The 2014 Punta del Este ePrix, formally the 2014 FIA Formula E Julius Baer Punta del Este ePrix was a Formula E motor race held on 13 December 2014 at the Punta del Este Street Circuit in Punta del Este, Uruguay. It was the first Punta del Este ePrix and the third championship race of the single-seater, electrically powered racing car series' inaugural season, the first in the Americas.

Report

Background Jean-Éric Vergne, Salvador Duran and Antonio Garcia were brought in to replace Franck Montagny, Katherine Legge and Ho-Pin Tung respectively. Vergne, Durán and Nick Heidfeld were voted for to receive the FanBoost.

Race Jean-Éric Vergne started on pole position. Behind him were Nelson Piquet Jr., Nicolas Prost, and Sébastien Buemi. Piquet immediately overtook Vergne and Buemi overtook Prost, while the whole field safely squeezed through the first chicane. Nick Heidfeld used his FanBoost and went up to fifth position. On the fourth lap, Sam Bird went over a kerb in the first corner and, unable to steer, hit the wall. This brought out the safety car.

Green flags were waved on the sixth lap, but the race was soon neutralized again when Da Costa had to retire on track. After that, Vergne managed to pass Piquet for the lead. Buemi tried to pass him as well, but locked up his front wheels. Both drivers had to use the run-off area, but kept their positions.

On the sixteenth lap, Piquet had fallen back behind both e.dams drivers, and Vergne made his pit stop. Meanwhile, Stéphane Sarrazin's suspension failed when he hit a kerb and he crashed out. This brought out a third safety car. Bruno Senna had hit the wall in the same incident, but managed to switch cars at the same time as his rivals, without losing much time.

On the twentieth lap, Heidfeld was leading the race, but received a drive-through penalty for exceeding the maximum power usage. Nicolas Prost was then penalized in the same manner. This left the top three as Buemi, Vergne, Piquet. A fourth safety car was called on lap 27 when Matthew Brabham crashed exactly like Sarrazin did earlier.

With two laps left to race, Vergne used his FanBoost as soon as the safety car pulled off, but did not manage to take the lead. Buemi, however, cut the chicane and it was debated whether he should relinquish his position. Before any action was carried out, however, Vergne ran out of power and retired. He did score three points for his pole position. Buemi took the victory with Piquet second and Di Grassi third. Further back, Heidfeld used his FanBoost and managed to take tenth position, and with that a championship point, by beating Antonio Garcia to the line by just three hundreds of a second.

Results

Qualifying

Driver Team Time Gap Grid 1 27 Jean-Éric Vergne Andretti 1:15.408 1 2 99 Nelson Piquet Jr. China Racing 1:15.530 +0.122 2 3 8 Nicolas Prost e.dams-Renault 1:15.722 +0.314 3 4 9 Sébastien Buemi e.dams-Renault 1:15.842 +0.434 4 5 3 Jaime Alguersuari Virgin Racing 1:16.053 +0.645 5 6 11 Lucas di Grassi Audi Sport ABT 1:16.108 +0.700 6 7 10 Jarno Trulli Trulli 1:16.144 +0.736 7 8 23 Nick Heidfeld Venturi 1:16.225 +0.817 8 9 66 Daniel Abt Audi Sport ABT 1:16.374 +0.966 9 10 5 Karun Chandhok Mahindra Racing 1:16.416 +1.008 10 11 6 Oriol Servia Dragon Racing 1:16.811 +1.403 11 12 55 António Félix da Costa Amlin Aguri 1:16.865 +1.457 12 13 30 Stéphane Sarrazin Venturi 1:17.025 +1.617 13 14 88 Antonio García China Racing 1:17.653 +2.245 14 15 77 Salvador Duran Amlin Aguri 1:17.810 +2.402 15 16 18 Michela Cerruti Trulli 1:20.206 +4.798 16 17 7 Jérôme d'Ambrosio Dragon Racing no time 17 18 2 Sam Bird Virgin Racing no time 18 19 28 Matthew Brabham Andretti no time 19 20 21 Bruno Senna Mahindra Racing 一 一 20

Race

Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 9 Sébastien Buemi e.dams-Renault 31 49:08.990 4 25 2 99 Nelson Piquet Jr. China Racing 31 +0.732 2 18 3 11 Lucas di Grassi Audi Sport ABT 31 +2.635 6 15 4 10 Jarno Trulli Trulli 31 +4.163 7 12 5 3 Jaime Alguersuari Virgin Racing 31 +4.698 5 10 6 21 Bruno Senna Mahindra Racing 31 +5.197 20 8 7 8 Nicolas Prost e.dams-Renault 31 +6.514 3 6 8 7 Jérôme d'Ambrosio Dragon Racing 31 +7.567 17 4 9 6 Oriol Servia Dragon Racing 31 +8.646 11 2 10 23 Nick Heidfeld Venturi 31 +10.563 8 1 11 88 Antonio Garcia China Racing 31 +10.594 14 12 18 Michela Cerruti Trulli 31 +19.617 16 13 5 Karun Chandhok Mahindra Racing 31 +54.175 10 14 27 Jean-Éric Vergne Andretti 29 Suspension 1 3 15 66 Daniel Abt Audi Sport ABT 28 +3 laps 9 2 16 77 Salvador Durán Amlin Aguri 27 +4 laps 15 Ret 28 Matthew Brabham Andretti 26 Accident 19 Ret 30 Stéphane Sarrazin Venturi 15 Suspension 13 Ret 55 António Félix da Costa Amlin Aguri 6 Mechanical 12 Ret 3 Sam Bird Virgin Racing 3 Accident 18

Notes: – Three points for pole position. – Two points for fastest lap.

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 Lucas di Grassi 58 2 Sébastien Buemi 40 3 Sam Bird 40 4 Nicolas Prost 24 5 Nelson Piquet Jr. 22

Teams' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 e.dams-Renault 64 2 Audi Sport ABT 62 3 Virgin Racing 54 4 Dragon Racing 36 5 Andretti 33

Notes: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

External links

Official results

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