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The 2015 Putrajaya ePrix was one of the most action-packed and unpredictable in Formula E’s short history. Find out exactly what happened to your favourite driver in their own words…
Lucas di Grassi, Abt Schaeffler Audi Sport - 1st
“You can see how difficult the conditions were with the amount of sand I have in my eye, the amount of sand I have in the car. It was an extremely tough race, mainly determined by battery temperature, which is the same problem that we had last year. But gladly we managed it better than the others, we did a fantastic job. The team in the background did a perfect job with the strategy and we managed to claim the victory and I’m now the leader in the championship.”
Sam Bird, DS Virgin Racing - 2nd
“I’m absolutely chuffed. This one is for the boys at Virgin – I don’t think that too many people know that before the race we were down in the dumps because I didn’t think we were going to finish the race because we only had one battery in the car. The Virgin boys fixed the car so quick, that’s for the Virgin boys – mega!”
Robin Frijns, Andretti - 3rd
“I felt like I was a rally driver, suddenly like that. Duval had a problem in front of me and he also had a suspension failure. I overtook him before Turn 9 and I went in just a bit too quick and there was a lot of rubber and dirt. I was on it and I saw the wall coming and I said, ‘this is it, it’s over.’ It was quite a big hit and the rear was completely bent, the steering was totally not straight any more. Right corners were fine but left corners I really had to take it easy. But I’m surprised how strong the Formula E car is.”
Stephane Sarrazin, Venturi - 4th
“On the grid I was starting second and I was very happy with my qualifying to start on the front row but again we had an electrical issue. I was last and didn’t give up so pushed to catch the guys in front and I finished fourth which is my best result in Formula E.”
Bruno Senna, Mahindra Racing - 5th
“I think we did a great job today with our energy and temperature management, we were almost able to do 19 laps in the first stint but opted against it. Finally though I think we could have done it. Unfortunately after the safety car restart my car went into a false neutral which is a really silly electronic glitch and gearbox communication which is sad as I had to stop the car on track and restart. But we never gave up and I got the most points we could.”
Antonio Felix da Costa, Team Aguri - 6th
“It’s a big shame as we were on for a podium finish and I was playing it very safe out there and just wanted to bring it home with a good haul of points. Buemi broke down in front of us and after the pitstops we were ready for the fight and safe from Prost behind. Then the car had a software problem which I don’t know what it is yet but it caused me to stop and lose places.”
Daniel Abt, Abt Schaeffler Audi Sport - 7th
“On my first stint the car felt really good and competitive. Before I pitted I was just two car lengths behind Lucas who won the race. The pitstop was really good from my mechanics but when I wanted to go there was no power. I was waiting for 25 seconds in the pits and from then on it was getting back in the points.”
Nelson Piquet Jr, NEXTEV TCR - 8th
“We took it a bit easy and took a little bit of a different strategy going longer with the first car, 20 laps in total. Then you know we got a bit lucky with a lot of cars dropping down the field and that’s going to be like that this whole year I think playing it safe and try to score points, same thing Oliver did in China. We have to count on a bit of luck with strategy and try to score points. That’s our reality – it’s 8th, 9th or 10th on a good day.”
Nick Heidfeld, Mahindra Racing - 9th
“It was a disappointing race today, we could have finished on the podium but I’m sure all the other drivers told you that with similar problems. The issue we had was self made which is not good. I was released too early on my pitstop and I got a drive-through penalty and sent spinning at the first corner. Also I had no radio communications for the whole of the second stint which makes it difficult to manage temperatures with the garage.”
Nicolas Prost, Renault e.dams - 10th
“Basically my two batteries were old spec because they had some problems in Beijing and I had four failures today so I need an explanation from the team because there was no reason for most of them. We need to find out why as they were not overheating. I’m really not happy as I think we should have finished easily on the podium today.”
Jacques Villeneuve, Venturi - 11th
“We qualifying well today despite the issues we faced in practice to change the powertrain. I banged wheels with someone into Turn 1 and bent the car a little bit and then we suffered from overheating. The pace and energy was good but the track was also coming apart in places. We also had an issue in the pitstop so lost 20 seconds which was very frustrating and also the battery on the second car was old spec so we ended up losing performance.”
Sebastien Buemi, Renault e.dams - 12th
“I had plenty of energy in the car and it just stopped, I didn’t want to try to do another lap even though I had the option to do at least another two but I came into the box just to make sure. I thought it might be better but it happened again with the second car.”
Simona de Silvestro, Andretti - 13th
“Our race was kind of strange because we suffered from overheating quite quickly with the battery. It’s weird though as it was only one car that did that, the first car, and we really struggled after that as the regen really went away. Something to look into, we are not quite sure what happened but in the end we moved forward but we qualifying too far down.”
Jerome D’Ambrosio, Dragon Racing - 14th
“Both Loic and I had the same issue, it’s a real pity because we were looking strong for second and third for the team then we lost both cars towards the end. We showed good pace in qualifying and the race. That’s racing and it happens but we have to know what happened as Punta del Este is tough on the suspension and dampers.”
Nathanael Berthon, Team Aguri - 15th
“I really don’t know what happened today, I’ll need to check before saying anything. We had a lot of issues and I hope we find out very very quickly what’s going on and get back on the pace.”
Loic Duval, Dragon Racing - 16th
“I had a good start in second place behind Buemi and held a similar pace but I don’t know how he was with energy and temperatures then he got his problem. I was easily leading the race and could probably have made another lap before the pitstop but played it safe. I don’t know what happened but the team didn’t release me and I lost six seconds. Then I was down in fourth and had to fight my way back to second. But the rear suspension broke probably the damper.”
Oliver Turvey, NEXTEV TCR - DNF
“From the first corner we had something wrong with the throttle pedal sticking a little bit when I was off the pedal. So the car was kind of driving itself in the middle of the corner which is obviously tricky on a street circuit. Then at the hairpin for the first lap the car completely switched off and it was pushing itself while I was braking and same on the second lap. Then I approached Turn 5 and went into the corner not going fast at all and the car just drove itself forwards and into the wall. I was a complete passenger really.”
Jean-Eric Vergne, DS Virgin Racing - DNF
“My race ended in Turn 1, Heidfeld just turned into me and there was nothing else I could have done. I have Villeneuve on my inside and Heidfeld thinking he had a wall in front of him so he had to turn but he could have cut the chicane to avoid contact.”