Late in each of the last three Formula E races, the race leaders have choked. Let’s take a look at these three unique yet similar instances.
It has been more than two months since BMW i Andretti Motorsport’s Antonio Felix da Costa held off DS Techeetah’s Jean-Eric Vergne to win the 2018-2019 Formula E season opener, the Ad Diriyah ePrix, at Riyadh Street Circuit.
Over the course of these two-plus months, three more Formula E races have taken place. These three races are the Marrakesh ePrix, the Santiago ePrix and the Mexico City ePrix.
In all three of these races, the drivers who have appeared poised to win have been involved in some kind of incident late in the race that took away their chances to win. In other words, a race leader has not not choked late in a race in more than two months.
Here are these three incidents.
Marrakesh ePrix
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Because of the 45-minute (plus one lap) time limit, the Marrakesh ePrix ended up being a 31-lap race. On lap 26, BMW i Andretti Motorsport teammates Antonio Felix da Costa and Alexander Sims appeared poised to deliver the team their first ever 1-2 finish.
Da Costa, fresh off his victory in the season opener, which was also BMW i Andretti Motorsport’s first ever Formula E victory, led the race ahead of Sims in second place. Mahindra Racing’s Jerome d’Ambrosio was running in a distant third.
But da Costa and Sims collided, knocking da Costa out of the race and dropping Sims to fourth place. Here is a video of this incident.
The race went under caution and restarted with one lap remaining, and d’Ambrosio went on to win it while Sims finished in fourth place and da Costa was unable to open up what would have been a massive lead in the driver standings.
Santiago ePrix
Nissan e.dams’ Sebastien Buemi took the pole position for what ended up being the 36-lap Santiago ePrix, and he dominated the race early on. It appeared as though he would not only become the first polesitter to win a race in the 2018-2019 season but the first driver to lead a race from start to finish in the 2018-2019 season as well.
But on lap 22, he crashed, ending his chances for a victory as well as his chances of finishing the race. Here is a video of this incident.
Envision Virgin Racing’s Sam Bird passed Buemi when he crashed and went on to lead the race’s final 15 laps en route to winning it while Buemi was officially scored in 18th place with a retirement.
Mexico City ePrix
With 44 laps of the Mexico City ePrix complete, the 45-time limit had expired, meaning that there was just one lap remaining. Up until this point, Mahindra Racing’s Pascal Wehrlein had been the only leader after starting the race from the pole position.
Like Buemi in the Santiago ePrix, Wehrlein looked poised to not only become the first polesitter to win a race in the 2018-2019 season but the first driver to lead a race from start to finish in the 2018-2019 season as well.
However, the rookie was clearly running low on battery power, and Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler’s Lucas di Grassi was able to catch him to the point where he was right behind him. At one point on the race’s final lap, the two drivers made contact, causing Wehrlein to cut a corner. As a result, he maintained the lead, but di Grassi was still right behind him.
But after rounding the final corner with the finish line and checkered flag in sight, Wehrlein ran out of power. With just a few feet to go before crossing the finish line, di Grassi passed Wehrlein to win the race despite the fact that he led it for only a fraction of a second.
Here is a video of this crazy finish.
Wehrlein ended up being given a five-second penalty for that corner-cutting incident, so after spending only a fraction of a second of the race outside of the lead, he ended up finishing in sixth place.
On a side note…
Over the course of the last three Formula E races, there have been a total of four lead changes. Of these four lead changes, three have taken place as a result of race leaders making mistakes and choking late in races.
The only legitimate lead change over the course of these three races is Antonio Felix da Costa’s pass on Sam Bird to take the lead of the Marrakesh ePrix on the race’s 11th lap.
In how many of the remaining nine races on the 2018-2019 Formula E schedule will a leader blow the lead late in the race? The next race on the schedule is the Hong Kong ePrix, which is scheduled to take place at Hong Kong Central Harbourfront Circuit on Central Harbourfront of Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong on Sunday, March 10.