Discover more
The Season 3 Formula E champion will be crowned next weekend in Montreal. One of Sebastien Buemi, Lucas di Grassi, Felix Rosenqvist or Sam Bird will follow in the wheeltracks of Nelson Piquet Jr and Buemi himself by becoming the undisputed king of all-electric single-seater racing.
With just 10 points separating Buemi and di Grassi – Rosenqvist and Bird have but slim mathematical chances – there’s sure to be a tense atmosphere ahead of the inaugural Montreal ePrix. But that’s nothing new in Formula E, as both the two previous championships were decided on the final lap of the final race, with mere thousandths the difference between glory and disappointment.
Season 1
Standings pre race: Piquet 128, di Grassi 111, Buemi 105, Prost 82, D’Ambrosio 77, Bird, 68
Victory in the previous round in Moscow meant Piquet went into the double-header finale at Battersea with a comfortable 17-point advantage over di Grassi, while confusion during the pitstop left Buemi back in ninth and 23 point adrift in the standings.
Prost, D’Ambrosio and Bird all held mathematical hopes of winning the title, but these were all over after the first race…
Buemi set out his stall in qualifying, bagging pole position (and three bonus points) by almost half a second. The race was almost equally straight forward as he led all bar one of the laps for a comfortable win.
With di Grassi fourth and Piquet only fifth, Buemi was now up to second in the standings, just five points behind Piquet.
The atmosphere was tense as the drivers arrived at the Battersea Park track on Sunday morning, especially as the thick grey clouds that hung overhead threatened rain. Sure enough the showers hit mid-way through qualifying, with the heaviest rain falling during Piquet’s group.
This meant Buemi lined up sixth, di Grassi 11th and Piquet back in 16th. If they finished where they started, Buemi would be champion!
Buemi jumped Bruno Senna at the start to run fifth during the opening laps, while di Grassi gained a brace of spots off the line to get into ninth. Piquet produced a storming opening lap, gaining four places to get within touching distance of a point.
Buemi ran as high as third before he had to make his mandatory car change and as he rejoined he made a crucial error, outbraking himself and taking to the escape road. He recovered impressively quickly, but not before Senna had slipped by, demoting Buemi to sixth.
Di Grassi had made steady progress to climb to seventh, but he needed to win to take the title. Meanwhile, Piquet’s new team-mate at China Racing Oliver Turvey had dutifully moved aside, while a ballsy overtake on Salvador Duran had moved the Brazilian into eighth.
All this meant Piquet would win the title by a point, but if Buemi could find a way past Senna, he would be champion. The e.dams racer gave it everything he had, banging wheels with the Mahindra driver, nudging him up the rear and throwing the kitchen sink at trying to gain that position.
But Senna held firm and Piquet became the first ever Formula E champion.
Final championship positions: Piquet 144, Buemi 143, di Grassi 133, D’Ambrosio 113, Bird 103, Prost 88.
Season 2
Standings pre race: Di Grassi 141, Buemi 140, Bird 82
Victory in Berlin – his first in five races – had moved Buemi to within a single point of di Grassi heading into the second double header to be held in Battersea. Once again Bird held a mathematical chance of the title, but in reality this was a head-to-head fight between the two drivers who’d won six of the eight races held so far that season.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the fickle summer weather in London would come into play, with showers mid-way through the session leaving Buemi back in 12th on the grid, two places behind di Grassi.
Despite overtaking being tricky on the tight Battersea Park track, both drivers were on the move early on, with di Grassi racing his way up to sixth before the pitstops, and Buemi following him along in seventh.
When Senna hit trouble late on they both gained an additional place, meaning that di Grassi held a three-point lead going into the final race.
That lead was cancelled in one fell swoop as Buemi scorched to pole for Race 2 almost a second faster than anyone else. Di Grassi was third, with Buemi’s Renault e.dams team-mate Nico Prost between him and his rival.
Knowing that he absolutely had to pass Prost as soon as possible, di Grassi attempted a do-or-die move on the opening lap and ploughed into the back of Buemi, seemingly taking the pair of them out.
Amazingly, despite the high-speed impact, both drivers were able to limp their cars back to the pits. With both drivers level on points, and two points available for the Visa Fastest Lap, the title would now boil down to which driver could do the quickest tour.
Di Grassi struck first with a 1:27.037 only for Buemi to lower that mark to a 1:26.056. With di Grassi doing his best to prevent Buemi from getting a clear lap, the Swiss driver was getting increasingly irate, but he channeled his frustration, firstly blowing his previous best out of the water with a 1:24.582 and then putting the matter beyond any doubt with a 1:24.150.
Buemi was champion by just two points in the most dramatic of circumstances.
Final championship positions: Buemi 155, di Grassi 153, Bird 111
Now all attention turns to the first title decider to take place in Montreal. After the thrillers we had in London, it has a lot to live up to.
To learn more about the Montreal ePrix, click here