Race report

Formula E Paris ePrix

Paris ePrix: Vergne takes victory amid crazy finish

Jean-Eric Vergne cruised to his third Formula E win of the 2017/18 season on the streets of Paris, extending his championship lead to 31 points.

Alex Kalinauckas

Edited: Apr 29, 2018, 11:18 AM

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Jean-Eric Vergne, Techeetah

Techeetah driver Vergne held the lead at the start, but was unable to build a gap over Sam Bird, who nudged a fast-starting Andre Lotterer slightly wide at the first corner to hold on to second.

The trio quickly distanced themselves from the rest of the pack, headed by Maro Engel, and ran nose-to-tail for the opening stint of the race before pitting together on lap 24 of 49.

Vergne emerged from the car swaps with a small cushion over Bird, as Lotterer began to pressure the DS Virgin Racing driver for second, ultimately forcing his way back with a heavy-handed pass on lap 35.

That allowed Audi man Lucas di Grassi - who cleared Engel by staying out two laps longer - to catch up, and corners later he picked off Bird to move up to third.

Vergne by now had amassed a lead of over four seconds, and with Lotterer holding off a charging di Grassi the Frenchman was able to manage the gap for his third win in five races.

There was late drama however as Lotterer appeared to run out of useable energy on the last lap. That allowed di Grassi through to take second, but moments later an unsighted Bird clouted the back of the stricken Techeetah car.

Bird crossed the line third with his front-right wheel hanging off, followed by Engel (Venturi) and Sebastien Buemi (Renault e.dams). Lotterer coasted home for sixth, but his incident with Bird is under investigation by stewards along with his aggressive move on the Briton for second.

Daniel Abt (Audi) had passed Buemi but dropped back to seventh at the finish, ahead of Felix Rosenqvist (Mahindra), Oliver Turvey (NIO) and Jose Maria Lopez (Dragon).

The second Venturi of Edoardo Mortara rose from 19th on the grid to run as high as 11th after running longer than anyone in the first stint – but he fell to 13th after coming together with Lopez as he tried to take 10th in the closing stages.

Nelson Piquet Jr (Jaguar) and Tom Blomqvist (Andretti) retired shortly after their car swaps, as they were involved in a dramatic three-way clash with Nicolas Prost (Renault e.dams) on the opening lap.

Antonio Felix da Costa made it a double retirement for Andretti, pulling off the circuit just after the restart that followed the full-course yellow for the Prost-Blomqvist-Piquet incident.

Race results:

Pos.#DriverTeamGap 1 25 france Jean-Eric Vergne china Techeetah 49 laps 2 1 brazil Lucas di Grassi germany Team Abt 4.882 3 2 united_kingdom Sam Bird Virgin Racing 8.897 4 5 germany Maro Engel monaco Venturi 9.287 5 9 switzerland Sébastien Buemi france DAMS 10.194 6 18 germany Andre Lotterer china Techeetah 10.855 7 66 germany Daniel Abt germany Team Abt 13.918 8 19 sweden Felix Rosenqvist india Mahindra Racing 15.271 9 16 united_kingdom Oliver Turvey china NIO Formula E Team 19.557 10 6 argentina Jose Maria Lopez united_states Dragon Racing 20.989 11 23 germany Nick Heidfeld india Mahindra Racing 21.698 12 7 belgium Jérôme d'Ambrosio Dragon Racing 26.723 13 4 italy Edoardo Mortara monaco Venturi 29.937 14 36 united_kingdom Alex Lynn Virgin Racing 43.112 15 20 new_zealand Mitch Evans Jaguar Racing 43.989 16 8 france Nicolas Prost france DAMS 1 lap 17 68 china Ma Qing Hua china NIO Formula E Team 3 laps Ret 3 brazil Nelson Piquet Jr. Jaguar Racing - Ret 27 Tom Blomqvist united_states Andretti Autosport - Ret 28 portugal Antonio Felix da Costa Andretti Autosport -

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