Formula E: Sebastien Buemi eliminated from championship contention

After not taking the pole position for the 2018-2019 Formula E season finale, New York City ePrix Race 2, Sebastien Buemi has been mathematically eliminated from championship contention.

Nissan e.dams’ Sebastien Buemi, against all odds, remained mathematically in contention to win the 2018-2019 Formula E championship by winning the 13-race season’s penultimate race, New York City ePrix Race 1, at Brooklyn Street Circuit from the pole position.

But he still needed everything to go right today leading up to New York City ePrix Race and in this race itself in order to actually pull off what would have been the greatest comeback in Formula E history and perhaps in motorsports history.

Buemi entered today trailing DS Techeetah’s Jean-Eric Vergne by 26 points (130 to 104) for the lead of the driver standings, and a maximum of 29 points are available for each driver in each race, including 25 for winning, three for taking the pole position and one for recording the fastest lap of the race.

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As a result, Buemi absolutely needed to take the pole position for today’s 45-minute race around the 14-turn, 1.475-mile (2.374-kilometer) Brooklyn Street Circuit temporary street circuit in Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York to remain mathematically eligible to win the championship heading into the race itself.

While he could still score 26 points in the race itself to tie Vergne if Vergne failed to score points and the other two drivers who are still in championship contention, Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler’s Lucas di Grassi and Panasonic Jaguar Racing’s Mitch Evans, could not finish ahead of Buemi in the driver standings if Buemi wins no matter where they finish the race, Vergne would win the tiebreaker over Buemi in this scenario.

Vergne has won three races so far this season while Buemi has only won one, so even a victory in today’s race would only bring Buemi’s win total to two, which would still trail that of Vergne.

But needing to take the pole position, which he did for yesterday’s race, Buemi just missed out, as he qualified in third place by recording a top lap time of 69.729 seconds (76.152 miles per hour) in his #23 Spark-Nissan in the Super Pole qualifying session.

He missed out on taking the pole position by a mere 0.112 seconds (0.122 miles per hour), as BMW i Andretti Motorsport’s Alexander Sims took the pole position for this race by recording a top lap time of 69.617 seconds (76.274 miles per hour)  in his #27 Spark-BMW in the Super Pole qualifying session. Envision Virgin Racing’s Robin Frijns qualified in second place in his #4 Spark-Audi.

As a result, the championship battle is down to just three drivers. Here are the current driver standings among these three drivers.

Rank – Driver, Car, Team, Manufacturer: Points (Behind)
1st – Jean-Eric Vergne, #25, DS Techeetah, Spark-DS Automobiles: 130 (0)
2nd – Lucas di Grassi, #11, Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler, Spark-Audi: 108 (-22)
3rd – Mitch Evans, #20, Panasonic Jaguar Racing, Spark-Jaguar: 105 (-25)

Evans is set to start this race in eighth place while di Grassi is set to start in 11th and Vergne is set to start in 12th.

With Sebastien Buemi having been officially eliminated from 2018-2019 Formula E championship contention, who will be crowned champion following this afternoon’s New York City ePrix Race 2? Tune in to the live broadcast of this race from Brooklyn Street Circuit on Fox Sports 1 at 3:30 p.m. ET to find out. The race is scheduled to begin shortly thereafter at 4:00 p.m. ET.