2017 Monaco ePrix

2017 Monaco ePrix
The modified Circuit de Monaco circuit
Race Information
Date	13th May 2017
E-Prix No.	{{{number}}}
Official Name	2017 FIA Formula E Monaco ePrix
Location	Monte Carlo, Monaco
Format	{{{format}}}
Lap length	1.760km (1.094mi)
Distance	51 laps / 89.760km (55.774mi)
Support Race	{{{support}}}
Qualifying Result
Pole Sitter	Sébastien Buemi
Team	Renault e.Dams
Time	0:53.313
Fastest Lap
Driver	Sam Bird
Team	{{{{{flteamnat}}}}} Unknown
Fastest Lap	0:53.822 on lap 24
ePrix Result
First	Second	Third
Sébastien Buemi	Lucas di Grassi	Nick Heidfeld
Winner Team	Renault e.Dams
Time	0:51:05.488
ePrix Guide
Previous		Next
Mexico City		Paris
Post-Race Test	{{{test}}}

The 2017 Monaco ePrix, otherwise officially known as the 2017 FIA Formula E Monaco ePrix, will be the fifth round of the 2016/17 FIA Formula E Championship, staged on a modified version of the Circuit de Monaco on the 13th May, 2017. The race would see the return of Monte Carlo as a host city, having previously staged an ePrix in 2015 as part of the inaugural FE Championship.

Qualifying saw Sébastien Buemi finally reverse his poor quali form by claiming a dominant pole position, beating title rival Lucas di Grassi by a quarter of a second. Nelson Piquet Jr. grabbed third ahead of Jean-Éric Vergne, while Maro Engel completed the top five after getting into Super Pole for the first time.

An entertaining start to the race saw Buemi lead into Sainte Devote, with di Grassi having to stamp on the brakes in order to avoid taking out his Swiss rival. The rest of the field duly concertinaed, the back runners having to come to a complete stop but, bar some minor rubbing, the entire field made it through without damage.

A pattern soon developed in the fight for the lead, with Buemi inching out his lead by a few tenths every lap, while di Grassi moved clear of Piquet. Indeed, Piquet was proving a nuisence for the rest of the top runners, the Brazilian simply not having the pace in his NextEV NIO to stay with the leading pair. He therefore had Vergne crawling over the back of him from the second lap onwards, with Nick Heidfeld a surprise fifth after an excellent start.

Also in their fight was Sam Bird, although the Brit was effectively out of the race from lap seven after slapping the wall at the Swimming Pool. He limped back to the pits for a quick repair, although the DS Virgin Racing crew quickly decided that his best bet would be to go for fastest lap for the rest of the race.

Back on track and Vergne was trying everything he could to try and take Piquet, his best chances coming on the brakes into turn three. On lap twenty the Frenchman managed to get on the outside of the Brazilian for the entire length of the hairpin, but through the subsequent chicane the two came together and the Virgin was bounced into the barriers. Heidfeld slipped through to claim third before Piquet recovered, while Vergne had to abandon his car in the barriers at the chicane, bringing out the BMW Qualcomm i8 safety car.

Some drivers tried an early stop the moment they saw Vergne in the barriers, although the gamble caused more confusion, as Mitch Evans was mistakenly picked up by the safety car, along with the rest of the early stoppers. The rest of the field stopped after the safety car appeared, and, once Evans and co. were waved by, the race restarted with Buemi still in the lead.

The rest of the race was rather tame, although di Grassi was remaining within striking distance as the rest of the race ticked by. Into the closing stages and the Brazilian managed to close right onto the back of the Swiss, and on the final lap it looked as if he could throw his ABT Schaeffler past the Renault e.Dams machine. His best shot came at turn three, although a well timed block from Buemi was enough to deny him.

The Swiss duly swept home for his tenth ePrix victory, only three tenths ahead of di Grassi who ran out of usable energy as the pair crossed the line. Heidfeld was a lonely third for Mahindra, while Piquet fended off the combined attentions Maro Engel, Felix Rosenqvist and Daniel Abt to the chequered flag. Fastest lap went to Bird, although the Brit failed to reach the finish.

Background

There would be one significant piece of news ahead of the Monaco ePrix, as Dragon Racing announced that Mike Conway was coming in to replace Loïc Duval. This change was not for the race in Monte Carlo, however, with Conway having to wait until the Paris ePrix to make his FE return. Duval himself was to be busy in the DTM that weekend, racing for Audi, while Conway rejoins the team he originally signed for ahead of the inaugural 2014/15 campaign. It was a similar situation at Venturi, who were to replace Maro Engel with Tom Dillmann as the former would be racing for Mercedes.

A dismal weekend for Championship leader Sébastien Buemi in Mexico City had seen his advantage at the top of the standings cut to just five points, Lucas di Grassi the man making ground. The Brazilian and the Swiss were set to fight for the title as they had in 2015/16, with Nicolas Prost still 25 points behind the man in second. Jean-Éric Vergne closed the gap to the Frenchman, but remained in fourth, while Sam Bird swapped places with Felix Rosenqvist.

The Teams' Championship remained largely unchanged out front after the Mexico City ePrix, with Renault e.Dams still leading the charge from arch-rivals ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport. They were split by just 31 points after the former's problematic weekend, although neither were under threat from third placed DS Virgin Racing. The British squad were fighting with Techeetah and Mahindra Racing to be best of the rest, while Jaguar Racing were on the board for the first time in their short history, moving ahead of Venturi in the process.

FanBoost for the Monaco ePrix was opened on the 8th of May, and would remain open until the sixth minute of the race as usual.

Entry List

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

2017 Monaco ePrix Entry List
No.	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	Esteban Gutiérrez	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 were no changes to the qualifying format ahead of a sunny Saturday afternoon in Monte Carlo, with four groups of five drivers randomly drawn after FP2. Each group would get six minutes on circuit to give each driver a shot at completing a single full power lap. The top five drivers overall would then go through to the Super Pole shootout at the end of the session, with each of the top five getting a completely empty circuit to try and set a time good enough for pole position.

Group 1

The first quintet of the session was headlined by Championship leader Sébastien Buemi, who was looking to improve his recent quali-form. Other potential Super Pole earners were limited, Oliver Turvey arguably to biggest threat for NextEV NIO, although the other three could not be ruled out. They were Loïc Duval of Dragon Racing, the Andretti for António Félix da Costa, and Mitch Evans' Jaguar.

Unsurprisingly it was Buemi who topped the times at the end of the first group run, a clean run seeing him record a 0:53.413, one of the fastest times of the weekend. Second in the group, but half a second slower was Duval, although the Frenchman was excluded from the results of qualifying after he completed more laps than were allowed. Evans was next, beating Turvey by over half a second himself, while da Costa was a further tenth back after a poor lap.

Group 2

The second Renault e.Dams entry of Nicolas Prost headlined the second group of the day, with the sister car for Esteban Gutiérrez run by Techeetah also in action. Those two were considered potential Super Pole contenders, with Jérôme d'Ambrosio and Nick Heidfeld expected to compete for the top ten. The top ten spots would also be the aim of Adam Carroll in the second Jaguar as the fifth driver of the group.

A scruffy second group saw pre-quali favourite Prost throw away his lap early on, the Frenchman slipping down an escape road on his only full power lap, ultimately ending the session second slowest. Fortunately for him, d'Ambrosio had to abort his full power lap completely after taking to a different escape road, but lacked the room to move out of it. Best of the bunch proved to be Heidfeld, who leapt ahead of all of the group one runners bar Buemi, while Gutierrez and Carroll bookmarked Evans and co.

Group 3

Group three would see title pretender Lucas di Grassi hit the circuit as favourite from the group to get into Super Pole, the ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport racer hoping for a strong weekend. The two Venturis of Maro Engel and Stéphane Sarrazin would also be in action, and had been strong in practice ahead of the team's home race. Sam Bird of DS Virgin Racing and Robin Frijns of Andretti completed the penultimate group.

di Grassi pulled out all the stops on his flying lap in the third group, and only fell shy of Buemi's effort by a tenth of a second. His performance was, however, overshadowed by Engel, whom stole top spot from the Swiss racer after a sublime lap in the Venturi. Bird was disappointed to miss the top five having been strong in practice, finishing just ahead of Sarrazin, while Frijns qualified well clear of teammate da Costa, albeit behind Duval.

Group 4

Favourite from the final quintet would be Jean-Éric Vergne, last of the Renault powered drivers for Techeetah. Daniel Abt and Nelson Piquet Jr. were also threats for the Super Pole, particularly with the track getting towards its grippiest by the time the final group hit the circuit. José María López and Felix Rosenqvist could also worry the top five, although they were more likely fighting for the top ten.

With ultimate track conditions there was no surprise that Vergne went quickest overall, taking a tenth off of Engel's lap to qualify for Super Pole. Piquet Jr. managed to split the title rivals, falling just shy of Buemi's mark, and left di Grassi on the bubble. Fortunately for him, Rosenqvist made a small mistake at the final corner, costing him more than the half a tenth he missed out on Super Pole by. The fitness tested Lopez claimed seventh overall, almost besting Rosenqvist, while Abt claimed ninth after a personally frustrating lap.

Super Pole

Out first was di Grassi in Super Pole, the Brazilian having been the last of those to qualify for the shootout in fifth. A clean lap for di Grassi ensured that he actually made a small improvement over his earlier time, before Piquet went out to try and best his mark. A small mistake by Piquet saw him fall shy, before Buemi went out to make his bid for pole.

It was a strong lap for the Swiss racer, with the blue-black Renault thrown at every corner in the search for pace. The result was a 0:53.313, faster than he had gone in the group stages, although Vergne had been marginally quicker overall. Engel went next but threw away his best lap by scraping along the barriers, before Vergne made a slight mistake during his lap that left him behind Piquet. Buemi therefore seized his first pole of the season, with title rival di Grassi set to line-up alongside.

Post Qualifying

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

2017 Monaco ePrix Qualifying Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Time	Gap	Grid
1st	9	Sébastien Buemi	Renault e.Dams	0:53.313	—	1
2nd	11	Lucas di Grassi	ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport	0:53.550	+0.237s	2
3rd	3	Nelson Piquet Jr.	NextEV NIO	0:53.606	+0.293s	3
4th	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	Techeetah	0:53.756	+0.443s	4
5th	5	Maro Engel	Venturi	0:55.013	+1.700s	5
Super Pole
1st	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	Techeetah	0:53.286	—	SP
2nd	5	Maro Engel	Venturi	0:53.397	+0.111s	SP
3rd	9	Sébastien Buemi	Renault e.Dams	0:53.413	+0.127s	SP
4th	3	Nelson Piquet Jr.	NextEV NIO	0:53.421	+0.135s	SP
5th	11	Lucas di Grassi	ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport	0:53.556	+0.270s	SP
6th	19	Felix Rosenqvist	Mahindra Racing	0:53.609	+0.323s	6
7th	37	José María López	DS Virgin Racing	0:53.666	+0.380s	7
8th	23	Nick Heidfeld	Mahindra Racing	0:53.687	+0.401s	8
9th	66	Daniel Abt	ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport	0:53.725	+0.439s	9
10th	2	Sam Bird	DS Virgin Racing	0:53.729	+0.443s	10
11th	4	Stephane Sarrazin	Venturi	0:53.846	+0.560s	11
12th*	6	Loïc Duval	Dragon Racing	0:53.929	+0.643s	20
13th	27	Robin Frijns	Andretti	0:54.034	+0.748s	12
14th	33	Esteban Gutiérrez	Techeetah	0:54.097	+0.811s	13
15th	20	Mitch Evans	Jaguar Racing	0:54.115	+0.829s	14
16th	88	Oliver Turvey	NextEV NIO	0:54.522	+1.236s	15
17th	28	António Félix da Costa	Andretti	0:54.631	+1.345s	16
18th	47	Adam Carroll	Jaguar Racing	0:55.031	+1.745s	17
19th	8	Nicolas Prost	Renault e.Dams	0:55.081	+1.795s	18
20th	7	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon Racing	1:00.636	+7.350s	19
Source:

• * Duval sent to the back of the grid after completing more laps than allowed during qualifying.

Race

Result

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

2017 Monaco ePrix Race Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Laps	Race Time	Fastest lap	Pts.
1st	9	Sébastien Buemi	Renault e.Dams	51	0:51:05.488	0:54.978	28
2nd	11	Lucas di Grassi	ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport	51	+0.320s	0:54.863	18
3rd	23	Nick Heidfeld	Mahindra Racing	51	+13.678s	0:55.260	15
4th	3	Nelson Piquet Jr.	NextEV NIO	51	+19.074s	0:55.272	12
5th	5	Maro Engel	Venturi	51	+19.518s	0:55.549	10
6th	19	Felix Rosenqvist	Mahindra Racing	51	+19.599s	0:55.512	8
7th	66	Daniel Abt	ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport	51	+20.430s	0:55.383	6
8th	33	Esteban Gutiérrez	Techeetah	51	+32.295s	0:55.251	4
9th	8	Nicolas Prost	Renault e.Dams	51	+35.667s	0:55.361	2
10th	20	Mitch Evans	Jaguar Racing	51	+38.410s	0:55.555	1
11th	28	António Félix da Costa	Andretti	51	+1:08.330	0:55.485
12th	27	Robin Frijns	Andretti	51	+1:14.053	0:55.479
13th	88	Oliver Turvey	NextEV NIO	50	+1 Lap	0:55.622
14th	47	Adam Carroll	Jaguar Racing	50	+1 Lap	0:55.959
15th	4	Stéphane Sarrazin	Venturi	49	+2 Laps	0:54.490
Ret	37	José María López	DS Virgin Racing	43	Retired	0:53.909
Ret	7	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon Racing	43	Retired	0:53.869
Ret	6	Loïc Duval	Dragon Racing	40	Retired	0:54.288
Ret	2	Sam Bird	DS Virgin Racing	36	Damage	0:53.822	1
Ret	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	Techeetah	20	Accident	0:55.064
Source:

Milestones

• Second Monaco ePrix.
• Fifth entry for Techeetah as an entrant.
• Fifth race for Felix Rosenqvist, Maro Engel, Mitch Evans, Adam Carroll and José María López.
• Tenth victory for Sébastien Buemi.
• Renault e.Dams earned their thirteenth victory.

Standings

Victory and pole saw Sébastien Buemi ease away in the Championship standings, the Swiss racer also becoming the first driver to break the 100 point barrier. Lucas di Grassi remained in second, fifteen points behind, with those two looking set to duel for the title once again. Behind, Nicolas Prost fell further back in third, remaining ahead of the non-scoring Jean-Éric Vergne, while Nick Heidfeld moved to within striking distance of fifth placed Sam Bird.

It was Renault e.Dams who continued to lead the Teams' Championship after the Monaco ePrix, the French squad heading to their home race with 152 points on the board. ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport sat in their familiar second place, the only other team now in triple figures for the season after a fairly strong weekend in Monte Carlo. Mahindra Racing leapt into third, swapping places with now fifth placed DS Virgin Racing, while Techeetah remained in fourth.

 

2016/17 Drivers' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Sébastien Buemi 104 ◄0 2nd Lucas di Grassi 89 ◄0 3rd Nicolas Prost 48 ◄0 4th Jean-Eric Vergne 40 ◄0 5th Sam Bird 34 ◄0 6th Nick Heidfeld 32 ▲2 7th Felix Rosenqvist 28 ▼1 8th Nelson Piquet Jr. 27 ▲1 9th Daniel Abt 26 ▼2 10th Oliver Turvey 15 ◄0 11th Mitch Evans 13 ◄0 12th Maro Engel 12 ▲6 13th António Félix da Costa 10 ▼1 14th José María López 10 ▼1 15th Jérôme d'Ambrosio 10 ▼1 16th Loïc Duval 9 ▼1 17th Robin Frijns 8 ▼1 18th Esteban Gutiérrez 5 ▲1 19th Adam Carroll 4 ▼2 20th Stéphane Sarrazin 1 ◄0

2016/17 Teams' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Renault e.Dams 152 ◄0 2nd ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport 115 ◄0 3rd Mahindra Racing 60 ▲2 4th Techeetah 45 ◄0 5th DS Virgin Racing 44 ▼2 6th NextEV NIO 42 ◄0 7th Dragon Racing 19 ◄0 8th Andretti Formula E Team 18 ◄0 9th Jaguar Racing 17 ◄0 10th Venturi Formula E Team 13 ◄0

Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown.

References

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