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

Renault e.dams and it's driver, Sebastien Buemi, clean up at the opening round of teh FIA Formula E in Beijing.

Renault e.dams’ Sebastien Buemi made the perfect start to his FIA Formula E Championship campaign at the Beijing ePrix on Saturday 24 October by claiming pole position and fastest race lap en route to a dominant victory. But it was also a bittersweet weekend for the French squad, which was forced to retire Nico Prost’s car after a rear wing failure.

Renault e.dams’ new-for-2015/16 powertrain again proved its potential during practice, qualifying and the race when both Buemi and Prost were able to post consistently quick lap times.

Although the Renault Z.E.15 demonstrated its pace in Saturday morning’s practice sessions, it was qualifying that cemented the team’s position as a force to be reckoned with when both drivers topped their respective groups and successfully made it through to the all-new Super Pole shoot out. While Nico held top spot during most of the session, it was Buemi that snatched pole position from his teammate with a lightning fast 1m37.297s lap.

Swiss-born Buemi then enjoyed a practically perfect race by claiming fastest lap en route to his and the team’s first victory of the new season. Prost, meanwhile, struggled off the line, losing his second position to Mahindra’s Nick Heidfeld before Lucas di Grassi (ABT Schaeffler Audi) also nipped past. The trio battled throughout the first half of the race while Buemi extended his lead.

It was the halfway point of the race that would prove vital for the Frenchman as a flawless pit stop from the squad helped him re-gain third from Heidfeld. However, his luck would soon run out when Race Control deemed his car unsafe to continue as a result of a rear wing failure.

Seb meanwhile went on to take the chequered flag and a first win of the season by 11 seconds from runner-up di Grassi and Heidfeld, who completed the podium after Prost’s forced retirement.

Seb’s commanding victory, fastest lap (1m39.993s) and pole position helped him score a maximum 30 points.

He therefore heads to Round 2 as championship leader, while Renault e.dams also top the teams’ standings. The squad will look into the rear wing fault that brought Prost’s first race of the season to an unfortunate end.

Nico’s promising pace and performance throughout the weekend suggest he will be able to bounce back stronger in Putrajaya.

Vincent Gaillardot, Renault Sport Formula E Project Leader: “We worked hard at Donington so we came to this race feeling fairly prepared and had trouble-free running. That meant we were able to focus on race set-up and the drivers could make the most of their time on track. It’s a good starting point for us but we’ve also seen that some of the other manufacturers are not far off our pace.”

#8 Nico Prost: “It’s certainly a frustrating way to round out the weekend. I felt like we could’ve fought for the podium finish, which would have been great for the team. We’re not really too sure what happened yet with the rear wing, but it seems something came loose and I was unable to continue. You know, this is racing and these things happen. I’m hoping I can come back with a stronger result in Putrajaya.”

#9 Sebastien Buemi: “It’s a great feeling to win the first race of the season and be awarded all of the available points – I’ve never had that before! Everything was perfect; the new powertrain from Renault, the battery, the team. To be honest, in the race, I had a bad start but managed to hold on to my position and bring the car home for the win. After such a strong start and good haul of points I’m really looking forward to Malaysia.”

Formula E returns to Putrajaya, Malaysia, on November 7 for Round 2 of the FIA’s all-electric series.