Marrakesh E-Prix: d’Ambrosio clinches victory for Mahindra

    D’ambrosio leads the drivers’ standings after winning a dramatic Marrakesh E-Prix that saw both BMW drivers collide while battling it out for the lead.

    Published On Jan 14, 2019 03:02:00 PM

    4,366 Views

    It’s been a strong start to the 2018-19 Formula E season for Jerome d’Ambrosio; after grabbing the last podium slot at the season opener in Ad Diriyah, the Mahindra Racing driver now leads the drivers’ standings after winning a dramatic Marrakesh E-Prix that saw both the BMW drivers collide while battling it out for the lead.

    The start of the race saw Jean-Éric Vergne spin around after making contact with polesitter Sam Bird while trying to pull off an overtake. While Bird managed to hold on to the lead, Vergne had to spend the rest of the race in damage limitation mode as the incident dropped him to the back of the pack. Despite winning the race, it was a bittersweet day for Mahindra Racing as the team’s second driver Pascal Wehrlein retired from his Formula E debut following an opening lap incident with Lucas di Grassi. The first lap also saw Stoffel Vandoorne retire after colliding with his HWA teammate Gary Paffet – the latter retiring soon after due to the damage sustained.

    BMW’s Antonio Felix da Costa passed Sam Bird to slot into the lead of the race early on and was swiftly followed by his teammate Alexander Sims. As the BMW duo started pulling away at the front of the pack, d’Ambrosio made swift progress and with 20min to go, was up to 3rd place after passing di Grassi, Bird and Robin Frijns. However, with the drivers closely bunched up, it was far from smooth sailing for d’Ambrosio, as he had to fend off attacks from di Grassi and then later from Frijns.

    Just when it seemed like the BMWs had the clear advantage, both drivers locked up and collided as Sims attempted to overtake da Costa on the outside of the approach to Turn 7. Da Costa had to retire from the lead after running into a barrier, but Sims was able to carry on and rejoined the field in 4th place. The incident brought out the safety car, with d’Ambrosio leading the pack and racing was resumed with just one lap to go, making it a shootout to the chequered flag.

    Despite locking up at the final corner, d’Ambrosio was able to fend off Frijns to win the race by 0.143sec. With majority of the drivers making use of their final attack mode behind the safety car, Sims was the only one of the frontrunners to have the higher power mode available when racing resumed. However, he was unable to make it past Bird and had to settle for 4th place.

    Vergne eventually recovered from his opening lap spin to finish the race in 5th. He was followed by Andre Lotterer, who made his way up from 21st place on the grid. Lucas di Grassi, Sebastien Buemi, Mitch Evans and Daniel Abt rounded up the top 10.

    Race result

    POS

    DRIVER

    TEAM

    CAR

    LAPS

    GAP

    1

    Jerome d'Ambrosio

    Mahindra

    Mahindra

    31

    46m45.884s

    2

    Robin Frijns

    Virgin

    Audi

    31

    0.143s

    3

    Sam Bird

    Virgin

    Audi

    31

    0.461s

    4

    Alexander Sims

    BMW

    BMW

    31

    0.740s

    5

    Jean-Éric Vergne

    DS Techeetah

    DS

    31

    1.232s

    6

    Andre Lotterer

    DS Techeetah

    DS

    31

    1.457s

    7

    Lucas di Grassi

    Audi

    Audi

    31

    1.633s

    8

    Sebastien Buemi

    e.dams

    Nissan

    31

    2.455s

    9

    Mitch Evans

    Jaguar

    Jaguar

    31

    2.980s

    10

    Daniel Abt

    Audi

    Audi

    31

    4.014s

    11

    Jose Maria Lopez

    Dragon

    Penske

    31

    4.528s

    12

    Maximilian Gunther

    Dragon

    Penske

    31

    6.034s

    13

    Edoardo Mortara

    Venturi

    Venturi

    31

    6.790s

    14

    Nelson Piquet Jr.

    Jaguar

    Jaguar

    31

    6.833s

    15

    Oliver Rowland

    e.dams

    Nissan

    31

    7.529s

    16

    Oliver Turvey

    NIO

    NIO

    31

    9.241s

    17

    Tom Dillmann

    NIO

    NIO

    31

    9.665s

    18

    Felipe Massa

    Venturi

    Venturi

    31

    10.250s

    -

    Antonio Felix da Costa

    BMW

    BMW

    25

    Retirement

    -

    Gary Paffett

    HWA

    Venturi

    3

    Retirement

    -

    Pascal Wehrlein

    Mahindra

    Mahindra

    1

    Retirement

    -

    Stoffel Vandoorne

    HWA

    Venturi

    1

    Retirement

     

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