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analysis season 12

Buemi and Summerville on top after Jeddah in ABB Engineered to Outrun Award

Analysis 20 Feb 2026 4 Mins

Sébastien Buemi and Connor Summerville secure another ABB Engineered to Outrun Award, following the Jeddah E-Prix, Round 4. Pepe Martí and Michael Lee take the honours for Round 5.

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analysis season 12

Two very different races produced two different ABB Engineered to Outrun Award winners in the Jeddah E-Prix weekend.

HIGHLIGHTS: The 2026 Jeddah E-Prix Round 4

Sebastien Buemi and Connor Summerville now sit joint first in the season leaderboard after the double-header in Saudi Arabia, helped in a big way but Buemi’s climb from 18th to seventh in the PIT BOOST race that was defined by timing, discipline and a perfectly judged late activation phase.

A steady start meant Buemi ran 16th initially when a full-course yellow quickly upgraded to a safety car kept the field compressed the field but also reduced the early energy delta. That limited opportunities to save, so while Buemi had decent energy and was in slightly better shape than the top 10, he was in a group of cars that were relatively stable. Stuck in traffic and on a relatively neutral PIT BOOST strategy - putting for his mandatory quick-charging stop on the second lap of the window - Buemi only made minor progress jumping Envision Racing team-mate Joel Eriksson.

But the 2% energy saving he had made versus the field median teed Buemi up well for when the race diverged more around ATTACK MODE usage. Buemi committed to saving his activation for later, so while he held similar energy to the cars directly ahead he was gradually building an offset to the cars in the top 10 and holding station versus those behind.

As the lead group concertinaed behind Jake Dennis, the leaders were suddenly back in view: by lap 27 Buemi, in 13th, was visible on the same short start-finish straight as second place.

He armed ATTACK MODE on lap 27, crucially with enough of an energy edge to take full advantage of the extra power and four-wheel-drive. Aided by cars in the lead group continuing to slow each other down as they squabbled, the gaps evaporated, and by the start of lap 29 Buemi was in the top 10 then ended that lap eighth. With his final minute of ATTACK MODE Buemi pinched seventh from Jean-Eric Vergne and by then his energy state had converged with those around him, meaning no defensive saving phase was required.

It was a slow burn and there was no real margin for error given how small the window was late on to make progress but nine competitive overtakes shows how decisive Buemi was with his late strike to vault up the order.

REPORT: Pascal Wehrlein marks his 100th Formula E race with 2026 Jeddah E-Prix Round 4 win

Pepe Marti’s rise from 14th to sixth in the second Jeddah race was far more overtly combative in a race that featured repeated overtakes and yo-yoing positions. He and Michael Lee navigated a tension affair well, though, and are now third in the ABB Engineered to Outrun leaderboard overall.

Marti’s race started with a feisty first couple of laps as he burst to 10th and set himself up well to bank a points finish. But as the race ebbed and flowed in a tightly bunched field, Marti actually fell back before he could move forwards. He slipped all the way to 14th as the midfield compressed but critically, he remained strong on energy throughout - which indicates he did not panic.

There was an initial recovery to 11th even before diverging ATTACK MODE strategies set up Marti’s main charge, and his patience was rewarded.

He activated for the first time on lap 20, giving himself four minutes, which he used in combination with his energy advantage to cycle all the way up to sixth. When that ended, he dropped to seventh when Pascal Wehrlein used his last ATTACK MODE, still having four minutes of extra power in store and a small battery advantage meant Marti was very well placed.

His final four-minute push began on lap 24 and he quickly re-passed Wehrlein for sixth then slotted in behind his CUPRA Kiro team-mate Dan Ticktum.

And though others finished strongly, notably Mitch Evans coming through the tail end of the top 10 in his Jaguar, Marti’s blend of resilience through the midfield bottleneck and sensible energy usage meant he was never really vulnerable to a threat from behind.