Sebastian Buemi holds off Lucas Di Grassi to win the Monaco ePrix

Sebastian Buemi holds off Lucas Di Grassi to win the Monaco ePrix

Published May. 13, 2017 1:24 p.m. ET

Saturday’s Monaco ePrix was decided by just 0.3 seconds in a finish that was reminiscent of Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell’s race to the end here in 1992.

Sebastien Buemi had dominated the 2017 Monaco ePrix up front after starting from pole, but in the closing laps championship rival Lucas di Grassi ran him down.

Buemi’s held on to win and increase his championship lead from 5 to 13 points over di Grassi. It is his fourth win of the season and he remains the only driver to have won a Formula E race at Monaco.

Saturday’s race served as the fifth round of the 2016-2017 FIA Formula E Championship.

While the start of the 51-lap race was much cleaner than the one here in 2015, there was still a bit of argy-bargy at the back of the field that led to a dislodged rear wing for the DS Virgin Racing car of Jose Maria Lopez. Lopez would later have to pit to get his rear wing repaired.

Thing weren’t going much better for Lopez’s teammate Sam Bird, who put his car into the wall on Lap 7 and had to pit with a damaged suspension.

After that, the race was ran incident free until Lap 21 when Jean-Eric Vergne attempted an ambitious pass on the outside of Nelson Piquet Jr. The two made contact on corner exit and Vergne ended up in the wall and out of the race.

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The incident pushed Piquet back too as he lost third place.

Following the round of stops behind the safety car, the order up front remained relatively the same with Buemi leading Di Grassi, Nick Heidfeld and Piquet back to green on Lap 26.

Buemi pulled away from Di Grassi soon after the restart, but the ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport driver reeled him back in during the closing laps, and they ran nose-to-tail for the final six laps.

Di Grassi, however, wan’t able to make the pass, and Buemi held on for the victory.

Formula E will be back in action next weekend for the Paris ePrix.

*Antonio Felix da Costa finished 9th, but dropped to 11th following a post-race penalty for an unsafe pit release reports his team.

Unofficial race results:

1. Sebastien Buemi - Renault e.dams
2. Lucas di Grassi - ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport
3. Nick Heidfeld - Mahindra Racing
4. Nelson Piquet Jr. - NEXTEV NIO
5. Maro Engel - Venturi Formula E Team
6. Felix Rosenqvist - Mahindra Racing
7. Daniel Abt - ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport
8. Esteban Gutierrez - TECHEETAH
9. Nico Prost - Renault e.dams
10. Mitch Evans - Panasonic Jaguar Racing
11. Antonio Felix da Costa - Andretti Formula E
12. Robin Frijns - Andretti Formula E
13. Oliver Turvey - NEXTEV NIO
14. Adam Carroll - Panasonic Jaguar Racing
15. Stephane Sarrazin - Venturi Formula E Team
16. Jose Maria Lopez - DS Virgin Racing
17. Jerome d’Ambrosio - Faraday Future Dragon Racing
18. Loic Duval - Faraday Future Dragon Racing
19. Sam Bird - DS Virgin Racing
20. Jean-Eric Vergne - TECHEETAH

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