Like father; like son: Piquet dominates for first win in Long Beach
Thirty-five years and five days ago, Nelson Piquet Sr. dominated the 1980 United States West Grand Prix for his first Formula One victory.
On Saturday, Nelson Piquet Jr. became the sixth different driver in as many races to call himself a Formula E winner, on the same streets that had given his father his maiden grand prix win.
Sebastien Buemi had qualified his e.dams Renault on provisional pole position, but was penalized and forced to start the race from 10th after exceeding maximum power usage during qualifying. This moved Audi Sport ABT drive Daniel Abt up onto pole for the start of the race.
The field set off shortly after 4 p.m. local time for a 39-lap race on a shortened configuration of the famed Long Beach street circuit, which marked the halfway point of the 2014-2015 Formula E season.
Nelson Piquet Jr. got a great start from third heading into the first turn and was able to lead into the first corner. The Brazilian never looked back.
Meanwhile, behind Piquet, chaos quickly ensued as Scott Speed, the only American in the field, flew over the chicane and into the wall on lap 4, bringing out the Safety Car.
Not more than a lap after the restart, a collision between Jarno Trulli and Charles Pic left Trulli’s car stranded in the final hairpin, bringing the Safety Car out onto the circuit again.
Piquet, however, was able to retain the lead during the Safety Car periods while Daniel Abt moved up into second and Jean-Eric Vergne used FanBoost to move up into third. Vergne then moved his Andretti Formula E car ahead of Abt in the pits, while Abt was then given a drive-through penalty for exceeding maximum power usage.
This handed the third and final podium spot to Abt’s teammate Lucas Di Grassi.
Di Grassi, who was 7 points back of points leader Nico Prost entering the race, was able to take back the points lead as Prost was given a drive-through penalty for punting Jerome D’Ambrosio during the race:
That's one way to make a pass...#FormulaE pic.twitter.com/TDD5RFW8hO
— SPEED (@SPEED) April 4, 2015
Piquet duly went on to win the race, with Vergne and Di Grassi rounding out the podium.
Race results:
