Robin Frijns rounded out the season in style with victory in New York for Envision Virgin Racing, as Jean-Eric Vergne pulled his way up into the points to clinch the ABB FIA Formula E Championship.
Vergne drove a clean and clever race, staying out of trouble and advancing up the order to seventh place and securing a second successive title. The DS TECHEETAH driver did enough to defend his crown and become the first back-to-back champion in Formula E history.
Entering the final E-Prix of the season, Vergne still held a sizable advantage in the points table and only needed to avoid a non-scoring finish to put himself in prime position to pick-up the prize.
After again struggling in the first group of qualifying, the Frenchman found himself down in 12th on the grid and looking to gain places during the race. However, he wasn’t the only championship contender eager to make a move forwards, with both Lucas di Grassi and Mitch Evans failing to make it to the super pole shoot-out.
Despite Sebastien Buemi’s best efforts, his championship chances were cut short after being beaten to pole position by Alexander Sims – missing out on the three precious points on offer.
Vergne kept di Grassi and Evans in his vision and calmly controlled his championship destiny by negotiating his way to ninth nearing the end of the race. Although it was settled shortly before the finish and quickly became a formality as di Grassi and Evans came to blows and ended in the barriers only four corners from the chequered flag.
Taking two places on the final lap, Vergne vaulted further up the field to seventh and crossed the line to confirm his place in the history books as the first double champion and the first driver to successfully defend his title.
Frijns fended off Sims and Buemi to finish in the points for the first time since winning on the streets of Paris back in April. The result moved Frijns to fourth in the standings and marks Sims first podium finish in Formula E.
It’s time to celebrate, but the countdown has started for the new season, with the ABB FIA Formula E Championship picking-up again in Ad Diriyah on November 22 & 23.
Race results
1 | Robin Frijns | Envision Virgin Racing | 47:22.289s | (25) |
2 | Alexander Sims | BMW i Andretti Motorsport | +3.200s | (21) |
3 | Sebastien Buemi | Nissan e.dams | +3.912s | (15) |
4 | Sam Bird | Envision Virgin Racing | +4.270s | (12) |
5 | Daniel Abt | Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler | +4.757s | (11) |
6 | Oliver Rowland | Nissan e.dams | +8.382s | (8) |
7 | Jean-Eric Vergne | DS TECHEETAH | +9.446s | (6) |
8 | Stoffel Vandoorne | HWA RACELAB | +9.738s | (4) |
9 | Antonio Felix da Costa | BMW i Andretti Motorsport | +11.727s | (2) |
10 | Gary Paffett | HWA RACELAB | +12.251s | (1) |
11 | Jerome D’Ambrosio | MAHINDRA RACING | +18.944s | |
12 | Pascal Wehrlein | MAHINDRA RACING | +27.144s | |
13 | Oliver Turvey | NIO Formula E Team | +28.045s | |
14 | Tom Dillmann | NIO Formula E Team | +28.580s | |
15 | Felipe Massa | VENTURI Formula E Team | +28.635s | |
16 | Alex Lynn | Panasonic Jaguar Racing | +41.420s | |
17 | Mitch Evans | Panasonic Jaguar Racing | +1:27.009s | |
18 | Lucas di Grassi | Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler | 1 Lap | |
19 | Maximilian Gunther | GEOX DRAGON | 2 Laps | |
DNF | Edoardo Mortara | VENTURI Formula E Team | 17 Laps | |
DNF | Andre Lotterer | DS TECHEETAH | 3 Laps | |
DNF | Jose Maria Lopez | GEOX DRAGON | 2 Laps |
Driver Standings
Jean-Eric Vergne | DS TECHEETAH | 136 |
Sebastien Buemi | Nissan e.dams | 119 |
Lucas di Grassi | Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler | 108 |
Robin Frijns | Envision Virgin Racing | 106 |
Mitch Evans | Panasonic Jaguar Racing | 105 |
Antonio Felix da Costa | BMW i Andretti Motorsport | 99 |
Daniel Abt | Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler | 95 |
Andre Lotterer | DS TECHEETAH | 86 |
Sam Bird | Envision Virgin Racing | 85 |
Oliver Rowland | Nissan e.dams | 71 |
Jerome D’Ambrosio | MAHINDRA RACING | 67 |
Pascal Wehrlein | MAHINDRA RACING | 58 |
Alexander Sims | BMW i Andretti Motorsport | 57 |
Edoardo Mortara | VENTURI Formula E Team | 52 |
Felipe Massa | VENTURI Formula E Team | 36 |
Stoffel Vandoorne | HWA RACELAB | 35 |
Maximilian Gunther | GEOX DRAGON | 20 |
Alex Lynn | Panasonic Jaguar Racing | 10 |
Gary Paffett | HWA RACELAB | 9 |
Oliver Turvey | NIO Formula E Team | 7 |
Jose Maria Lopez | GEOX DRAGON | 3 |
Nelson Piquet Jr. | Panasonic Jaguar Racing | 1 |
Tom Dillmann | NIO Formula E Team | 0 |
Felipe Nasr | GEOX DRAGON | 0 |
Felix Rosenqvist | MAHINDRA RACING | 0 |
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