Sebastien Buemi returned to winning ways in New York for Nissan e.dams and boosted his championship chances with a first Formula E win in over two years.
Without a win since Berlin in season three, Buemi ended the barren spell to bag a maiden victory for the Nissan e.dams outfit in the ABB FIA Formula E Championship.
Buemi led from Julius Baer pole position, but it was far from comfortable to the chequered flag with Alex Lynn and Mitch Evans keeping him company.
“We really shuffled things around from Rome and since then the car has been very strong, so to capitalise on that pace is really nice,” commented Evans. “I’d like to mention that Alex [Lynn] deserves to be up here as well, he had a tough failure today.
“I’m not sure what happened, but it was good to see him fighting at the front. It’s nice to put at least one Jaguar on the podium. It’s going to be a good battle for second place as well between myself, Seb and Lucas, so hopefully a little bit less carnage tomorrow but hopefully a similar result.”
With Lynn limping to a stop at the side of the track due to a technical problem, it opened the door for Evans to pile on the pressure.
However, Buemi battled to the end and escaped any previous misfortune that prevented him from winning earlier in the season – crashing out of the lead in Santiago and suffering a puncture in Paris.
Reigning champion and favourite for the title coming into the race, Jean-Eric Vergne still holds a sizeable lead in the standings and sits 22-points clear of nearest rival Lucas di Grassi.
Starting down the order after struggling with a slippery surface in the first qualifying group, Vergne was caught out in a mid-field melee causing him to pit early with a punctured tyre. Sam Bird sent Jose Maria Lopez into a spin at Turn 7 and left drivers behind taking avoiding action.
Vergne slowed to steer clear of stationary cars but was subsequently hit from behind by team-mate Andre Lotterer. Both DS TECHEETAH drivers were forced to pit and dropped to the back of the pack.
Despite the puncture, Vergne’s chances to wrap-up the title weren’t totally deflated, with a safety car mid-way through the race to recovery Lynn’s stricken car helping to close the gap to the points-paying positions.
Vergne vaulted up the leaderboard and looked set to score points, but collided with Felipe Massa on the final lap of the race. Vergne went wide into Turn 1 going wheel-to-wheel with Massa and ran out of road on the apex of the right-hander at Turn 2 – hitting the wall hard and ending up facing the wrong way.
Without any points to his name so far in New York and one round remaining, the championship continues to the final race with four drivers still in mathematical contention.
Four drivers, one race, one champion. Who’ll win the ABB FIA Formula E Championship?
Race results
| 1 | Sebastien Buemi | Nissan e.dams | 46:16.399s | (28) |
| 2 | Mitch Evans | Panasonic Jaguar Racing | +0.932s | (18) |
| 3 | Antonio Felix da Costa | BMW i Andretti Motorsport | +1.216s | (15) |
| 4 | Alexander Sims | BMW i Andretti Motorsport | +2.971s | (12) |
| 5 | Lucas di Grassi | Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler | +3.537s | (10) |
| 6 | Daniel Abt | Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler | +4.380s | (9) |
| 7 | Pascal Wehrlein | MAHINDRA RACING | +6.543s | (6) |
| 8 | Sam Bird | Envision Virgin Racing | +13.829s | (4) |
| 9 | Jerome D’Ambrosio | MAHINDRA RACING | +23.719s | (2) |
| 10 | Oliver Turvey | NIO Formula E Team | +25.038s | (1) |
| 11 | Gary Paffett | HWA RACELAB | +27.831s | |
| 12 | Jose Maria Lopez | GEOX DRAGON | +34.729s | |
| 13 | Stoffel Vandoorne | HWA RACELAB | +50.564s | |
| 14 | Oliver Rowland | Nissan e.dams | +1:23.962s | |
| 15 | Jean-Eric Vergne | DS TECHEETAH | +1:34.508s | |
| 16 | Felipe Massa | VENTURI Formula E Team | 1 Lap | |
| 17 | Andre Lotterer | DS TECHEETAH | 1 Lap | |
| DNF | Maximilian Gunther | GEOX DRAGON | 28 Laps | |
| DNF | Edoardo Mortara | VENTURI Formula E Team | 27 Laps | |
| DNF | Alex Lynn | Panasonic Jaguar Racing | 18 Laps | |
| DNF | Robin Frijns | Envision Virgin Racing | 15 Laps | |
| DNF | Tom Dillmann | NIO Formula E Team | 1 Lap |
Driver Standings
| Jean-Eric Vergne | DS TECHEETAH | 130 |
| Lucas di Grassi | Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler | 108 |
| Mitch Evans | Panasonic Jaguar Racing | 105 |
| Sebastien Buemi | Nissan e.dams | 104 |
| Antonio Felix da Costa | BMW i Andretti Motorsport | 97 |
| Andre Lotterer | DS TECHEETAH | 86 |
| Daniel Abt | Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler | 84 |
| Robin Frijns | Envision Virgin Racing | 81 |
| Sam Bird | Envision Virgin Racing | 73 |
| Jerome D’Ambrosio | MAHINDRA RACING | 67 |
| Oliver Rowland | Nissan e.dams | 63 |
| Pascal Wehrlein | MAHINDRA RACING | 58 |
| Edoardo Mortara | VENTURI Formula E Team | 52 |
| Felipe Massa | VENTURI Formula E Team | 36 |
| Alexander Sims | BMW i Andretti Motorsport | 36 |
| Stoffel Vandoorne | HWA RACELAB | 31 |
| Maximilian Gunther | GEOX DRAGON | 20 |
| Alex Lynn | Panasonic Jaguar Racing | 10 |
| Gary Paffett | HWA RACELAB | 8 |
| 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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