di Grassi (pictured in 2016) started from pole position and led every lap to win the first race.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "DSC-HX20V", "Image XResolution": "350", "Image YResolution": "350", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "iPhoto 9.6.1", "Image DateTime": "2016:05:10 15:47:28", "Image Artist": "Picasa", "Image ExifOffset": "238", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "970", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6420", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/250", "EXIF FNumber": "5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Action", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "320", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "320", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2016:04:23 16:21:50", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2016:04:23 16:21:50", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "4651/640", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "297/64", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "1103/25", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "809", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1010", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "2800", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "2438", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "834", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "2a8ce57a2a13b7a8672e25c9447a0c26", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[89/20, 89, 16/5, 29/5]"}