2016 Paris ePrix - Formula E Round 7

Da Costa races past Napoleon's tomb.

My feelings about the Paris ePrix are somewhat mixed. Really great that Formula E came to Paris and a great field of drivers but the track left something to be desired; like many of the spectators I found it difficult to see very much of the race. Luckily I could see the giant TV screen.  With no raised platforms around the circuit and two safety fences the viewing was very limited.  Having said that I enjoyed seeing all the drivers and I did manage to get a picture of each car by getting there early. Many spectators were not so lucky.

Les Invalides, where Napoleon is buried, provided the backdrop to the circuit that was a temporary street circuit with 14 corners packed into 1.93kms.   The race was over 43 laps.

Here are pictures of each of the drivers that I took on April 23rd at Les Invalides in the order they were classified and the with cars they drove.

Lucas di Grassi

1st Lucas de Grassi
Brazil
ABT Schaeffler FE01
ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport
WINNER OF THE VISA PARIS ePRIX
Current Championship Leader

Lucas had a great weekend to win his third race of the season and consolidate his Championship lead. He took the lead at the start and was only led during the pit stops to change over to the second cars.

A former Formula One driver with Virgin he won the first ever Formula E race in 2014.  He has been successful in GP2 and currently also drives for Audi in Endurance racing.

Lucas di Grassi in his ABT Schaeffler during the Super Pole session.

2nd Jean-Eric Vergne

Jean-Eric Vergne

France
Virgin Racing Engineering DSV-01
DS Virgin Racing
Good to see a Frenchman on the podium!

Jean-Eric equalled his best ever Formula E result with a well earned second place in the Paris ePrix.  Always in contention he was helped by the Fanboost vote in his fight to get on the podium.

Jean-Eric Vergne had four seasons in Formula One with Torro Rosso before coming to Formula E where he was immediately competitive but has yet to score a win.

Jean-Eric Vergne during the Super Pole session in his Vergin Racing Formula E car.

3rd Sebastien Buemi

Sebastien Buemi

Switzerland
Renault Z.E. 15
Renault e.dams
A return to the podium for the former Championship leader.

Only on the fourth row of the grid, Sebastien had a great race to get onto the podium passing his team mate Prost on the way and forcing Sam Bird into an error.

Sebastien, although still in his twenties, is a very experienced racer and drove for three season in Formula One for Torro Rosso.  He had had a number of Formula E wins and helped Renault to the manufacturers championship in the first year of Formula E.

Sebastien Buemi driving hard in the Qualifying session in Paris.

4th Nicolas Prost

Nico Prost

France
Renault Z.E. 15

Renault e.dams
A good points scoring finish in his home race.

A reasonable drive in his home race to make it a 3rd and 4th placed finish for Renault edams.

Looks very like his four times World Champion father and has proved his worth as a driver in his own right.   Already has one win in Formula E and has also won in Formula 3 and Formula 3000.  Also competes in Endurance racing with Rebelion.

Nico Prost in the Super Pole session.

5th Stephane Sarrazin

Stephane Sarrazin

France
Venturi VM200-FE-01
Venturi
Kept up his record of scoring points in every race.

Was the third of the French drivers who made it into the top five and continued his good points scoring record.

Stephane is now aged forty but still driving well.  He had one F1 Grand Prix start back in 1999 for Minardi.  He had two wins in F3000 and has finished second in the Le Mans 24 hours on three occasions.  A versatile driver he has won in Endurance racing and rallies.

Stephane Sarrazin in his Venturi during qualifying.

Sam Bird

6th Sam Bird
Great Britain
Virgin Racing Engineering DSV-01
DS Virgin Racing
Won the pole position but failed to convert it after a poor start.

Made a rather poor start from Pole and then later took to the escape road after being put under pressure by Buemi.  In the end he recovered well to finish sixth.

A winner in GP2, LMP2 and Formula Renault 3.5 Sam is a great driver.  He already has three wins to his name in Formula E.  He also drives a Ferrari in Endurance racing.

Sam on his Super Pole lap that got him on pole position.

7th Robin Frijns

Robin Frijns

Netherlands

SRT O1E

Amlin Andretti

A good race in this less favoured car.
Following reliability problems the Andretti team has reverted to season one technology so seventh was a good result for Robin.

Robin was 2012 Formula Renault 3.5 champion and has also won in GP2 and the Blancpain series.  So far has had reserve driver contracts with F1 teams but never made it to a GP start.  Still young though, so.....

Robin Frijns qualifying in his Amlin Andretti Formula E car in Paris.

8th Antonio Felix da Costa

Antonio Felix da Costa

Portugal
SRT 01E
Team Aguri
A reasonable result for a season one car.

Spent the whole weekend in either his Red Bull wooly hat or a crash helmet.   After a few non-finishes he was back in the points in Paris.  Like Frijns was using last season's technology.

Antonio is a previous Formula E winner and is also a winner of the Macao Grand prix.   He has also raced in DTM for BMW where he is also a winner.

Da Costa's Aguri coming into the pits during Practice 2.

9th Bruno Senna

Bruno Senna

Brazil
Mahindra M2Electro
Mahindra Racing
A points scoring finish.

A fourth points scoring finish for Bruno this year.

Bruno drives in Formula E racing and also in Endurance racing. A nephew of the late Ayrton Senna, he competed for three seasons in Formula One where his best placing in a GP was sixth.

Bruna Senna takes the Pit Lane Hairpin during practice.

10th Daniel Abt

Daniel Abt

Germany
ABT Schaeffler FE01
ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport
Led the race during the pit stops.

Was the last driver in the points and had the honour of leading the race as he was one of the last to make a stop to change cars.

Daniel won the German Formula Masters Championship in 2009.  He has also won in F3 and GP3.   He currently races in the team associated with his family.   He has previously had a pole and a fastest lap in Formula E.

Daniel Abt about to pit his car in practice.

11th Jerome d'Ambrosio
Belgium

Jerome d'AmbrosioBelgium

Venturi VM200 E1
Dragon Racing
Just out of the points.

Jerome finished the top Dragon driver this weekend but was still out of the points.  Disappointing as he had been in the points in five out of the last six races.

Jerome did a season and a bit of Formula One.  He won in Formula masters and GP2.Two wins have come his way in Formula E.

Jerome d'Ambrosio and his Dragon in the pit lane.

12th Nick Heidfeld

Nick Heidfeld

Germany
Mahindra M2Electro
Mahindra Racing
Fastest Lap during a comeback from the back of the grid.

Fastest lap gave him some points after hitting the wall during his qualifying run and thus starting from last place on the grid.

Nick had a long Formula one Grand Prix Career that saw a pole position, a fastest lap, and over a dozen poddium finishes but no wins.   He has still to win in Formula E but he has had wins in F3 and F3000 and the American Le Mans series.

Nick Heidfeld in the pitlane.

13th Oliver Turvey

Oliver Turvey 

Great Britain

Nextev TCR FormulaE 001

NEXTEV TCR

Less than 14 seconds behind the winner due to the safety car but only 13th place! 

A good seventh in qualifying but the race didn't go as well.

Long time McLaren test driver.  He has won in F3, Formula BMW, Formula Renault 3.5 and LMP2.

Turvey in the pit lane.

14th Mike Conway

Mike Conway

Great Britain
Venturi VM200-FE-01
Venturi
Disappointing weekend.

Qualified 17th after being hit by Nick Heidfeld and finished second to last of the finishers.

A Bromley lad like me, I wanted him to do better!

Successful in Formula Renault Formula 3, GP2, Mike has even had a win in Indy Cars.  He came in to Formula E after Jacques Villeneuve decided to quit.  Just one point in Formula E so far but i think there is more to come.

Mike Conway in Qualifying.

15th Simona de Sylvestro

Simona de Sylvestro

Switzerland

SRT O1E

Amlin Andretti
Last placed finisher.

The only woman to score points in Formula E but not so lucky this time out, although she qualified in the top twelve.

Simona has raced mainly in the USA including the Indy Car series where her best finish is a second.  She has driven five times in the Indy 500.

Simona entering the pit lane hairpin.

Nelson Piquet Jnr

NC Nelson Piquet Jnr
Brazil

Nextev TCR FormulaE 001

NEXTEV TCR

Reigning Formula E Champion

The reigning Champion is not having such a good time this year and has only scored points in one race.  Paris worked out no better for him.  Rather a waste of his talent to be in an uncompetitive car.

Nelson Piquet Jnr was very successful in the lower formula and made it up to Formula One with Renault and had already got a podium finish when he became embroiled in the crashgate scandal.  Since then he driven in the NASCAR formula, Rallycross and Formula E.

Nelson Piquet negotiating the pit lane during practice at Les Invalides.

NC Ma Qing Hua

Ma Qing Hua

China
SRT 01E
Team Aguri
Crashed heavily near the end 

Ma Qing Hua did not have a very successful Formula E debut and crashed after 38 laps which brought out the safety car until the end of the race.

His most successful results to date have been in Touring Cars and he has won both in Chinese Races and in the World Touring Car Championship.  He has also been contracted as a test driver in Formula One.

Ma Qing Hua makes his Formula E debut.

NC Loic Duval

Loic Duval

France
Venturi VM200 E1
Dragon Racing
Hit mechanical problems early on.

Very unlucky to retire so early on in his home race.

Loic is probably best known as a Le Mans 24 hours winner and World Endurance Champion.  In Formula E he scored a couple of podiums last season.

Loic Duval in practice for the paris ePrix.

Ex-F1 driver Tim Schenken (2nd right) helps out as Nico Prost picks his qualifying group.

So what are Formula E cars and how do they differ from each other?   They are fully electric single seater racing cars.  They all share the same Dallara chassis Spark bodywork and Williams battery.  However, they can use any electric motor and gearbox and can modify the rear suspension.   The cars can only race for about 25 minutes so in each race the drivers change cars.

The Venturi mechanics manoeuvring their car in the pits 

Jean Todt (centre), President of the FIA, arrives to see his dream of a Formula E race in Paris come true.

Below are a few pictures of spectators trying to watch the race.

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John Etherton affirme son droit d'auteur à l'ensemble des photos sur ce billet de blog. Cependant, vous pouvez poster des photos ailleurs sur le web aussi longtemps que vous créditez le photographe, John Etherton, et ce blog, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com et fournissez un lien vers cette page.

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