Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Mexico City Formula E: Daniel Abt takes breakthrough win for Audi

Daniel Abt gave Audi its first Formula E win of the 2017/18 season by clinching victory in the Mexico City ePrix ahead of Oliver Turvey and Sebastien Buemi

Abt, who was stripped of a maiden win in the second leg of the Hong Kong round, made a much faster pitstop to get ahead of Turvey in the car swaps.

The 47-lap race had three distinct phases, with polesitter Felix Rosenqvist leading the early stages before stopping on-track and handing the lead to Turvey.

At the start, Rosenqvist had led away comfortably with Turvey and Buemi following him off the line in grid order.

Rosenqvist slowly edged away from Turvey over the initial laps before building a substantial gap approaching one-third distance, with his NIO rival doing likewise to Buemi.

But at the end of lap 14, Rosenqvist ground to a halt rounding the the former Peraltada turn and dropped to the rear of the field before later retiring his Mahindra.

Turvey maintained his advantage over Buemi, who lost second to Abt - up from fifth on the grid - by running wide at the first corner at the start of lap 21.

The leaders came in on lap 24 and Abt made the fastest car switch to leap past Turvey and seize the net lead.

From there, Abt never looked back and surged clear over the second half of the race to take the win by 6.3 seconds.

Turvey rejoined just in front of Jean-Eric Vergne, who had used the car swaps to jump Buemi.

But Buemi quickly used his Fanboost power advantage to blast past Vergne heading into Turn 1 on lap 28.

The 2015/2016 champion then homed in on Turvey and made a dramatic attack at Turn 1 in the closing stages - both drivers locked up at the tight right-hander - but could not get by.

The driver who made the most progress in second stint was Jaguar's Nelson Piquet, who had conserved his energy in the first half and stayed out for an extra lap before pitting.

He passed his team-mate Mitch Evans and Vergne in a flurry of rapid laps and although he closed in on the Turvey-Buemi scrap he did not make a move.

Evans ended up sixth ahead of Da Costa and Edoardo Mortara, with reigning champion Lucas di Grassi ninth.

Di Grassi made steady progress up the order from last on the grid in the first stint and he too ran a lap longer.

The Brazilian used his energy advantage to set the fastest lap and fight his way into the top 10 places - clashing with Jose Maria Lopez and half-spinning at Turn 1 on the way.

Alex Lynn rounded out the top 10 for Virgin Racing, with his team-mate Sam Bird 17th and last of the classified runners.

Bird had started 19th but could not match di Grassi's progress, and he collided with Nico Prost - who retired shortly afterwards - approaching the closing stages.

The other non-finisher was Nick Heidfeld, who also came to a sudden halt at the exit of the final corner in his Mahindra machine on lap 27.

Andre Lotterer had to serve a drive-through penalty after appearing to run over a mechanic's foot exiting his car swap, which dropped him from a solid-looking top 10 result and he ended up 13th.

Race result

Pos Driver Team Car Laps Gap
1 Daniel Abt Audi Audi 47 50m45.164s
2 Oliver Turvey NIO NextEV NIO 47 6.398s
3 Sebastien Buemi e.dams Renault 47 6.615s
4 Nelson Piquet Jr. Jaguar Jaguar 47 7.015s
5 Jean-Eric Vergne Techeetah Renault 47 7.546s
6 Mitch Evans Jaguar Jaguar 47 9.050s
7 Antonio Felix da Costa Andretti Andretti 47 17.157s
8 Edoardo Mortara Venturi Venturi 47 26.511s
9 Lucas di Grassi Audi Audi 47 29.208s
10 Alex Lynn Virgin DS Virgin 47 29.515s
11 Jerome d'Ambrosio Dragon Penske 47 30.418s
12 Jose Maria Lopez Dragon Penske 47 31.859s
13 Andre Lotterer Techeetah Renault 47 36.206s
14 Luca Filippi NIO NextEV NIO 47 38.336s
15 Tom Blomqvist Andretti Andretti 47 38.592s
16 Maro Engel Venturi Venturi 47 44.689s
17 Sam Bird Virgin DS Virgin 47 44.982s
- Nicolas Prost e.dams Renault 36 Accident
- Felix Rosenqvist Mahindra Mahindra 34 Battery
- Nick Heidfeld Mahindra Mahindra 27 Water pump

Drivers' standings

Pos Driver Points
1 Jean-Eric Vergne 81
2 Felix Rosenqvist 69
3 Sam Bird 61
4 Sebastien Buemi 52
5 Nelson Piquet Jr. 45
6 Daniel Abt 37
7 Mitch Evans 29
8 Edoardo Mortara 28
9 Oliver Turvey 26
10 Nick Heidfeld 21
11 Andre Lotterer 18
12 Antonio Felix da Costa 16
13 Alex Lynn 9
14 Jose Maria Lopez 8
15 Nicolas Prost 7
16 Maro Engel 6
17 Jerome d'Ambrosio 4
18 Tom Blomqvist 4
19 Lucas di Grassi 3
20 Luca Filippi 1
21 Kamui Kobayashi 0
22 Neel Jani 0


Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Mexico City Formula E: Rosenqvist cuts Vergne's lead with pole
Next article Mexico City Formula E: Mahindra's Felix Rosenqvist explains failure

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe