Jean-Eric Vergne closed out the 2017-2018 Formula E season with his fourth victory of the season, putting an exclamation point on his championship run.
Coming into the second race of the 2018 New York City ePrix, Techeetah’s Jean-Eric Vergne had already clinched the 2017-2018 Formula E driver championship after a fifth place finish in the first race of the New York City ePrix, which took place yesterday, as DS Virgin’s Sam Bird only finished in ninth.
As a result, Vergne’s lead in the driver championship standings over Bird in second grew from 23 to 31 points, and drivers are only able to claim a maximum of 29 points in a race.
That did not stop Vergne from leading all 43 laps of the second race of the New York City ePrix, which was the 12th and final race of the season, around the 13-turn, 1.21-mile (1.947-kilometer) Brooklyn Street Circuit in Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York in his #25 Spark-Renault after he started in third place.
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The start of the race was deemed controversial, as Vergne and his Techeetah teammate Andre Lotterer were investigated for jumping the start. The start resulted in Vergne jumping from third to first place to take the lead over race polesitter Sebastien Buemi in what ended up being the race’s lone lead change. Meanwhile, Lotterer, who started the race in second, fell to third.
Lotterer clearly jumped the start, and he was given a 10-second stop-go penalty for doing so. He had passed Buemi for second place by the time this penalty was officially issued. Vergne, who came extremely close to jumping the start, was not penalized.
While the race featured just the one lead change at the start, the racing was close throughout the entirety of the event. Vergne held off Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler’s Lucas di Grassi, who won the first race of the New York City ePrix yesterday, by just 0.508 seconds to claim his fourth victory of the season.
A total of 20 drivers started the race, and 15 managed to finish it. Of the 15 drivers who finished it, 12 finished it on the lead lap.
Here are the full race results of the second race of the 2018 Qatar Airways New York City ePrix at the Brooklyn Street Circuit.
| Rank | Driver | Car, Team, Manufacturer |
| 1 | Jean-Eric Vergne | #25, Techeetah, Spark-Renault |
| 2 | Lucas di Grassi | #1, Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler, Spark-Audi |
| 3 | Daniel Abt | #66, Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler, Spark-Audi |
| 4 | Sebastien Buemi | #9, Renault e.dams, Spark-Renault |
| 5 | Felix Rosenqvist | #19, Mahindra Racing, Spark-Mahindra |
| 6 | Mitch Evans | #20, Panasonic Jaguar Racing, Spark-Jaguar |
| 7 | Nelson Piquet Jr. | #3, Panasonic Jaguar Racing, Spark-Jaguar |
| 8 | Nick Heidfeld | #23, Mahindra Racing, Spark-Mahindra |
| 9 | Andre Lotterer | #18, Techeetah, Spark-Renault |
| 10 | Sam Bird | #2, DS Virgin Racing, Spark-Citroen |
| 11 | Nico Prost | #8, Renault e.dams, Spark-Renault |
| 12 | Stephane Sarrazin | #27, MS&AD Andretti, Spark-Andretti |
| 13 | Ma Qinghua | #16, NIO, Spark-NIO |
| 14 | Alex Lynn | #36, DS Virgin Racing, Spark-Citroen |
| 15 | Antonio Felix da Costa | #28, MS&AD Andretti, Spark-Andretti |
| 16 | Maro Engel | #5, Venturi, Spark-Venturi |
| 17 | Luca Filippi | #68, NIO, Spark-NIO |
| 18 | Jerome d’Ambrosio | #7, Dragon Racing, Spark-Penske |
| 19 | Jose Maria Lopez | #6, Dragon Racing, Spark-Penske |
| 20 | Tom Dillmann | #4, Venturi, Spark-Venturi |
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The 2017-2018 Formula E season has now officially come to an end. Be sure to tune in to the 2018-2019 season opener on Saturday, December 15. That race is the Riyadh ePrix in Saudi Arabia.