page_title: 2018 Punta del Este ePrix
section_title: Race
hierarchical_section_title: 2018 Punta del Este ePrix / Race
caption_attribution_description: English: Qualifying at the 2018 Punta del Este ePrix. Español: Clasificación del ePrix de Punta del Este 2018.
context_page_description: The 2018 Punta del Este ePrix was a Formula E electric car race held at the Punta del Este Street Circuit in the Uruguayan city of Punta del Este on 17 March 2018. It was the sixth round of the 2017–18 Formula E season and the third edition of the event as part of the FIA Formula E Championship. The 37-lap race was won by Techeetah driver Jean-Éric Vergne after starting from pole position. Lucas di Grassi finished second for Audi and Virgin driver Sam Bird was third.
  Vergne won the pole position after di Grassi, Alex Lynn and Oliver Turvey were penalised for exceeding track limits in qualifying and maintained his start line advantage on the first lap. The race was temporarily neutralised between the fourth and sixth laps when officials extracted the car of Nick Heidfeld who stopped with power issues. Vergne led di Grassi at the restart and the latter remained close behind the former in the next 13 laps until the field made mandatory pit stops to change into a second car. Over the remainder of the race, Di Grassi attempted to pass Vergne but the former prevented the latter from doing so and took his second victory of the season and the third of his career.
context_section_description: The race began at 16:03 Uruguay Time (UTC−03:00) on 17 March. Weather conditions at the start were dry and sunny. The air temperature ranged from 28.85 to 30.56 °C (83.93 to 87.01 °F) and the track temperature was between 35.5 and 37.2 °C (95.9 and 99.0 °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 Punta del Este round, Abt, Buemi and Rosenqvist were handed the extra power. The number of laps contested was increased from 33 in 2015 to 37 for 2018 in order to showcase Formula E's technological developments. Vergne maintained the lead going into the first corner. Di Grassi stayed in second after withstanding a challenge from Lynn and Turvey followed close behind in fourth. The rest of the field negotiated the chicane without incident although Mortara ran wide and fell to 20th. Di Grassi regained some ground and quickly drew closer to Vergne while Turvey was unable to remain with the leaders and Abt began to battle him. Further back, Lotterer and Bird got close to one another in a battle for sixth.
  Piquet lost positions to Filippi, Rosenqvist and Evans as he was placed wide at the final chicane and Vergne completed the first lap with di Grassi following closely in second. On the second lap, Bird attacked Lotterer into the turn eight and nine hairpin but the latter blocked his path. Soon after, Heidfeid's car developed a technical system error that shut it down after leaving the first chicane and he stopped at the side of the track. Race control offered Heidfeld a small amount of time to restart his car but could not do so while his teammate Rosenqvist overtook Filippi for 12th on the third lap. Meanwhile, Buemi out-braked Bird to pass him for sixth at the turn eight and nine chicane. Buemi slowed to stop him running too deep and prevented Bird from re-passing him. The safety car was deployed on lap four to enable officials to moved Heidfeld's car and two drivers overtook under these conditions. Buemi passed Lotterer and Engel likewise overtook Bird but no action was taken both drivers. Vergne led at the lap-six restart with di Grassi second. The pair gradually began pulling away from Lynn. Piquet fell to 20th when his car developed drive train problems due to him hitting a wall earlier in the race.
  Bird got a fast exit leaving the turn one and two chicane, allowing him to draw alongside Lotterer on the inside line entering the turn eight and nine chicane and passed him for sixth. The manoeuvre's effectiveness lost Lotterer four places to Engel, Félix da Costa and Rosenqvist within two laps. On lap 11, Buemi was out of contention for a strong result when he made an error that put him wide onto the dusty line and into a wall. Buemi's barrier glance deranged his left-rear suspension rod and he entered the pit lane to get into his second car on the following lap since the problem had worsened. Rosenqvist moved into the top ten soon after by overtaking Félix da Costa and d'Ambrosio. Meanwhile, Abt moved past Turvey for fourth and Rosenqvist was overtaken by Engel. After damaging his vehicle on lap nine, Mortara switched into his second car on the 16th lap because steering damage necessitated the change, requiring him to conserve electrical energy for the rest of the race. Then, as Turvey saved electrical energy, Bird overtook him for fifth place and Abt passed Lynn soon after.
  Vergne was affected by radio communication issues that made him uncertain as to how much electrical energy he had left as di Grassi followed close behind but was unable to affect an overtake by the time they entered the pit lane for the switch into their second cars on lap 19 with the majority of the field following suit. López led for one lap before he, d'Ambrosio and Prost came in on the next lap. After the pit stops, Vergne and di Grassi retained first and second places. Abt was third and Bird left the pit lane alongside teammate Lynn and passed him for fourth. Simil
caption: Jean-Éric Vergne withstood pressure from Lucas di Grassi for the majority of the race to win his second race of the season.
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