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Sanya FE: Jean-Eric Vergne survives late investigation to win

DS Techeetah driver Jean-Eric Vergne survived a late in-race investigation for a possible safety car infringement to win ABB FIA Formula E's first race at Sanya ahead of Oliver Rowland

Rowland finished ahead of BMW Andretti's Antonio Felix da Costa, but both drivers face a post-race investigation for their clash.

At the start, Rowland made a great start from his first career FE pole to lead into the first corner - actually the track's 10th turn - ahead of Vergne, who had to briefly fend off da Costa after making a slower getaway from second.

Rowland and Vergne initially broke free at the front before being joined by da Costa and the lead pack grew over the ensuing laps as Rowland marshalled his lead.

By the third lap of what would become a 36-tour event it was a five-car pack with Abt and Sims running behind da Costa, and before long Andre Lotterer made it a six-car train.

Rowland was at a slight energy disadvantage throughout the first half of the race, which included a brief full course yellow during the early stages due to Felipe Nasr, who later retired in the pits, failing to initially get off the line with the field.

The leaders continued to circulate almost as one for lap after lap, with little interest in taking their first attack mode activation.

It looked for so long like Rowland had his defence sorted in the lead, but at the final corner on lap 19, Vergne made a surprise lunge down the inside of the left-hander and seized first despite a brief lock-up.

Vergne scampered clear as the pack jumped on Rowland's shattered defence, with da Costa and Rowland clashing as they ran through Turn 4 on lap 20, which caused damage to the latter's nose, and the incident is currently under investigation.

The scrap, which included Abt, Sims, Lotterer, Robin Frijns and Lucas di Grassi, who had both caught the leaders after using attack mode earlier in the race, continued in spectacular fashion before Sims hit the wall at the inside of Turn 5 as Lotterer ran alongside.

The contact caused Sims to slow and he stopped on the long Turn 7 curve with what appeared to be suspension damage, and his stranded car meant the red flags had to be brought out to suspend the race.

When the race restarted after a near 15-minute delay, Vergne led away once the safety car pulled in - but was placed under investigation for dropping too far behind before it came in.

The race became a nine-lap dash to the flag, with Vergne leading throughout, as the leaders matched each other with their final attack mode usage.

Rowland looked to be mounting a late surge but was told to "secure the result" by his Nissan team.

Sebastien Buemi started the race from the pitlane for reasons that were not made clear during the race.

He later caused the race to end under a full course yellow. Buemi had charged from the back at the start to run behind Frijns in P8, but they came together at high-speed on the run through the long curve of Turn 7, which sent Frijns out of control and into the back of di Grassi.

That put di Grassi out on the spot and when he climbed from his car the FCY was called and Vergne led the pack home, with a reprimand being confirmed for his safety car infringement on the cooldown lap and his win was secured.

Lotterer finished fourth after a late move on Abt - which was investigated and found to be acceptable - with Buemi crossing the line in sixth.

The Mahindra Racing pair of Jerome d'Ambrosio and Pascal Wehrlein finished seventh and eighth, with Jaguar's Mitch Evans and Venturi's Edoardo Mortara completing the top 10.

The other non-finishers were Nelson Piquet Jr, who hit the wall at Turn 2 shortly before the red flag, and Gary Paffett - a suspected driveshaft problem stopped the HWA driver.

Jose Maria Lopez also pulled off early-on, while Stoffel Vandoorne and Sam Bird retired after the former ran into the latter on the opening lap.

Update

Following several post-race investigations, a number of penalties were issued to drivers up and down the field.

Rowland and da Costa keep their podiums as the stewards decided that no further action was necessary after a brief investigation.

Vergne's reprimand was confirmed as being for failing to keep 10 lengths behind the safety car.

Buemi was given a 10-second penalty for the clash with Frijns, which drops him to eighth in the final results.

Di Grassi was fined €5000 for leaving his car "without race director permission", according to the stewards' bulletin.

Buemi, Abt and Lotterer were fined for speeding under full course yellow conditions after the chequered flag.

The restrictions remained in place due to di Grassi's wreckage still being on the track.

Buemi and Lotterer were given €2000 fines, with Abt getting €1,000.

Mortara was given a drivethrough that was converted into a time penalty of 16s, which drops him to 13th in the final results, for not using attack mode two times.

Vandoorne was investigated for his clash with Bird, but no further action was taken.

The changes mean Da Costa now leads d'Ambrosio by one point in the drivers' championship - with Vergne up to third, seven points adrift - and Envision Virgin Racing and Mahindra Racing level on 97 points each in the teams' standings.

Race result

Pos Driver Team Gap Laps
1 Jean-Eric Vergne DS Techeetah 1h02m50.185s 36
2 Oliver Rowland e.dams 1.762s 36
3 Antonio Felix da Costa BMW 3.268s 36
4 Andre Lotterer DS Techeetah 4.631s 36
5 Daniel Abt Audi 5.972s 36
6 Jerome d'Ambrosio Mahindra 17.340s 36
7 Pascal Wehrlein Mahindra 18.367s 36
8 Sebastien Buemi e.dams 19.405s 36
9 Mitch Evans Jaguar 20.646s 36
10 Felipe Massa Venturi 27.739s 36
11 Oliver Turvey NIO 31.453s 36
12 Tom Dillmann NIO 32.654s 36
13 Edoardo Mortara Venturi 38.208s 36
14 Robin Frijns Virgin Accident damage 35
15 Lucas di Grassi Audi Accident 34
- Nelson Piquet Jr. Jaguar Accident damage 21
- Alexander Sims BMW Accident damage 20
- Gary Paffett HWA Halfshaft 13
- Jose Maria Lopez Dragon Technical 10
- Stoffel Vandoorne HWA Accident damage 1
- Sam Bird Virgin Accident damage 0
- Felipe Nasr Dragon Technical 0

Drivers' championship

Pos Driver Points
1 Antonio Felix da Costa 62
2 Jerome d'Ambrosio 61
3 Jean-Eric Vergne 54
4 Sam Bird 54
5 Lucas di Grassi 52
6 Edoardo Mortara 52
7 Daniel Abt 44
8 Robin Frijns 43
9 Andre Lotterer 41
10 Pascal Wehrlein 36
11 Mitch Evans 36
12 Oliver Rowland 27
13 Sebastien Buemi 19
14 Alexander Sims 18
15 Felipe Massa 15
16 Oliver Turvey 6
17 Gary Paffett 4
18 Stoffel Vandoorne 3
19 Jose Maria Lopez 2
20 Nelson Piquet Jr. 1
21 Tom Dillmann 0
22 Maximilian Guenther 0
23 Felipe Nasr 0

Teams' championship

Pos Team Points
1 Envision Virgin Racing 0.097
2 Mahindra Racing 0.097
3 Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler 0.096
4 DS Techeetah Formula E Team 0.095
5 BMW i Andretti Motorsport 0.08
6 Venturi Formula E Team 0.067
7 Nissan e.Dams 0.046
8 Panasonic Jaguar Racing 0.037
9 HWA Racelab 0.007
10 NIO Formula E team 0.006
11 Geox Dragon 0.002

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