DS Virgin Racing is determined to show what it can do in Marrakesh, after missing the opportunity to win the season-opener in Hong Kong.

DS Virgin Racing is determined to show what it can do in Marrakesh, after missing the opportunity to win the season-opener in Hong Kong. For the team, round two is all about capitalising on the undoubted pace of the car and drivers to get points on the board.

Despite both cars qualifying on the second row of the grid in Hong Kong, DS Virgin Racing came away without scoring any points in the opening race of the 2016-17 Formula E season. The team is focused on rectifying this at the second round of the championship, as Formula E makes its debut in Africa at the Circuit International Automobile Moulay El Hassan.

Marrakesh is a track of significance to DS Virgin Racing, both to its drivers and engineers. “I’ve raced and won here three times before with the WTCC,” explains José María López. “It was a touch narrow. But then again, a Formula E car takes up less room than a WTCC car, so it should be a good fight.”

The team’s engineers have a history of racing and winning in Marrakesh and are confident this will give them an advantage. DS Virgin Racing’s track simulator testing has also revealed that the top achievable speed for a Formula E car is 210 km/h, faster than the WTCC’s 205 km/h.

The track is a dramatic departure from Hong Kong – twelve turns to Hong Kong’s nine and over half a kilometre longer. As the longest track on the Formula E calendar, the challenge for Marrakesh will be tactical battery preservation – something that Sam Bird displayed masterfully during Hong Kong, leading the pack for several laps before the car change.

This weekend’s Marrakesh ePrix coincides with the COP22 Summit: a meeting of the world’s leaders on sustainability and climate change. In tandem, DS Virgin Racing will be hosting an Innovation Summit in front of the team garage on 10 November, featuring international panellists discussing EVs and sustainable technology.

“We’ve gone to space, we’ve done biofuel flight and we were the first to go non-stop solo around the world. Virgin is all about making sustainability fast," states Team Principal Alex Tai. 

Pechito and Sam Bird arrive in Marrakesh with a point to prove after Hong Kong. “As far as I’m concerned, this is race one now. Let’s put points on the board,” explains Sam Bird.

Sam Bird clinched pole position but finished 6th for DS Virgin Racing in the Long Beach ePrix.

Sam Bird clinched pole position but finished sixth for DS Virgin Racing in the Long Beach ePrix after contact with a tyre wall ruined his chance of victory.

Starting from pole position, Sam Bird maintained his lead over second placed Lucas Di Grassi for the first part of the race, before Di Grassi finally managed to pass him on lap 12. Bird was hot on his tail for the remainder of the first stint and, after a clean car changeover, Bird emerged just behind Di Grassi again as the battle for the lead continued.

On lap 23 the battle for first place came to a dramatic end – a small error saw Bird lock up his brakes and skid into a tyre wall at turn five. Whilst there was only minor damage to the car, Bird lost five places and his chance of victory.

“It’s a hard one to swallow knowing we could have scored 21 points and instead we only have 11. I was very comfortable in second place and was confident I could have pushed Lucas for the victory. But qualifying proved we are fast and that’s what I’m focusing on,” said Bird.

Bird was initially set to start the famous 2.13km track in second position behind Team Aguri’s Antonio Felix Da Costa after finishing top of his group during qualifying and second in Superpole with a lap time of 57.261. However, Da Costa was excluded and relegated to the back of the grid because of a tyre infringement, leaving Bird to start from the very front. Bird’s teammate Jean- Éric Vergne posted a qualifying lap that left him to start in 11th position.

After his incident, Bird fought back and continued the race behind Bruno Senna, applying huge amounts of pressure to force past, but Senna was able to defend until the end.

“Obviously I’m very disappointed as I believe it was a driver error and for that I apologise to the team. It’s difficult knowing that the final result should have been a lot better today, but the engineering capabilities of this team are extremely strong, qualifying proved that,” he said. “Starting from pole position the expectation was of a podium finish at a bare minimum, and I would have delivered that if not for the error. But I’m pleased that I could still bring some points home for the team.”

Further down the grid Jean- Éric Vergne was in a battle of his own fending off Antonio Felix Da Costa who was slowly climbing back through the pack. Vergne eventually finished 13^th.

“I’m looking forward to Paris, there’s still half of the season to play for and I am going to work hard to better understand the car so I can improve,” said Vergne. “Today was another difficult race and I believe it’s time to turn it around looking ahead to the European races.”

Despite the setbacks, Team Principal Alex Tai remains confident: “These things happen, the DS Virgin Racing drivers work very hard and it was an unfortunate error for Sam. What we need to focus on is that both our drivers did extremely well during qualifying, proving once again that we are a competitive team. Sam is still 3rd and as a team we are 4th overall in the championship.”

Amidst the disappointment on a podium lost, Head of DS Performance, Xavier Mestelan Pinon commented: “With regards to Jean-Éric, he has damaged the suspension during this race and I think he’s felt a little handicapped. We’ve worked hard to improve the DSV-01 and we will continue to do so, especially with Paris on the horizon.”

The Formula E series will be heading to Europe for the remainder of the season, starting with a specially-made track around Les Invalides in Paris, home to DS, which will take place on 23 April.

Pos	Driver	Team	Points
1	Lucas DI GRASSI	ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport	101
2	Sébastien BUEMI	Renault e.Dams	100
3	SAM BIRD	DS VIRGIN RACING FORMULA E TEAM	71
4	Jérôme D’AMBROSIO	Dragon Racing	64
5	Stéphane SARRAZIN	Venturi Formula E Team	48
6	Loïc DUVAL	Dragon Racing	48
7	Nick HEIDFELD	Mahindra Racing Formula E Team	39
8	Nicolas PROST	Renault e.Dams	38
9	Robin FRIJNS	Andretti Formula E Race Team	31
10	Daniel ABT	ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport	31
11	Bruno SENNA	Mahindra Racing Formula E Team	22
12	Antonio FELIX DA COSTA	Team Aguri	16
13	Oliver TURVEY	NEXTEV TCR Formula E Team	10
14	JEAN- ÉRIC VERGNE	DS VIRGIN RACING FORMULA E TEAM	6
15	Nelson PIQUET JR	NEXTEV TCR Formula E Team	4
16	Nathanaël BERTHON	Team Aguri	4
17	Simona DE SILVESTRO	Andretti Formula E Race Team	2
18	Mike CONWAY	Venturi Formula E Team	1
19	Jacques VILLENEUVE	Venturi Formula E Team	0
20	Oliver ROWLAND	Mahindra Racing Formula E Team	0
21	Salvador DURAN	Team Aguri	0

FIA Formula E Championship 2015-16 – Driver Standings

FIA Formula E Championship 2015-16 – Team standings

Pos.	Team	Points
1	Renault e.Dams	138
2	ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport	132
3	Dragon Racing	112
4	DS VIRGIN RACING FORMULA E TEAM	77
5	Mahindra Racing Formula E Team	61
6	Venturi Formula E Team	49
7	Andretti Formula E Race Team	33
8	Team Aguri	20
9	NEXTEV TCR Formula E Team	14

Jean-Éric Vergne secured his first points for DS Virgin Racing at the FIA Formula E Punta del Este ePrix.

Jean-Éric Vergne secured his first points for DS Virgin Racing as he claimed a valuable six points at the FIA Formula E Punta del Este ePrix.

Starting at the back of the grid after a hard qualifying session, which saw him blocked in sector three, the Frenchman made up ground on those ahead of him and headed into the halfway stage of the race having made up five places. 

After successfully winning the Fanboost vote, the 25-year old was able to use the extra 100KJ of power gained, following the changeover, to overtake Stephane Sarrazin on lap 26 and set his sights on Nelson Piquet Jr.

A scintillating battle developed over the final half a dozen laps as Vergne went wheel-to-wheel with the Brazilian, before forcing a mistake to overtake on the penultimate lap. 

With Daniel Abt now in his sights, Vergne and his DSV-01 made up another position on the final lap to secure his first points finish with DS Virgin Racing.

Earlier in the race, having started from third on the grid, Sam Bird was looking like he would again be a contender for a strong points finish, quickly overtaking Loic Duval going into the first corner. A battery issue however after the changeover on Lap 19 saw his race cut short.

Like Vergne, the Briton also won Fanboost – the second time in three races this season and the first time in Formula E that both DS Virgin Racing drivers have been rewarded with the extra fan power.

Speaking about his race, Vergne said: “I’m really pleased with my race and don’t think it could have gone much better after starting at the back of the grid. I drove hard and had a lot of fun with what was in front of me. It was a great effort from the team. I’d also like to say a special thank you to all the fans that helped me win Fanboost, which made a real difference during the race.”

Bird was also positive about his performance: “In the first half of the race, things felt really good and it was going really well. We showed a good turn of pace and I think there’s lots of positive signs to suggest that we can be challenging again in Buenos Aires. Like in Malaysia, I must give a lot of credit to the team, who put in a huge amount of work to repair the car between free practice one and the race after I hit the wall.”

DS Virgin Racing Team Principal, Alex Tai, added: “JEV drove a great race out there and we’re delighted that he’s got his first points for the team. We’ve shown good pace again this weekend and proved that we can be competing for big points. I must also thank the fans for their fantastic support that we’ve received here in Punta and say thank you to everyone that voted for our drivers in Fanboost.”

The team now head straight into a day of testing in Punta, before moving on to Buenos Aires for Round Four of the FIA Formula E Championship on 6 February 2016.

FIA Formula E Championship 2015-16 – Driver Standings

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Points
1	9	Sébastien BUEMI	Renault e.Dams	62
2	11	Lucas DI GRASSI	ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport	61
3	7	Jérôme D’AMBROSIO	Dragon Racing	28
4	2	SAM BIRD	DS VIRGIN RACING FORMULA E TEAM	24
5	6	Loïc DUVAL	Dragon Racing	24
6	23	Nick HEIDFELD	Mahindra Racing Formula E Team	17
7	27	Robin FRIJNS	Andretti Formula E Race Team	17
8	4	Stéphane SARRAZIN	Venturi Formula E Team	16
9	55	Antonio FELIX DA COSTA	Team Aguri	16
10	8	Nicolas PROST	Renault e.Dams	11
11	21	Bruno SENNA	Mahindra Racing Formula E Team	10
12	66	Daniel ABT	ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport	10
13	88	Oliver TURVEY	NEXTEV TCR Formula E Team	8
14	25	JEAN-ERIC VERGNE	DS VIRGIN RACING FORMULA E TEAM	6
15	77	Nathanaël BERTHON	Team Aguri	4
16	1	Nelson PIQUET JR	NEXTEV TCR Formula E Team	4
17	28	Simona DE SILVESTRO	Andretti Formula E Race Team	0
18	12	Jacques VILLENEUVE	Venturi Formula E Team	0
19	23	Oliver ROWLAND	Mahindra Racing Formula E Team	0

FIA Formula E Championship 2015-16 – Team Standings

Pos	Team	Points
1	Renault e.Dams	73
2	ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport	71
3	Dragon Racing	52
4	DS VIRGIN RACING FORMULA E TEAM	30
5	Mahindra Racing Formula E Team	27
6	Team Aguri	20
7	Andretti Formula E Race Team	17
8	Venturi Formula E Team	16
9	NEXTEV TCR Formula E Team	12