at Turn 2 which forced the safety car out and disappointed many of the 23,000 spectators in this California ePrix. Later, Charles Pic took a dive on F1 veteran Jarno Trulli at the hairpin which gave us another chance to stare at the gorgeous BMW i8 safety car. At 42 minutes in to the ePrix, Nicolas Prost and Bruno Senna battled for 6th position before Senna was able to move forward. This brief but historic moment in open-wheel racing was a coup for the new Formula E series, and gave us something to think about ahead of the next stop on the calendar: Monaco.
The last minutes of the race saw Abt maintaining his 3rd position until he had to pit after being penalised for excess energy use. His team-made Lucas Di Grassi was then able to jump to 3rd place, which he defended from Buemi who was on a tear to re-claim his pole position after being penalized for maximum overuse of energy.
At the last lap, Jean-Eric Vergne managed to reduce his two-second gap to Piquet, and with Di Grassi right behind him the top three finishers passed under the checkered flag. One of the big winners amid the chaos was Bruno Senna, vaulting to fifth after being one of the last drivers to pit, providing some much needed points for Mahindra.
A historic win by Piquet recalled history as China Racing earned its first win under Formula E’s “startup year.” Piquet is now second in the Drivers’ Championship points, just 1 point behind Di Grassi’s 75 while Prost drops from first to third with 69 points. Team point leaders are e.dams (124), Audi Sport Abt (97) and Virgin (82).
The next round is in Monaco, the crown jewel of the motorsports world, where we’ll once again see Senna, Prost, and Piquet defend their points in a race series that’s just halfway through its first season.