BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – Sebastien Buemi continued his winning streak in Formula E by dominating Saturday’s Buenos Aires ePrix for Renault e.dams.
Buemi started his Formula E title defence in impressive fashion by claiming victory in the first two races of the season in Hong Kong and Marrakesh, and became the series’ first three-peat victor after an emphatic display in Argentina.
Buemi started the race third, and was forced to hold position off the line despite making a rocket start as pole-sitter Lucas di Grassi and second-placed Jean-Eric Vergne defended well.
Di Grassi was powerless to stop Vergne from passing for the lead on lap three, with Buemi following through on the very same tour of the track, leaving the two Renault-powered racers at the front.
Vergne may have been using the same powertrain as Buemi, but he was unable to keep the Swiss driver back as he slipped into the lead on lap six.
From there, Buemi never looked back. A succession of fastest laps gave him some breathing room to Vergne behind, ensuring he got to the car swaps with a buffer of five seconds.
Buemi was careful to manage his energy through the second half of the race, allowing Vergne to cut his lead to around two seconds, but was never in danger of losing the win.
The result gives Buemi a championship lead of 29 points over di Grassi, who fought his way back to third after losing a number of places through the first stint.
Besides Buemi and Vergne, Oliver Turvey and Nicolas Prost were also able to pass the Brazilian, leaving him in danger of missing a podium finish.
Di Grassi looked more comfortable through the second half of the race after changing cars, allowing him to pass Prost on-track having already disposed of Turvey during the pit stops. However, the stewards are set to investigate him after a possible unsafe release, putting his third-place finish at risk.
Vergne was left to settle for second, scoring his fifth podium finish in Formula E. The result also marked Techeetah’s first top-three finish since the rebrand of Team Aguri at the end of last year.
Prost ended the race fourth ahead of season one champion Nelson Piquet Jr., who with fifth scored his best result since the first London race in 2015.
Loic Duval took sixth for Dragon Racing after a spirited battle with teammate Jerome d’Ambrosio in the closing stages, the pair going wheel-to-wheel. Daniel Abt went on a late charge to split the duo in the end, taking seventh for the ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport team.
Oliver Tuvey lost positions late on after pitting one lap earlier than his rivals and being short on energy, while Jose Maria Lopez went on a charge from P20 to P10 to delight his home fans and take a point for DS Virgin Racing.
