Formula E Rome: Buemi still without success
ONLY 6th PLACE IN ITALY At the first Formula E race in Rome, Sébastien Buemi had no chance of winning, but he did finish on the podium. After finishing sixth, the Vaud native is still fourth in the championship. Victory went to Sam Bird in the DS Virgin Racing e-racing car. The first European race of the fourth season took the Formula E circus [...]
The first European race of the fourth season took the Formula E circus to Rome. At 2.85 km and 21 bends, the Circuito Cittadino dellUR around the Obelisco di Marconi and the Collosseo Quadrato was the second-longest circuit on the calendar.
Sébastien Buemi seemed to enjoy the track, which even included a jump (see video), as he made it into the Super Pole qualifying with the Renault Z.E. 17 and was one of the fastest five drivers. Unfortunately, he braked in the hairpin and had to settle for a place on the third row of the grid instead of at the front.
Here is a lap with Sébastien Buemi on the Rome circuit:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bhi76lrgKdw/?hl=en&taken-by=fiaformulae
Victory for DS Virgin Racing with Sam Bird
Felix Rosenqvist in the Mahindra initially set the pace in the 33-lap race. He was penalized for driving a little too hard over a kerb with a broken suspension. Sam Bird then took command in the DS Virgin Racing car, which he never relinquished until the finish.
With seven wins, the Briton is now level with defending champion Lucas di Grassi, who finished just behind him in second place in the Audi e-tron FE04. André Lotterer from Renault customer team Techeetah finished third ahead of Daniel Abt in the second Audi and championship leader Jean-Eric Vergne in the second Techeetah.
Meanwhile, record winner Buemi (ten victories in the first three seasons) once again fell short of expectations in the Renaut works car, although things looked good at first. At the same time as Rosenqvist and Bird, the Vaud native switched to the second car so quickly that he moved up from fifth to third place.
Buemi hopes for plausible explanations
However, the second half of the race turned out to be a nightmare for him. The pursuers, who had swapped their electric race cars one lap later, had more energy, so Buemi had his back to the wall when it came to fighting back. Slipping down to P7 at times, the season two champion finished sixth.
Sébastien Buemi: "A disappointing result. The car felt good, but we used too much energy. Our engineers now have to find out from the data what the reason was. I hope their explanation will point to something abnormal that we can solve for the next race."
Edoardo Mortara from Geneva, for whom it was the first of two home races in 2018 as a dual national, was involved in a rear-end collision with his Venturi. However, he was able to continue the race and secure a point in tenth place.
Vergne leads the championship after seven of twelve races with 119 points ahead of Bird (101), Rosenqvist (82) and Buemi (60).
The next race will take place in Paris on April 28. After round 9 in Berlin (May 19), Zurich will be the tenth stop on June 10.
