Piquet Jr wins Moscow Formula E race

Autosport

Nelson Piquet Jr claimed a comfortable Moscow ePrix victory to extend his Formula E championship advantage with one event remaining.

From second on the grid, Piquet took the lead when polesitter Jean-Eric Vergne made a slow start.

He broke away and led the race by as much as five seconds with 15 laps remaining, before managing his energy to eventually win by two seconds.

It means he’ll take a 12-point buffer to London’s double-header finale later this month.

Lucas di Grassi took second place, despite an overheating battery, having jumped Vergne during the pitstops.

Vergne started the final lap in third place, but finished it fifth.

Sebastien Buemi made a move around the outside of the chicane and after crossing the run-off area appeared to slow to let Vergne back past.

However Vergne didn’t reclaim the position, leaving Buemi to cross the line third, while Nick Heidfeld capitalised to pass Vergne and finish fourth.

Buemi should have featured further up the order, though, but for his e.dams team making a major mistake in working to a minimum pitstop time of 68 seconds, rather than the required 58.

It hurt Buemi and team-mate Nicolas Prost, who finished ninth, significantly.

Daniel Abt took sixth, ahead of Salvador Duran and Antonio Felix da Costa, who spent the bulk of the race bottled up behind Jarno Trulli.

On two separate occasions, da Costa made moves down the inside of the chicane, only for Trulli to cut it and reclaim the place.

Eventually, da Costa found his way past at Turn 3, while Trulli later lost his rear wing through contact from Loic Duval, who was stuck behind Trulli and Justin Wilson.

Trulli had earlier skipped the chicane again while holding off Wilson, who finished 10th to take the final point on his Formula E debut.

RESULTS – 35 LAPS:

PosDriverTeamGap
1Nelson Piquet Jr.China43m18.867s
2Lucas di GrassiAbt2.012s
3Nick HeidfeldVenturi11.548s
4Jean-Eric VergneAndretti12.416s
5Daniel AbtAbt25.626s
6Salvador DuranAguri28.960s
7Antonio Felix da CostaAguri30.529s
8Nicolas Proste.dams31.556s
9Sebastien Buemie.dams40.050s
10Justin WilsonAndretti46.320s
11Jerome D’AmbrosioDragon51.474s
12Karun ChandhokMahindra52.493s
13Jaime AlguersuariVirgin55.810s
14Stephane SarrazinVenturi56.715s
15Loic DuvalDragon1m18.763s
16Bruno SennaMahindra1 Lap
17Vitantonio LiuzziTrulli1 Lap
18Jarno TrulliTrulli3 Laps
19Antonio GarciaChina3 Laps
Sam BirdVirginRetirement

 

Piquet Jr wins Moscow Formula E race

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