WIN COMES ON THE SAME STREETS WHERE HIS FATHER WON 35 YEARS AGO
Proving that sometimes racing history finds a way of coming full circle, Nelson Piquet Jr. won his first Formula E race Satuday on the streets of Long Beach --the same spot where his father scored his first Formula One victory 35 years ago almost to the day.
Jean-Eric Vergne finished second and Lucas Di Grassi was third.
Just a short distance from Hollywood, Formula E once again put on a spectacular show, watched by over 20,000 spectator, and for the sixth time in as many races, there was a different winner. Piquet started second and led practically from start to finish. He started alongside pole sitter Daniel Abt, got past the German under braking for the first corner and, from then on, kept the lead throughout, carving out a small but constant gap to his closest rivals.
In the first stint, which saw the safety car come out wice in the early stages, first when Scott Speed went off into the barriers at turn two and the second when Charles Pic and Jarno Trulli collided, the former penalized, the latter forced to retire, Abt was able to keep in Piquet’s slipstream, while Vergne made the most of the first restart to pass Sebatstien Buemi and move into third place.
In the run of pit stops, which came later than usual, because of those caution periods, Buemi managed to gain another place and sit behind Piquet Jr. but he never looked likely to pass the Brazilian. Abt kept third spot up until lap 32, when he had to pit to take a penalty for excessive energy useage. Thus teammate Di Grassi moved up into a podium position which he had to defend to the end.
The only American in the race did not have much luck, as Speed was knocked out at the start.
The win was also the first in Formula E for the China Racing team. Meanwhile, Piquet Jr. picked up 25 points to move up to second in the drivers’ championship, with 74 points, just one behind fellow countryman Di Grassi.
The next round of the Formula E series is May 9. The Monaco ePrix is slated to run on a track featuring sections of the one used for the Formula One Grand Prix.
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