{"id":3686,"date":"2018-03-19T14:51:03","date_gmt":"2018-03-19T18:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=3686"},"modified":"2018-03-19T14:51:03","modified_gmt":"2018-03-19T18:51:03","slug":"formula-e-2018-punta-del-este-e-prix-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2018\/03\/19\/formula-e-2018-punta-del-este-e-prix-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Formula E 2018 Punta del Este E-Prix Review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The 2018 CBMM Niobium <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2018\/03\/14\/formula-e-preview-of-the-punta-del-este-e-prix\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\"><strong>Punta del Este E-Prix<\/strong><\/a> definitely lived up to hype for the return of the FIA <strong>Formula E<\/strong> Championship. The E-Prix at the Punta del Este Street Circuit in <strong>Uruguay <\/strong>had great weather and even greater action on track. It has been two years since they last raced here with <strong>Sebastien Buemi<\/strong> taking the top step of the podium that day. This round was spectacular and will always be remembered as a great race with many driver battles and immense speed.<\/p>\n<h1>Punta del Este E-Prix Review<\/h1>\n<p>The whole weekend was eventful, so here is a review of the Formula E Punta del Este E-Prix:<\/p>\n<h2>Super-Pole Results<\/h2>\n<p>1. Lucas di Grassi<br \/>\n2. Alex Lynn<br \/>\n3. Mitch Evans<br \/>\n4. Oliver Turvey<br \/>\n5. Jean-Eric Vergne<\/p>\n<h2>Qualification Results<\/h2>\n<p>1. Jean-Eric Vergne<br \/>\n2. Lucas di Grassi<br \/>\n3. Mitch Evans<br \/>\n4. Alex Lynn<br \/>\n5. Oliver Turvey<br \/>\n6. Daniel Abt<br \/>\n7. Sebastien Buemi<br \/>\n8. Andre Lotterer<br \/>\n9. Maro Engel<br \/>\n10. Sam Bird<br \/>\n11. Jose Maria Lopez<br \/>\n12. Jerome D\u2019Ambrosio<br \/>\n13. Antonio Felix da Costa<br \/>\n14. Felix Rosenqvist<br \/>\n15. Luca Filippi<br \/>\n16. Edoardo Mortara<br \/>\n17. Tom Blomqvist<br \/>\n18. Nick Heidfeld<br \/>\n19. Nelson Piquet Jr.<br \/>\n20. Nico Prost<\/p>\n<h2>Race Report<\/h2>\n<h3>The Start<\/h3>\n<p>When the lights went out for the start of the race, <strong>Jean-Eric Vergne<\/strong> got a great start off the line. He led in front of defending season three champion <strong>Lucas di Grassi<\/strong> into turn one followed by <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2018\/03\/11\/formula-e-will-the-ds-virgin-racing-team-secure-solid-points-in-uruguay\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Alex Lynn<\/a><\/strong>. The person who got the best start however, was <strong>Sam Bird<\/strong>. He beat <strong>Maro Engel<\/strong> off the line and was behind <strong>Andre Lotterer<\/strong> after the first sector. Bird didn\u2019t stop there however, he pressured Lotterer into a mistake and he nudged the wall.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We go green for the 2018 CBMM Niobium <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/PuntaDelEsteEPrix?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#PuntaDelEsteEPrix<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/z72Co62ZDM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/z72Co62ZDM<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FIAFormulaE\/status\/975085708548296704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 17, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>One driver that didn\u2019t have a great start was <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2018\/03\/09\/formula-e-mahindras-season-in-trouble-after-mexico-city\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\"><strong>Nick Heidfeld<\/strong><\/a>. The unlucky German made contact with another driver going into the first corner and soon came to a halt on the start of lap 3. This brought out yellow flags to slow down the action for the time being. This was the exact opposite of his teammate, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2018\/03\/09\/formula-e-mahindras-season-in-trouble-after-mexico-city\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\"><strong>Felix Rosenqvist<\/strong><\/a>, who made up a few positions before the yellow flag came out.<\/p>\n<h3>After the Yellow Flag<\/h3>\n<p>When the racing resumed, the order at the front didn\u2019t change at all. Vergne got a great restart with di Grassi following a little distance behind him. This was the point when Vergne\u2019s teammate started having a horrible race. Bird eventually pressured Lotterer to manage to pull off an overtake, and soon Lotterer started plummeting down the order. This allowed both Maro Engel and Felix da Costa to get past following Bird. A few laps after, Bird and Engel worked their way up to Sebastien Buemi and successfully overtook him as well.<\/p>\n<h3>The Pit Stops<\/h3>\n<p>The minimum pit stop time was lifted again for this race so we saw lots of action. This gave a chance for some teams to leapfrog positions in the pits at a high rate. Today was no different, we saw Bird, Rosenqvist and Evans all gaining positions out of the pits. Lap 21 was the time when everyone except the race leaders pit.<\/p>\n<p>After all the pit stops, Vergne maintained his lead over di Grassi and the rest of the field. They were followed by <strong>Daniel Abt<\/strong>, Bird and Lynn respectively. Abt pulled back into the pits due to his seat belts coming undone while out on track. Thus, bringing his hopeful podium finish to a crashing end.<\/p>\n<h3>Battles Until the End<\/h3>\n<p>The last half of the race was intense. With many track battles happening throughout the field. <strong>Mitch Evans<\/strong> was on a mission and while Rosenqvist used his Fanboost, overtook Rosenqvist and blew past Lynn on one of the fastest corners in all of the Formula E tracks. A brilliant maneuver, forcing Lynn to take the dirty line through the corner and made it look easy. A lot of credit was due to Lynn for not losing control of his car while being overtaken. But it didn\u2019t end there, with the second pit stop of Abt, that brought Bird\u00a0 closer to di Grassi and Vergne.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/wtf1official\/status\/975119016271413248<\/p>\n<p>He eventually caught up to them by Lap 34 but just couldn\u2019t find the room to make a move stick. Bird was able to catch up to them thanks to the immense battle Vergne and di Grassi were involved in. Vergne had to make great efforts to stay in front of di Grassi, who was putting the Frenchman under pressure in almost every overtaking spot. Di Grassi made slight contact with Vergne on a few occasions through the final chicane but wasn\u2019t enough to get past the Frenchman.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">It got heated on the streets of Punta del Este \ud83d\udd25<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JeanEricVergne?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@JeanEricVergne<\/a> vs <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LucasdiGrassi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@LucasdiGrassi<\/a> \ud83d\ude48\ud83d\ude49 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/4qXLKVuQ5o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/4qXLKVuQ5o<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Autosport (@autosport) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/autosport\/status\/975352734663757824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 18, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Vergne Earns the Win<\/h2>\n<p>After 37 laps in front of a packed grand stand in Punta del Este, Vergne took his second win of the year for the privateer team of Techeetah. Di Grassi took his first podium of the year for <strong>Audi<\/strong> Abt Schaeffler and will be disappointed not to get the win. Bird, who drives for <strong>DS Virgin Racing<\/strong>, took third to round out the podium.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Podium selfie! Myself Generic Vergne and Some Bird &#8211; top 3 in Punta del Este <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/eprix?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#eprix<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FIAFormulaE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@fiaformulaE<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/xfAiXMzVrk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/xfAiXMzVrk<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Lucas Di Grassi (@LucasdiGrassi) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LucasdiGrassi\/status\/975195549115781120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 18, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Evans finished fourth for Panasonic <strong>Jaguar<\/strong> Racing after clawing his way from starting seventeenth on the grid. Rosenqvist of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2018\/03\/09\/formula-e-mahindras-season-in-trouble-after-mexico-city\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\"><strong>Mahindra Racing<\/strong><\/a> finished fifth after a lackluster performance in Mexico City. Lynn of DS Virgin Racing finished sixth after a great qualifying performance but just couldn\u2019t hold onto his position through the end.<\/p>\n<p>Oliver Turvey of NIO finished seventh after another great qualifying performance but he couldn\u2019t hold it to the end. His pit stop didn\u2019t help him any, he lost two positions while changing cars. <strong>Jose Maria Lopez<\/strong> finished eighth for Dragon Racing.<br \/>\n<strong>Jerome D\u2019Ambrosio<\/strong> finished ninth in the second Dragon Racing car. Lastly, Maro Engel finished tenth for Venturi Formula E team to round out the top ten.<\/p>\n<h2>Final Race Results<\/h2>\n<p>1. Jean-Eric Vergne<br \/>\n2. Lucas di Grassi<br \/>\n3. Sam Bird<br \/>\n4. Mitch Evans<br \/>\n5. Felix Rosenqvist<br \/>\n6. Alex Lynn<br \/>\n7. Oliver Turvey<br \/>\n8. Jose Maria Lopez<br \/>\n9. Jerome D\u2019Ambrosio<br \/>\n10. Maro Engel<br \/>\n11. Antonio Felix da Costa<br \/>\n12. Andre Lotterer<br \/>\n13. Luca Filippi<br \/>\n14. Daniel Abt<br \/>\n15. Nico Prost<br \/>\n16. Tom Blomqvist<br \/>\n17. Edoardo Mortara<br \/>\n18. Sebatien Buemi- DNF<br \/>\n19. Nelson Piquet Jr.- DNF<br \/>\n20. Nick Heidfeld- DNF<\/p>\n<h2>Driver Standings<\/h2>\n<p>1. Jean-Eric Vergne 109<br \/>\n2. Felix Rosenqvist 79<br \/>\n3. Sam Bird 76<br \/>\n4. Sebastien Buemi 52<br \/>\n5. Nelson Piquet Jr. 45<br \/>\n6. Mitch Evans 41<br \/>\n7. Daniel Abt 37<br \/>\n8. Oliver Turvey 32<br \/>\n9. Edoardo Mortara 28<br \/>\n10. Lucas di Grassi 21<br \/>\n11. Nick Heidfeld 21<br \/>\n12. Andre Lotterer 18<br \/>\n13. Alex Lynn 17<br \/>\n14. Antonio Felix da Costa 16<br \/>\n15. Jose Maria Lopez 13<br \/>\n16. Maro Engel 7<br \/>\n17. Nico Prost 7<br \/>\n18. Jerome D\u2019Ambrosio 6<br \/>\n19. Tom Blomqvist 4<br \/>\n20. Luca Filippi 1<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fiaformulae.com\/en\/results\/standings\/driver\/2022017\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>www.fiaformulae.com\/en\/results\/standings\/driver\/2022017<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Constructor Standings<\/h2>\n<p>1. Techeetah 127<br \/>\n2. Mahindra Racing 100<br \/>\n3. DS Virgin Racing 93<br \/>\n4. Panasonic Jaguar Racing 86<br \/>\n5. Renault E. Dams. 59<br \/>\n6. Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler 58<br \/>\n7. Venturi Formula E Team 35<br \/>\n8. NIO Formula E Team 33<br \/>\n9. MS&amp;AD Andretti Formula E 20<br \/>\n10. Dragon Racing 19<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fiaformulae.com\/en\/results\/standings\/team\/2022017\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>http:\/\/www.fiaformulae.com\/en\/results\/standings\/team\/2022017<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>MAIN PHOTO:<\/strong><br \/>\n<a id=\"FPLVgTDOQqdH6eADlfBpcA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.in\/detail\/933190990\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'FPLVgTDOQqdH6eADlfBpcA',sig:'iWs6ei7cnG24ct-kCP_h5qvn1YSMHCJrFxlb7cUMOUE=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'933190990',caption: true ,tld:'in',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2018 CBMM Niobium Punta del Este E-Prix definitely lived up to hype for the return of the FIA Formula E Championship. The E-Prix at the Punta del Este Street Circuit in Uruguay had great weather and even greater action on track. It has been two years since they last raced here with Sebastien Buemi [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2438,"featured_media":3695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"1064","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[678,27,188],"class_list":["post-3686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-e","tag-abt-schaeffler-audi-sport","tag-formula-e","tag-jean-eric-verge"],"modified_by":"Sudha Sundar","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2438"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}