Sebastien Buemi claims Envision Racing’s first pole since Season 9 in a thrilling qualifying, but the race failed to deliver points for the team
After starting on the front row of the grid, a misjudged entry into Turn 1 saw Buemi run wide and fall to the back of the pack, before working his way back up into the top six to then be hampered with tyre and front wing damage – forcing him to pit twice.
On the other side of the garage, Joel Eriksson fought from 15th on the grid to cross the line in P10, however a 10-second penalty pushed him down to 14th.
Despite such a tough result to swallow, the team will keep their heads high with the incredible pace demonstrated and regroup to bounce back at the Miami E-Prix on January 31.
QUALIFYING
Buemi showed his class during qualifying, delivering continuous fastest laps in the group stage, topping Group B comfortably.
He faced Oliver Rowland in the Quarter Final, beating him by 0.136 seconds after a difficult first sector. Next up for Buemi to face was Mitch Evans, and the Envision Racing driver once again delivered a great lap to win himself a spot in the final against DS Penske’s Taylor Barnard.
The final shootout was tense and despite Barnard narrowly clinching the fastest time, he did so with a track limit infringement which enabled Buemi to take his 14th pole position in his Formula E career.
Eriksson missed out on progressing through to the duels in his group by just a few tenths of a second – on his first outing at the Mexico City E-Prix, lining him up P15 on the grid.
THE RACE
A race start to forget for Buemi as he made a costly mistake running wide at turn one whilst defending from Barnard. This put him right down in P20 with it all to do. Buemi charged through the pack and got himself back into P12, before taking Attack Mode and climbing up to P6 and looking very strong to score points.
Unfortunately, bad luck struck with a puncture, forcing Buemi to pit and ended the chances of salvaging his race.
Eriksson quietly worked his way past his rivals around him but suffered issues with Attack Mode activating – wasting valuable race time. Ultimately, he crossed the line in P10 but was handed a 5-second penalty for overtaking off the track.
A very disappointing end to the day after incredible pace in both qualifying and the race, but the Silverstone based team have lots of positives to take forward to the next race in Miami.
Driver Standings (after Rd2)
- Nick Cassidy, 40pts
- Jake Dennis, 36pts
- Oliver Rowland, 34pts
- Pascal Wehrlein, 23pts
- Edoardo Mortara, 18pts
—–
9. Sebastien Buemi, 7pts
10. Joel Eriksson, 6pts
Team Standings (after Rd2)
1. Citroen Racing, 44pts
2. Andretti Formula E, 30pts
3. Porsche Formula E Team, 35pts
4. Mahindra Racing, 20pts
7. Envision Racing, 13pts
