Nelson Piquet Jr. has become the inaugural FIA Formula E series champion after finishing in seventh place in Sunday’s London ePrix.
Stephane Sarrazin dominated the race only to run over his maximum energy usage and encounter a post-race time penalty, pushing him back to 15th place and handing the win over to Britain’s Sam Bird.
Saturday’s race, which was won by Sebastien Buemi, started under the safety car after surfacing issues were discovered in the first turn. Resurfacing took place ahead of Sunday’s race and the crowd was finally treated to a standing start as Sarrazin led the field off into the first turn.
The race began with a mixed order after the rain-impacted qualifying session which saw the points contenders line up in sixth (Buemi), 11th (Lucas di Grassi) and 16th (Piquet). Buemi and Piquet received FanBoost, as did Oliver Turvey.
The race was run without major incident throughout the first half, but shortly after the cycle of pit stops the safety car was deployed for an incident involving Fabio Leimer, and the games begun.
Piquet, who had started 16th, had made it up into points contention while at the same time saving energy in the first half of the race, allowing him to pass his NEXTEV TCR teammate Oliver Turvey and then Amlin Aguri’s Salvador Duran to put himself back as the point leader after the restart.
Meanwhile, Buemi was trying to pass Bruno Senna in order to gain two points back and put his name back as the championship leader. Buemi had lost a spot to Senna after a solo spin earlier in the race. The spin proved to be critical, as Buemi was unable to pass Senna and so Piquet took the title.
