2017 Buenos Aires ePrix

2017 Buenos Aires ePrix
The Buenos Aires ePrix circuit remained unchanged for 2017.
Race Information
Date	18th February 2017
E-Prix No.	{{{number}}}
Official Name	FIA Formula E Buenos Aires ePrix 2017
Location	Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Format	{{{format}}}
Lap length	2.480km (1.541mi)
Distance	37 laps / 91.760 (57.017mi)
Support Race	{{{support}}}
Qualifying Result
Pole Sitter	Lucas di Grassi
Team	ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport
Time	1:09.404
Fastest Lap
Driver	Felix Rosenqvist
Team	{{{{{flteamnat}}}}} Unknown
Fastest Lap	1:09.467 on lap 31
ePrix Result
First	Second	Third
Sébastien Buemi	Jean-Eric Vergne	Lucas di Grassi
Winner Team	Renault e.Dams
Time	Unknown
ePrix Guide
Previous		Next
Marrakech		Mexico City
Post-Race Test	{{{test}}}

The 2017 Buenos Aires ePrix, officially known as the FIA Formula E Buenos Aires ePrix 2017, is the third round of the 2016/17 FIA Formula E Championship, staged in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on the 18th of February, 2017. The race would be the first ePrix to be staged in 2017, and the first venue of the season that had featured during previous seasons.

Qualifying saw Lucas di Grassi claim his first pole position in an ePrix, the Brazilian sharing the front row with Jean-Éric Vergne. Championship leader Sébastien Buemi would start from third, while the two NextEV NIOs of Oliver Turvey and Nelson Piquet Jr. completed the Super Pole shootout, having survived an incident packed session.

At the start it was pole sitter di Grassi who led the field away from the line, with Vergne and Buemi slotting in behind. Yet, before either of the two Renault powered machines could challenge, a Full Course Yellow was called after Adam Carroll failed to get away from the grid.

Once Carroll was away the race resumed, with di Grassi quickly coming under pressure from Vergne. The Brazilian was starting the race in a car he had crashed in FP2, and his wounded car did little to aid his cause. He was therefore powerless to prevent Vergne, Buemi, Turvey and Nicolas Prost from passing before the stops.

Buemi also managed to take the lead before the stops, before establishing a sizeable lead ahead of the stops. Yet, his second car was not setup to his liking, and so the Swiss racer's six second lead slowly collapsed, with Vergne, and a resurgent di Grassi, catching him in the closing stages.

A tense final few laps saw Felix Rosenqvist snatch fastest lap, while Sam Bird crashed at turn four, having had an issue with his first car early on. Buemi, meanwhile, held on for victory at the front of the field to claim his third win in a row, while Vergne had to back off on the final lap to conserve energy. di Grassi claimed third with Prost in fourth, while Mitch Evans looked set to claim Jaguar Racing's first points, before being slapped with a five second time penalty.

Background

The Buenos Aires ePrix had become a popular venue for Formula E during the first two seasons, and there was little desire for a replacement for the 2016/17 season. As a result, the Buenos Aires ePrix would be included in both the provisional and official calendars released throughout the summer of 2016, listed as the third round of the new season. Its placement in the calendar was also significant, as the Buenos Aires round would be the first time during 2016/17 season that had hosted Formula E before, meaning comparisons could effectively be drawn from previous seasons on an unchanged circuit.

The three month mid-season break since the Marrakech ePrix resulted in very little news that affected the series, until the 9th of January. That development surrounded the future of Esteban Gutiérrez, who was in racing limbo after a deal to join Manor Racing in Formula One fell through. The Mexican racer therefore opted to take the chance to join the Formula E family, announcing that he was in talks with numerous teams to take part in his home race, the Mexico City ePrix, set to be held on the 1st of April. Gutierrez was also revealed as an ambassador for the series, and confirmed his intention to obtain a full drive in the series for the 2017/18 season.

One other major story involving Formula E would be the inaugural Visa Vegas eRace, held on the 7th of January. The event saw several sim-racers take on several Formula E drivers in a simulated race weekend, with a huge $200,000 prize on offer for the winner. That man would be Bono Huis, who walked away with the biggest prize in eSports racing history having defeated his opponents in every session, which was televised at the 50th edition of CES at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. The best of the Formula E runners would be Felix Rosenqvist in second, with half of the top ten made up of the sim-runners.

Elsewhere, there were changes in store for FanBoost ahead of the third round of the 2016/17 season, with the voting window reduced from twelve days. In an attempt to increase participation in the FanBoost voting system, the FIA and Formula E decided to open the voting just six days before the start of the 2017 Buenos Aires ePrix, but would still remain open into the first six minutes of the race. The change also included the removal of voting via Instagram, an option which had largely been ignored since its introduction.

Victory for Sébastien Buemi in Marrakech had seen the Swiss racer double his tally for the season, a perfect start ensuring the reigning FIA Formula E Champion arrived in Argentina with a 22 point advantage. Lucas di Grassi, the Swiss racer's biggest rival, was the closest challenger, with Nicolas Prost up to third. Felix Rosenqvist used pole and third place to jump into fourth, ahead of Sam Bird.

The supreme team in Formula E were proving to be Renault e.Dams after another strong weekend, their weekend in Africa leaving them with double the points of their nearest challengers. ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport and Mahindra Racing sat on 36 points apiece, ABT Schaeffler ahead courtesy of a second place finish, with another large gap back to DS Virgin Racing in fourth. The only team yet to score were Jaguar Racing, although Dragon Racing, Venturi and Techeetah were all still in single figures after two rounds.

Entry List

The full entry list for the 2017 Buenos Aires ePrix is displayed below:

2017 Buenos Aires ePrix Entry List
No.	Nat.	Name	Entrant	Constructor	Car
2		Sam Bird	DS Virgin Racing	DS Virgin	DSV-02
3		Nelson Piquet Jr.	NextEV NIO	NEXTEV TCR	FormulaE 002
4		Stéphane Sarrazin	Venturi Formula E Team	Venturi	VM200-FE-02
5		Maro Engel	Venturi Formula E Team	Venturi	VM200-FE-02
6		Loïc Duval	Faraday Future Dragon Racing	Penske	701-EV
7		Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Faraday Future Dragon Racing	Penske	701-EV
8		Nicolas Prost	Renault e.Dams	Renault	Z.E. 16
9		Sébastien Buemi	Renault e.Dams	Renault	Z.E. 16
11		Lucas di Grassi	ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport	ABT Schaeffler	FE02
19		Felix Rosenqvist	Mahindra Racing	Mahindra	M3 Electro
20		Mitch Evans	Jaguar Racing	Jaguar	I-Type 1
23		Nick Heidfeld	Mahindra Racing	Mahindra	M3 Electro
25		Jean-Eric Vergne	Techeetah	Renault	Z.E. 16
27		Robin Frijns	MS Amlin Andretti	Andretti	ATEC-02
28		António Félix da Costa	MS Amlin Andretti	Andretti	ATEC-02
33		Ma Qing Hua	Techeetah	Renault	Z.E. 16
37		José María López	DS Virgin Racing	DS Virgin	DSV-02
47		Adam Carroll	Jaguar Racing	Jaguar	I-Type 1
66		Daniel Abt	ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport	ABT Schaeffler	FE02
88		Oliver Turvey	NextEV NIO	NEXTEV TCR	FormulaE 002
Source:

Qualifying

There would be no changes to the qualifying format ahead of the Buenos Aires ePrix, with four groups of five cars randomly drawn to complete a single flying lap. The fastest five from the combined table would then go through to the Super Pole shootout, going out one by one to try and set the pole time. Positions six to twenty are then based on times set during the group stage.

Group 1

Group one was to consist of the Jaguar Racing pair of Mitch Evans and Adam Carroll, Maro Engel of Venturi, Robin Frijns for Andretti and DS Virgin Racing's Sam Bird. Of the quintet it would be Bird who was favourite after a strong Practice performance, with the Brit also having a win at the circuit. Frijns was likely to be battling with Engel with an outside shot of Super Pole, while the two Jaguar racers would be hoping for top ten starts at best.

There was a huge surprise right at the start of qualifying, as Evans pushed his Jaguar round to the fastest time in group one, beating pre-quali favourite Bird by three tenths. The Brit struggled to get heat into his tyres, leading him to slap the wall at turn seven without any major damage. Behind them came Frijns and Carroll, both in the 1:10.000s, while Engel had an issue on his full power lap with his car shutting itself down.

Group 2

Championship leader Template:Sebastian Buemi headlined group two ahead of qualifying, joined by arch rival Lucas di Grassi for ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport. Another man not to be ruled out was Jean-Eric Vergne for Techeetah, the Frenchman having been strong in Practice, while Nelson Piquet Jr. was another to look out for. Jérôme d'Ambrosio completed the quintet for Dragon Racing.

Group two ultimately provided four of the top five times from the group stage, with Vergne putting together an excellent lap to set the fastest time of the day, a 1:08.751. Buemi was next ahead of di Grassi, while Piquet's lap was two tenths faster than Evans to set the fourth best time. The fifth man in quintet was d'Ambrosio, with the Belgian slotting in between Evans and Bird.

Group 3

The third quintet featured home hero José María López in the second Virgin, with many of the fans hoping their man could challenge for the shootout. António Félix da Costa was another who could entertain hopes of getting into Super Pole, a race winner at Buenos Aires in the past, while Felix Rosenqvist claimed pole last time out. Completing the group were Frenchmen Stéphane Sarrazin and Loïc Duval, racing for Venturi and Andretti respectively.

There would be heartbreak in group three for the home fans, as López lost the backend of his car through turn seven and smacked the wall, breaking his rear suspension on his full power run. He was not the only one to crash during group three, da Costa clipping the inside wall of the final chicane, although the Portuguese racer was able to complete his lap. Sarrazin, Rosenqvist and Duval all ran trouble free, but none of them could threaten the Super Pole times.

Group 4

The final group of the day was to be lead out by Nicolas Prost for Renault e.Dams, with the sister car of Ma Qing Hua also on track with Techeetah. Oliver Turvey was also to go out with NextEV NIO, while Daniel Abt would race with ABT Schaeffler. Completing the final quintet would be Nick Heidfeld on behalf of Mahindra Racing.

Group four saw Turvey cause a shock, as his last gasp attempt knocked the second Renault e.Dams car of Prost out of Super Pole, just moments after the Frenchman had elbowed Evans out of the top five. Elsewhere, Abt smacked the wall at turn four on his quick lap, limping round to complete the sixteenth best time, with Ma suffering the exact same accident a few moments later. As for Heidfeld, the German completed a clean but otherwise uninspiring lap to finish in the middle of the pack.

Super Pole

First man out in Super Pole was Piquet, but the 2014/15 Champion put together a scruffy lap, falling shy of his group time by two seconds. Teammate Turvey was next, although he would suffer a huge lockup on his way to beating Piquet. Then came di Grassi for ABT Schaeffler, with the Brazilian putting together the first clean lap of Super Pole to record a 1:09.404.

Buemi went out to set the penultimate time of the session, although the Swiss racer's lap was ruined by a lock up at turn one, meaning he could only beat the two NextEVs. Then came Vergne with an ultra attacking lap, although a huge lock up at turn seven cost him almost two tenths, enough to drop him behind di Grassi and into second.

Post Qualifying

The final qualifying result for the 2017 Buenos Aires ePrix are outlined below:

2017 Buenos Aires ePrix Qualifying Result
Pos.	No.	Nat.	Name	Team	Time	Gap	Grid
1st	11		Lucas di Grassi	ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport	1:09.404	—	1
2nd	25		Jean-Eric Vergne	Techeetah	1:09.598	+0.194s	2
3rd	9		Sébastien Buemi	Renault e.Dams	1:09.825	+0.421s	3
4th	88		Oliver Turvey	NextEV NIO	1:10.075	+0.671s	4
5th	3		Nelson Piquet Jr.	NextEV NIO	1:11.274	+1.870s	5
Super Pole
1st	25		Jean-Eric Vergne	Techeetah	1:08.751	—	SP
2nd	9		Sébastien Buemi	Renault e.Dams	1:09.018	+0.267s	SP
3rd	11		Lucas di Grassi	ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport	1:09.084	+0.333s	SP
4th	88		Oliver Turvey	NextEV NIO	1:09.314	+0.563s	SP
5th	3		Nelson Piquet Jr.	NextEV NIO	1:09.383	+0.632s	SP
6th	8		Nicolas Prost	Renault e.Dams	1:09.442	+0.691s	6
7th	20		Mitch Evans	Jaguar Racing	1:09.505	+0.754s	7
8th	19		Felix Rosenqvist	Mahindra Racing	1:09.681	+0.930s	8
9th	7		Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon Racing	1:09.697	+0.946s	9
10th	2		Sam Bird	DS Virgin Racing	1:09.839	+1.088s	10
11th	4		Stéphane Sarrazin	Venturi	1:10.100	+1.349s	11
12th	23		Nick Heidfeld	Mahindra Racing	1:10.152	+1.401s	12
13th	27		Robin Frijns	Andretti	1:10.172	+1.421s	13
14th	6		Loïc Duval	Dragon Racing	1:10.257	+1.506s	14
15th	47		Adam Carroll	Jaguar Racing	1:10.946	+2.195s	15
16th	66		Daniel Abt	ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport	1:13.284	+4.533s	16
17th	28		António Félix da Costa	Andretti	1:13.326	+4.575s	17
NC*	37		José María López	DS Virgin Racing	1:16.760	+8.009s	18
NC*	33		Ma Qing Hua	Techeetah	1:22.405	+13.654s	19
NC*	5		Maro Engel	Venturi	1:44.239	+35.488s	20
Source:

• * Cars #5, #33 and #37 all failed to complete a lap within 107% of the fastest time (1:13.564). They would all race at the steward's discretion.

Race

Result

The final classification of the 2017 Buenos Aires ePrix is displayed below, with the fastest lap setter indicated in italics, and the pole sitter shown in bold.

2017 Buenos Aires ePrix Race Result
Pos.	No.	Nat.	Name	Team	Laps	Race Time	Fastest lap	Pts.
1st	9		Sébastien Buemi	Renault e.Dams	37	45:45.623	1:11.058	25
2nd	25		Jean-Eric Vergne	Techeetah	37	+2.996s	1:10.832	18
3rd	11		Lucas di Grassi	ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport	37	+6.921s	1:10.744	18
4th	8		Nicolas Prost	Renault e.Dams	37	+8.065s	1:11.130	12
5th	3		Nelson Piquet Jr.	NextEV NIO	37	+9.770s	1:10.994	10
6th	6		Loïc Duval	Dragon Racing	37	+35.103s	1:11.850	8
7th	66		Daniel Abt	ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport	37	+35.801s	1:11.831	6
8th	7		Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon Racing	37	+36.335s	1:11.512	4
9th	88		Oliver Turvey	NextEV NIO	37	+37.111s	1:12.076	2
10th	37		José María López	DS Virgin Racing	37	+38.206s	1:10.893	1
11th	28		António Félix da Costa	Andretti	37	+43.740s	1:11.407
12th	4		Stéphane Sarrazin	Venturi	37	+44.243s	1:11.560
13th	20		Mitch Evans	Jaguar Racing	37	+44.918s	1:12.062
14th	27		Robin Frijns	Andretti	37	+49.683s	1:11.858
15th	23		Nick Heidfeld	Mahindra Racing	37	+51.456s	1:10.910
16th	33		Ma Qing Hua	Techeetah	36	+1 Lap	1:12.358
17th	47		Adam Carroll	Jaguar Racing	36	+1 Lap	1:11.730
18th	19		Felix Rosenqvist	Mahindra Racing	34	+3 Laps	1:09.467	1
Ret	5		Maro Engel	Venturi	26	Retired	1:10.178
Ret	2		Sam Bird	DS Virgin Racing	20	Accident	1:09.754
Source:

Milestones

• Third ePrix to be staged in Buenos Aires.
• Maiden pole position for Lucas di Grassi.
• Sébastien Buemi earned his third win in a row.
• Techeetah awarded their first podium finish through Jean-Éric Vergne.
• Fifteenth podium for di Grassi.

Standings

A third victory in a row put Sébastien Buemi on 75 points after just three rounds, leaving the Swiss racer with a huge 29 point lead. The man in second would be Buemi's arch rival Lucas di Grassi, ten points clear of the Swiss racer's teammate Nicolas Prost in third. Jean-Eric Vergne leapt into fourth with his second place finish, while Felix Rosenqvist was relegated to fifth.

Renault e.Dams left Argentina with 111 points to their name, Buemi's hattrick of victories combining with Prost's trio of fourth place finishes. German team ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport remained in second on 60, almost half their French rivals total, while Mahindra Racing were falling away in third. Jaguar Racing once again failed to score, as NextEV NIO and Techeetah both entered the top five after a mutually strong weekend.

 

2016/17 Drivers' Championship Pos. Nat. Name Pts. +/- 1st Sébastien Buemi 75 ◄0 2nd Lucas di Grassi 46 ◄0 3rd Nicolas Prost 36 ◄0 4th Jean-Eric Vergne 22 ▲8 5th Felix Rosenqvist 20 ▼1 6th Sam Bird 18 ▼1 7th Nick Heidfeld 17 ▼1 8th Daniel Abt 14 ▲2 9th Nelson Piquet Jr. 13 ▲4 10th Oliver Turvey 12 ▼2 11th António Félix da Costa 10 ▼4 12th Jérôme d'Ambrosio 10 ▼1 13th Loïc Duval 9 ▲4 14th Robin Frijns 8 ▼5 15th Maro Engel 2 ▼1 16th José María López 2 ◄0 17th Stéphane Sarrazin 1 ▼2

2016/17 Teams' Championship Pos. Nat. Name Pts. +/- 1st Renault e.Dams 111 ◄0 2nd ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport 60 ◄0 3rd Mahindra Racing 37 ◄0 4th NextEV NIO 25 ▲2 5th Techeetah 22 ▲3 6th DS Virgin Racing 20 ▼2 7th Dragon Racing 19 ◄0 8th Andretti 18 ▼2 9th Venturi 3 ◄0 10th Jaguar Racing 0 ◄0

Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown.

References

Videos and Images:

References: