VERGNE DOUBLES UP IN FORMULA E
The streets of Brooklyn were alive – mainly with broken bits of Formula E cars. By Tom Errington
Jean-eric Vergne leaves New York City as a two-time Formula E champion after backto-back title success, but also has a day of community service looming over him for a controversial radio message. As ever in the electric series, everything can turn on its head in an instant.
Vergne entered the final weekend with a 32-point buffer over Audi’s Lucas di Grassi, with just 58 points on offer and effectively one hand on the title, but a dramatic opening race put all the pressure on Vergne’s DS Techeetah squad, with team boss Mark Preston feeling it had been hit by all of the “worst possible” incidents.
As ever, group one qualifying played a key part in proceedings as Vergne’s title-leading status meant he was in the first group, and a very dusty surface meant track evolution prevented any hopes of superpole. The one consolation was fellow group one runner di Grassi had the same issue, but qualified 14th and four places down on Vergne.
Yet come Saturday evening, Vergne was the one sweating after di Grassi finished fifth by taking advantage of the accident-filled race that tripped up his title rival.
On the second lap, Sam Bird tapped Jose Maria Lopez into a spin at Turn 7 as Bird ran side-by-side with Lopez’s Dragon Racing team-mate Maximilian Gunther, Bird later picked up a 10-second penalty for causing the incident.
Lopez’s half-spun car meant the drivers behind slowed and Vergne, who had dropped from 10th to 13th on the first lap, picked up nose damage as he braked and was hit from behind by team-mate Andre Lotterer.
Vergne came in to change his nose and ran at the rear of the field – ahead of Lotterer, who came in for his own repairs after trying to stay out, but hit the barrier on the outside of Turn 2 with his front wing wedged underneath his car – until the safety car came out.
But a twist was revealed on Sunday when a Vergne radio message from around the time of the incident attracted ire: “Tell Andre to stop... to bring out the safety car.”
The Techeetah driver held his hands up and was hit with the community service punishment at the end of the weekend.
But after that message on Saturday, Vergne recovered to run inside the points before a final-lap clash with Venturi’s Felipe Massa.
Vergne dived to the inside of Massa at the Turn 1 switchback and the pair made contact, with Vergne forced deep but alongside Massa.
They came together at Turn 2, with Vergne hitting the wall on the inside, heavily damaging the front of his car again and spinning Massa – before crawling across the line in 15th having lost the chance to seal the title.
The first blows had been traded on track between di Grassi and Vergne, but the next strike came when Techeetah protested the Audi driver.
The protest concerned the lap two incident Vergne, Lotterer and di Grassi were involved in and Techeetah had claimed that di Grassi had infringed Article 30.12, which states: “At no time may a car be driven unnecessarily slowly, erratically or in a manner which could be deemed potentially dangerous to other drivers or any other person.”
The protest was rejected, and Techeetah was left to lick its wounds and instead fight for both the drivers’ and manufacturers’ crowns on Sunday, with Massa and Vergne’s clash also deemed to require no further action.
In complete contrast to Saturday, Vergne played it smart and kept his nose clean to make a run from 11th to seventh, more than enough to secure the title, and it was di Grassi who suffered the ill-fortune.
Jaguar’s Mitch Evans was technically in title contention in the final race but required victory, fastest lap and the other two contenders to fail to score. With such a situation never likely, Evans held fourth ahead of di Grassi through the Turn 10 hairpin on the final lap but came under attack.
The Jaguar driver appeared to come across the Audi as they raced up the straight towards the 90-degree left of Turn 11, and they collided as a result and went into the inside wall before ending up in the Turn 11 outside barriers.
Evans continued and was handed a 10-second stop-go penalty – which was later converted into a time penalty – immediately after the finish and he dropped to 17th in the final result as di Grassi dropped back too.
The Audi woe only further ensured there was to be no repeat of last year’s New York finale in which
Audi pipped the Techeetah outfit to the teams’ standings, meaning Vergne and his squad sealed the championship double.
“I am so proud of my team. Last year we did an amazing job being a private team with no testing days, very limited resources,” said Vergne. “This year we had more resources with DS.
“Of course it took more time to get everybody to work together. But nevertheless, we were able to do a fantastic job as a team, I’m so proud of them because it’s been a tough season, and the way that we were always able to bond together in the bad moments, really made a success this year.”
Redemption was also found with the two race winners in New York. On Saturday, Sebastien Buemi gave Nissan e.dams’s controversial twinmotor-derived car its first victory and a maiden win for Nissan before its powertrain is banned for 2019-20.
Envision Virgin Racing’s Robin Frijns took the Sunday victory to end a run of four races without a point after his Paris victory – a spell that cost
him a chance of the crown.