2018 Zürich E-Prix

2018 Zürich E-Prix
The first ever E-Prix circuit in Zürich, Switzerland.
Race Information
Date	10 June 2018
E-Prix No.	{{{number}}}
Official Name	2018 Julius Baer Zürich E-Prix
Location	Zürich Street Circuit, Enge, Zürich, Switzerland
Format	{{{format}}}
Lap length	2.465km (1.532 mi)
Distance	39 laps / 96.135km (59.736mi)
Support Race	{{{support}}}
Qualifying Result
Pole Sitter	Mitch Evans
Team	Jaguar Racing
Time	1:12.811
Fastest Lap
Driver	André Lotterer
Team	Techeetah
Fastest Lap	1:14.730 on lap 36
ePrix Result
First	Second	Third
Lucas di Grassi	Sam Bird	Jérôme d'Ambrosio
Winner Team	Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler
Time	0:51:19.811
ePrix Guide
Previous		Next
2018 Berlin E-Prix		2018 New York City E-Prix I
Post-Race Test	{{{test}}}

The 2018 Zürich E-Prix, otherwise officially known as the 2018 Julius Baer Zürich E-Prix, was the tenth round of the 2017/18 ABB FIA Formula E Championship, staged upon the shore of Lake Zürich on the 10 June 2018. The E-Prix made history when the lights go out, becoming the first major International motor race to be staged in a Swiss city since 1954.

There would be a minor shock in qualifying for the first ever Zürich E-Prix, as Mitch Evans claimed his, and Jaguar's maiden pole position. The young Kiwi had also topped the times in the group stage, and would go on to edge out André Lotterer in the Super Pole shootout. Next on the grid would be title contender Sam Bird, while Championship leader Jean-Éric Vergne qualified down in seventeenth.

Evans' form would carry over to the start of the race, with the Jaguar easing ahead of Lotterer before hitting the brakes into turn one. The rest of the field scrambled through behind Bird, before a huge collision between Daniel Abt and Nelson Piquet Jr. at the "Tramstop" chicane saw bits of the German's rear wing soar across Zürich.

The early stages would see outgoing Champion Lucas di Grassi move up the order, as would Championship leader Vergne at the back of the field. Indeed, the Frenchman would break into the top ten by lap thirteen, and was quickly closing in on Felix Rosenqvist and Nicolas Prost ahead.

di Grassi, meanwhile, would launch an assault for the lead, passing Bird with ease as the Brit found himself blocked in behind Lotterer. di Grassi would duly charge past Lotterer before catching and passing Evans shortly before the pitwindow opened, which would come in the middle of a Full Course Yellow.

Indeed, the cause of the FCY would be Rosenqvist's front wing, which had been removed when the Swede slid into the barriers defending from Vergne. The debris was duly struck by the Frenchman's Techeetah on lap nineteen prompting the FCY and the en-masse sweep into the pits for the car swap.

The circuit went green once everyone had stopped, with di Grassi two seconds clear of Evans as soon as the field was released. However, there would be a late twist to the race, for Evans, Lotterer, Sebastien Buemi, José María López and Championship leader Vergne, were all charged with speeding during the FCY.

That penalty put Vergne back down to tenth, while his main rival Bird was suddenly promoted into second, a position he would hold until the chequered flag. Out front, meanwhile, di Grassi would cruise home to claim a historic victory for himself, while d'Ambrosio followed Bird home for his first podium of the year.

Vergne, meanwhile, would end the race in tenth, just falling shy of Oliver Turvey at the flag. It meant that his Championship lead had been cut in half heading into the final two races, at a track which Bird had claimed victory back in 2017.

Background

On the 10 June 2018 the Formula E Championship would make another little bit of motorsport history when it arrived in Zürich, a day which would see international motorsport return to the Switzerland. Since July 1955, less than a month after the tragic 1955 Le Mans Disaster, motorsport had been banned in Switzerland, the last major event to staged being the 1954 Swiss Grand Prix. That law would, however, be partially repealed on the 16 March 2015, with the Swiss government granting permission for series such as Formula E to bring racing back to Alps.

However, negotiations for FE to bring motorsport back to Switzerland would take some time, with the now legendary Circuit Bremgarten gone, and various cities having their own local red tape to uphold. Ultimately, it would take until the start of the 2017/18 season for an agreement to be reached, with Switzerland's largest city Zürich agreeing to host the series. The subsequent Zürich Street Circuit was drawn up along shores of Lake Zürich, skirting the old city as well as the famed Zürich Arboretum.

In terms of on-track action there would be another star name, and ex-Formula One World Champion, to add to the list of guest drivers, with a bona fide legend taking to the wheel. Indeed, the 1972 and 1974 World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi would take to the Zürich Street Circuit on race day, trying out the demonstration Spark-Renault SRT_01E ahead of the E-Prix. A former resident of Switzerland, and friend of the last man to win a race on Swiss soil Juan Manuel Fangio, Fittipaldi would get his first taste of an electric racer at the young age of 71, following in the steps of his grandson Pietro.

Elsewhere, there would be some major changes at DS Virgin Racing in the break, with team founder Alex Tai revealed to have stepped down as C.E.O. and team manager. Tai had served as the boss of Virgin since they joined FE, and had overseen the partnership with DS since 2015/16. He was to serve as an adviser for the rest of 2017/18, with Sylvain Filippi promoted to C.O.O. to take over the day-to-day and racing operations, with a permanent replacement for Tai set to be announced ahead of the 2018/19 season.

Furthermore, Virgin Racing's powertrain partner DS revealed that they had signed Techeetah duo Jean-Éric Vergne and André Lotterer to test their 2018/19 powertrain, effectively confirming that Techeetah would become the de facto DS factory team. The DS-Techeetah combination had been rumoured since the end of the 2016/17 season, although DS and Virgin had already renewed their contract for 2017/18. Regardless, it seemed as if Virgin would need to source a new powertrain supplier for 2018/19, with the most likely deal rumoured to be with Audi Sport.

On the topic of 2018/19, the FIA and Formula E revealed the provisional calendar for the fifth FE season, confirming the addition of Ad Diriyah as the opening round. Two TBAs were also included on the list of thirteen rounds, with visits to Marrakech, Mexico City, Hong Kong, Rome, Paris, Monaco, Berlin, Zürich and New York City all confirmed. The announcement also included confirmation of the new "Hyperboost" mechanic, as well as a new race format featuring timed races.

On the driver front there was further confirmation of whom would be racing during season five, with Daniel Abt re-signed by Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler having won two races in 2017/18. Indeed, having become a factory Audi driver at the start of the season, the pressure had been on Abt to perform and, in spite of having taken three on-track victories, there had been a lot of speculation as to his future in FE. Ultimately, however, his 2017/18 had been more than enough to see one of FE's most improved drivers retained, with the German again set to partner Lucas di Grassi for the foreseeable future.

In terms of the Championship, pole, victory and fastest lap in Berlin had propelled the aforementioned Abt into the top four of the Championship, although with three rounds to go it seemed as if the German was out of the title fight. Indeed, despite failing to win the Berlin race, Championship leader Jean-Éric Vergne had seen his lead increase over the chasing pack, to 40 points. Furthermore, with just 87 points still available the only man who had a realistic shot at beating him was second placed Sam Bird, although the Brit would need to win all three remaining races to do so.

In the Teams' Championship things were much less certain, for although Techeetah held a 44 point lead, German based Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler had climbed into second and now had momentum on their side. Indeed, the Ingolstadt backed effort had overhauled DS Virgin Racing in their late season charge, although the Anglo-French squad were still holding outside hopes of a maiden title triumph. Mahindra Racing retained fourth ahead of Jaguar Racing, while NIO had pulled a little further clear of both Dragon Racing and Andretti Formula E.

FanBoost for the inaugural Zürich E-Prix opened on the 4 June, and would remain so until the opening stages of the E-Prix itself.

Entry List

The full entry list for the 2018 Zürich E-Prix is displayed below:

2018 Zürich E-Prix Entry List
No.	Name	Entrant	Constructor	Car
1	Lucas di Grassi	Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler	Audi	e-tron FE04
2	Sam Bird	DS Virgin Racing	DS	Virgin DSV-03
3	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Panasonic Jaguar Racing	Jaguar	I-Type II
4	Edoardo Mortara	Venturi Formula E Team	Venturi	VM200-FE-03
5	Maro Engel	Venturi Formula E Team	Venturi	VM200-FE-03
6	José María López	Dragon Racing	Penske	EV-2
7	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon Racing	Penske	EV-2
8	Nicolas Prost	Renault e.Dams	Renault	Z.E. 17
9	Sébastien Buemi	Renault e.Dams	Renault	Z.E. 17
16	Oliver Turvey	NIO Formula E Team	NextEV	NIO 003
18	André Lotterer	Techeetah	Renault	Z.E. 17
19	Felix Rosenqvist	Mahindra Racing	Mahindra	M4 Electro
20	Mitch Evans	Panasonic Jaguar Racing	Jaguar	I-Type II
23	Nick Heidfeld	Mahindra Racing	Mahindra	M4 Electro
25	Jean-Éric Vergne	Techeetah	Renault	Z.E. 17
27	Stéphane Sarrazin	MS&AD Andretti Formula E	Andretti	ATEC-04
28	António Félix da Costa	MS&AD Andretti Formula E	Andretti	ATEC-04
36	Alex Lynn	DS Virgin Racing	DS	Virgin DSV-03
66	Daniel Abt	Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler	Audi	e-tron FE04
68	Luca Filippi	NIO Formula E Team	NextEV	NIO 003
Source:

Qualifying

Qualifying in Zürich would follow the standard pattern on Sunday, with the field split into four groups of five, based on Championship position, after the Shakedown session. Each group would then get six minutes on circuit to allow each driver to set a time, with the fastest five overall progressing to the Super Pole shootout. Those five would then go out one by one to set a time to claim pole, with the rest of the gird sorted according to times set during the group phase.

Group 1

The opening group of the day would feature the top five in the Championship which, unsurprisingly, composed of most of the favourites to make it into Super Pole. However, if Jean-Éric Vergne made it through and went on to claim pole, then both Felix Rosenqvist and Daniel Abt, who were third and fourth arriving in Switzerland would be effectively out of the title fight. Home hero Sébastien Buemi, meanwhile, would be out for personal glory, while Sam Bird would need to beat Vergne and start ahead of him to close the gap at the top of the Championship.

Vergne would open qualifying as the first man on circuit, but a scruffy lap from the Championship leader saw him on the back foot early on. Indeed, his time would be instantly beaten by Rosenqvist, who then saw his effort swept aside by Abt. Buemi then knocked Abt out of top spot, before Bird completed the quintet with a 1:12.981, the first time under 1:13.000 in the session.

Group 2

Into the second quintet and it was Lucas di Grassi who stood out as the favourite, the Brazilian arriving off the back of his and Abt's dominant display in Berlin. However, qualifying specialists Nelson Piquet Jr. and Oliver Turvey would be, as ever, considered as dark horses, and with no clear idea of how the circuit would evolve, had a good chance of making it into Super Pole. Completing the group would be Piquet's Jaguar Racing teammate Mitch Evans, and André Lotterer in the second Techeetah.

di Grassi would start the the ball rolling in group two and duly managed to knock Vergne out by going second fastest overall. That time was then beaten by the Frenchman's Lotterer, before Evans shocked the field by going fastest, recording a 1:12.594. His teammate Piquet was a less spectacular eighth fastest, further relegating Vergne, while Turvey slapped the wall at turn six and damaged his suspension.

Group 3

The third group of the afternoon would feature those placed eleventh to fifteenth in the Championship, with Alex Lynn and Nick Heidfeld certainly having the equipment to take pole if their teammates were anything to go by. Indeed, they would be the standout names in the group, although FE rookie Edoardo Mortara had been in Super Pole earlier in the season, although the rather inconsistent Venturi he piloted made it difficult to predict. His teammate Maro Engel would also compete in the third quintet, as would António Félix da Costa in the first of the Andrettis.

Heidfeld and Lynn would head out very early at the start of the third group, so early in fact that Lynn would be placed under investigation for entering the pit lane too early. Regardless, their decision to head out as soon as possible ultimately proved pointless, with both setting solid if unspectacular efforts to slot in behind Piquet. Engel and Mortara, meanwhile, would both set impressive opening sectors, but made mistakes in the second, while da Costa decided to go straight into his full power lap to split the two Venturis alongside Vergne.

Group 4

The final five would be made from the final five in the Championship, headlined, although a little more quietly than earlier in the season, by Nicolas Prost. He was joined on circuit by some less illustrious FE names, although José María López was a dark horse for Super Pole if the circuit evolved enough during the session. Completing the field would be López's Dragon teammate Jérôme d'Ambrosio, Luca Filippi's NIO, and Stéphane Sarrazin in the second and final Andretti.

Prost was out early for the final group, and finally produced an effort that could compare to teammate Buemi, falling shy of his Swiss teammate by just 0.023s. However, they were both about to be stunned by the two Dragons, with first López and then d'Ambrosio taking second overall, bumping both Buemi and di Grassi out of Super Pole, meaning the latter was out of the title hunt. Elsewhere Sarrazin completed a clean effort to sneak ahead of Vergne, while Filippi was just ahead of teammate Turvey having made a mistake of his own on his lap.

Super Pole

Into the Super Pole session itself and Bird was the first man to go, although a slide into the "Tramstop" chicane ultimately cost the Brit two tenths of a second. That allowed Lotterer to claim provisional pole with a cleaner run, with the German racer running with very low downforce to record a 1:12.948. López went next for Dragon, but his lap was over as soon as he slid through the first corner on opposite lock, with the Argentine miraculously missing the wall on the exit.

d'Amrosio followed his teammate out of the pits, but a mistake on the exit of turn six ultimately managed to drop him back behind Bird. Evans went next and set a strong sector one time, using a completely different line into turn one to avoid the bumps on the conventional racing line. He followed that up with a stunning sector two effort, going a quarter of a second faster than Lotterer, before sweeping home to claim a maiden pole position for himself and Jaguar Racing.

Post Qualifying

The final qualifying result for the 2018 Zürich E-Prix are outlined below:

2018 Zürich E-Prix Qualifying Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Time	Gap	Grid
1st	20	Mitch Evans	Jaguar Racing	1:12.811	—	1
2nd	18	André Lotterer	Techeetah	1:12.948	+0.137s	2
3rd	2	Sam Bird	DS Virgin Racing	1:13.022	+0.211s	3
4th	7	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon Racing	1:13.096	+0.285s	4
5th*	6	José María López	Dragon Racing	1:13.927	+1.116s	8
Super Pole
1st	20	Mitch Evans	Jaguar Racing	1:12.594	—	SP
2nd	7	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon Racing	1:12.857	+0.263s	SP
3rd	6	José María López	Dragon Racing	1:12.877	+0.283s	SP
4th	18	André Lotterer	Techeetah	1:12.906	+0.312s	SP
5th	2	Sam Bird	DS Virgin Racing	1:12.981	+0.387s	SP
6th	1	Lucas di Grassi	Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler	1:13.042	+0.448s	5
7th	9	Sébastien Buemi	Renault e.Dams	1:13.061	+0.467s	6
8th	8	Nicolas Prost	Renault e.Dams	1:13.084	+0.490s	7
9th	66	Daniel Abt	Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler	1:13.107	+0.513s	9
10th	19	Felix Rosenqvist	Mahindra Racing	1:13.214	+0.620s	10
11th	3	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Jaguar Racing	1:13.380	+0.786s	11
12th†	36	Alex Lynn	DS Virgin Racing	1:13.393	+0.799s	15
13th	23	Nick Heidfeld	Mahindra Racing	1:13.405	+0.811s	12
14th	4	Edoardo Mortara	Venturi	1:13.413	+0.819s	13
15th	28	António Félix da Costa	Andretti Formula E	1:13.422	+0.828s	14
16th	27	Stéphane Sarrazin	Andretti Formula E	1:13.500	+0.906s	16
17th	25	Jean-Éric Vergne	Techeetah	1:13.524	+0.930s	17
18th	5	Maro Engel	Venturi	1:13.541	+0.947s	18
19th	68	Luca Filippi	NIO Formula E Team	1:14.067	+1.473s	19
20th	16	Oliver Turvey	NIO Formula E Team	1:14.139	+1.545s	20
Source:

• * López was demoted three places on the grid for speeding under yellow flags in FP2.
• ^† Lynn hit with a three place penalty for entering the fast lane in the pitlane before the permitted time.

Race

It was a warm afternoon on the shores of Lake Zürich, with temperatures hitting 28°C as the field assembled on the grid. There had been some minor revisions to the starting order after qualifying due to penalties, with José María López and Alex Lynn both slipping three places down from where they qualified. Regardless, all twenty qualifiers would make it out for the start, awaiting the first start to a motor race in Switzerland for 64 years.

Report

It was a strong start from pole sitter Mitch Evans, who coolly swept his Jaguar ahead of André Lotterer into turn one. Indeed, Lotterer himself would be left to fend off Sam Bird, while Lucas di Grassi tried an ambitious move around the outside of Jérôme d'Ambrosio but ran out of room. The rest of the field charged in with the usual mass of minor contact, although it seemed as if everyone had escaped without issue.

However, as the field came into the "Tramstop" chicane at the end of the lap there would be more meaningful contact, with Daniel Abt getting out of shape in the middle of the tight combination. Indeed, as the German sorted himself in the middle of the pack, Nelson Piquet Jr. had no real option other than to slam into the back of the Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler. Abt's rear wing was shattered by the impact, and was duly scattered across Zürich, while Piquet was left with heavy nose damage.

Fortunately the majority of the debris would land away from the racing line, meaning there would be no need for a virtual or full safety car. On track, meanwhile, Evans would complete the opening tour with a healthy lead over Lotterer, whom had Bird, d'Ambrosio and di Grassi stuck to his gearbox. Elsewhere, Championship leader Jean-Éric Vergne had gained a single place to end the lap sixteenth, but was someway shy of the points.

di Grassi would elbow his way past d'Ambrosio during the second lap, slithering past the Dragon into the hairpin at the end of the lap. Piquet copied the move on the Brazilian's wingless teammate, moments before both he and Abt were shown the mechanical issue flag. They were obliged to stop in the pits to have their damaged bodywork replaced, with both doing so on lap five, dropping down to the back of the field.

The following laps would see Sébastien Buemi elbow d'Ambrosio out of the way for fifth, while Vergne inched closer to the top ten with a move of António Félix da Costa into turn three. Indeed, the Frenchman would end lap five in thirteenth, and was just behind Nick Heidfeld as the German put a move on Swiss born Edoardo Mortara for tenth. Out front, meanwhile, Evans would establish a small lead over Lotterer and co., with Buemi trying hard to close the two second gap that had opened up while he was attacking d'Ambrosio.

Vergne would break into the top ten soon after, with successive dives on Alex Lynn, Mortara and Heidfeld into turn one doing the job. Mortara, for his part, would only last until the end of lap nine, for he struck one of the kerbs at the chicane at just the right angle to break his right rear suspension. The Swiss racer came to a stop at the hairpin, his first taste of racing at home over in spite of his impressive start to the race.

With Vergne now having to close a near four second gap to his next victims, Felix Rosenqvist and Nicolas Prost, attention focused back on the lead group, with Bird trying hard to pass the Frenchman's Techeetah teammate. Indeed, Lotterer's furious defence ultimately allowed di Grassi to launch an attack on Bird, with the Brit powerless to prevent the Audi cruising past into the hairpin on lap thirteen. Momentum then carried di Grassi right onto the back of Lotterer, although the German was able to resist the Brazilian's first attempts at the hairpin on the following couple of laps.

di Grassi finally did the deed at the start of lap sixteen, selling Lotterer a dummy before diving past the Techeetah on the brakes into turn one. Behind, Vergne had caught onto the back of Prost and pulled an identical move, before sprinting off after Rosenqvist. Indeed Rosenqvist would come under attack from the Frenchman at the start of the following lap, and duly put himself into the barriers on the exit of turn one while trying to hang on around the outside of the Techeetah.

Fortunately, Rosenqvist would be able to pull himself out of the barriers on his own, rejoining with minimal damage to his Mahindra. That meant that di Grassi could complete his move on Evans, forcing the Kiwi to defend into the final hairpin, before out braking the Jaguar into turn one, despite being on the outside line. The Audi would duly sprint clear of Evans through the following corners as, behind, Buemi sent his Renault e.Dams past Bird for fourth.

However, with the pitwindow looming a new issue arose on circuit, for Rosenqvist, having escaped the barriers, had suddenly had his front wing come off out of turn two. The large chunk of Spark carbon fibre was now lying on the racing line out of the blind turn two, and only quick thinking kept someone from collecting it. That was, until Vergne came charging through behind d'Ambrosio on lap nineteen, and duly smashed the offending wing into oblivion, forcing the officials to throw a Full Course Yellow.

Despite having more than enough energy to complete an additional lap, di Grassi would lead the entire field into the pits at the end of lap nineteen, for the FCY was likely to end before the drivers could complete a full lap. As such, the Brazilian was able to pit and not lose the lead, and even gained on Evans and Lotterer after a quick stop. However, in their desperation to rejoin, Evans, Lotterer, Buemi, López and Vergne, on the back of that group, were all put under investigation for speeding.

Indeed, the issue for them came in the fact that drivers usually sprinted out of the pit lane, before re-engaging the pit limiter to return to FCY pace. However, rules regarding this practice had changed earlier in the season, and so anyone who did that would, in fact, be found to have sped during the FCY. Furthermore, with Vergne listed among the potential offenders, it would mean there could, potentially, have been a dramatic shift in the balance of the Championship.

To be completed.

Result

The final classification of the 2018 Zürich E-Prix is displayed below, with the fastest lap setter indicated in italics, and the pole sitter shown in bold.

2018 Zürich E-Prix Race Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Laps	Race Time	Fastest lap	Pts.
1st	1	Lucas di Grassi	Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler	39	0:51:19.811	1:15.017	25
2nd	2	Sam Bird	DS Virgin Racing	39	+7.542s	1:15.075	18
3rd	7	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon Racing	39	+16.822s	1:15.384	15
4th	18	André Lotterer	Techeetah	39	+20.295s	1:14.730	13
5th	9	Sébastien Buemi	Renault e.Dams	39	+26.692s	1:15.075	10
6th	23	Nick Heidfeld	Mahindra Racing	39	+28.059s	1:15.428	8
7th	20	Mitch Evans	Jaguar Racing	39	+30.631s	1:15.171	9
8th	28	António Félix da Costa	Andretti Formula E	39	+31.301s	1:15.442	4
9th	16	Oliver Turvey	NIO Formula E Team	39	+32.180s	1:15.497	2
10th	25	Jean-Éric Vergne	Techeetah	39	+32.833s	1:14.815	1
11th	5	Maro Engel	Venturi	39	+34.604s	1:15.449
12th	6	José María López	Dragon Racing	39	+35.206s	1:14.879
13th	66	Daniel Abt	Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler	39	+46.222s	1:14.935
14th*	27	Stéphane Sarrazin	Andretti Formula E	39	+1:09.505	1:16.126
15th	19	Felix Rosenqvist	Mahindra Racing	38	+1 Lap	1:14.732
16th	36	Alex Lynn	DS Virgin Racing	38	+1 Lap	1:16.276
Ret	8	Nicolas Prost	Renault e.Dams	31	Brakes/regen	1:15.582
Ret	68	Luca Filippi	NIO Formula E Team	20	Retired	1:16.279
Ret	3	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Jaguar Racing	20	Damage	1:15.745
Ret	4	Edoardo Mortara	Venturi	6	Suspension	1:15.814
Source:

• Indicates a driver was awarded FanBoost during the race.
• * Sarrazin hit with a 22 second time penalty for failing to serve a drive through.

Milestones

• First Zürich E-Prix to be staged.
  • It was also the first motor race to be held in Switzerland for 64 years.
• António Félix da Costa made his 40th E-Prix start.
• André Lotterer started his tenth E-Prix.
• Maiden pole position for Mitch Evans.
  • This was also the first pole for a New Zealand based driver in Formula E.
• Jaguar claimed their first pole position as a manufacturer and entrant.
• Seventh career victory for Lucas di Grassi.
• ABT Sportsline earned their ninth victory as an entrant.
  • Third victory claimed by an Audi powertrain.
• Sam Bird record his fifteenth podium finish.
• Lotterer earned set his first fastest lap.

Standings

Despite missing out on victory, it was a productive afternoon for Sam Bird in Zürich, for the Brit had achieved his goal of finishing ahead of Championship leader Jean-Éric Vergne. Indeed, Bird would head to the season finale just 23 points behind the Frenchman, with 58 still in play. Elsewhere, victory for Lucas di Grassi had left the Brazilian in third, but out of the fight for the Championship, while Sébastien Buemi moved into fourth.

In the Teams Championship things were slightly more open, with one of Techeetah, Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler or DS Virgin Racing still in contention to claim the title. It was the former that still led the way with 219 points, although the German squad had closed the gap to 33 points heading into the finale. For DS Virgin things were more tricky, with the Anglo-French effort some 62 points behind, and so would need a near perfect weekend in New York to claim a maiden title.

 

2017/18 Drivers' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Jean-Éric Vergne 163 ◄0 2nd Sam Bird 140 ◄0 3rd Lucas di Grassi 101 ▲3 4th Sébastien Buemi 92 ▲1 5th Felix Rosenqvist 86 ▼2 6th Daniel Abt 85 ▼2 7th Mitch Evans 60 ◄0 8th André Lotterer 56 ▲2 9th Oliver Turvey 46 ◄0 10th Nelson Piquet Jr. 45 ▼2 11th Nick Heidfeld 30 ▲2 12th Edoardo Mortara 29 ▼1 13th Jérôme d'Ambrosio 27 ▲4 14th Maro Engel 27 ▼2 15th António Félix da Costa 20 ◄0 16th Alex Lynn 17 ▼2 17th José María López 14 ▼1 18th Nicolas Prost 7 ◄0 19th Tom Blomqvist 4 ◄0 20th Luca Filippi 1 ◄0

2017/18 Teams' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Techeetah 219 ◄0 2nd Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler 186 ◄0 3rd DS Virgin Racing 157 ◄0 4th Mahindra Racing 116 ◄0 5th Jaguar Racing 105 ◄0 6th Renault e.Dams 99 ◄0 7th Venturi Formula E Team 56 ◄0 8th NIO Formula E Team 47 ◄0 9th Dragon Racing 41 ◄0 10th Andretti Formula E 20 ◄0

Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown.

References

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