London victory boosts Buemi’s title hopes

Sebastien Buemi gave his FIA Formula E Championship title hopes a significant boost with victory in the first of two races at the London title decider.

The e.dams driver produced a faultless drive from pole position at the altered Battersea Park circuit to score his third win of the season to move within five points of championship leader Nelson Piquet Jr.

Jerome D’Ambrosio brought his car home in second with Andretti Autosport’s Jean-Eric Vergne in third.

After starting under the Safety Car due to the Turn 1 track modification, Buemi quickly opened up a three second lead over Dragon Racing’s D’Ambrosio which he maintained after the mandatory pit stops.

His lead was erased when the Safety Car was deployed when Daniel Abt hit the wall at the final corner.

However, Buemi made no mistakes at the restart as he went on to take the chequered flag by 0.9s from D’Ambrosio.

Vergne faced immense pressure from title contender Lucas di Grassi in the closing stages but the Frenchman managed to hold on to take third.

Championship leader Piquet Jr finished in fifth having lost ground in the final laps.

Britain’s Sam Bird finished sixth for Virgin Racing ahead of Nicolas Prost, whose seventh place helped e.dams to the inaugural FIA Formula E teams’ title.

Dragon Racing’s Loic Ducal, Oliver Turvey (China Racing) and Stephane Sarrazin (Venturi) rounded out the top 10.

It is understood race organisers will attempt to resurface the bump at Turn 1 which could see the temporary barrier removed for Sunday’s title decider.

Result: FIA Formula E Championship, London, Battersea Park 

Position	Driver	Team	Gap
1	Sebastien Buemi	e.dams	29 Laps
2	Jerome D’Ambrosio	Dragon Racing	+0.939s
3	Jean-Eric Vergne	Andretti Autosport	+1.667s
4	Lucas di Grassi	Abt	+2.409s
5	Nelson Piquet Jr.	China Racing	+7.370s
6	Sam Bird	Virgin Racing	+7.762s
7	Nicolas Prost	e.dams	+8.553s
8	Loic Duval	Dragon Racing	+9.507s
9	Oliver Turvey	China Racing	+10.032s
10	Stephane Sarrazin	Venturi	+12.077s
11	Simona de Silvestro	Andretti Autosport	+15.946s
12	Karun Chandhok	Mahindra	+35.595s
13	Nick Heidfeld	Venturi	+41.034s
14	Fabio Leimer	Virgin Racing	+42.697s
15	Jarno Trulli	Trulli GP	+43.273s
16	Bruno Senna	Mahindra	+48.423s
17	Salvador Duran	Amlin Aguri	+1:01.987s
–	Alex Fontana	Trulli GP	Retirement
–	Daniel Abt	Abt	Retirement
–	Sakon Yamamoto	Aguri	Retirement