Sebastien Buemi and Renault e.dams are on a roll, and there seems to be little anyone can do to stop them.
Sports and especially sports fans and the media elevate certain feats above others. Defending a title and scoring a hat-trick (in wins, title wins, etc) are two such feats that are considered to be big deals. Just look at the flak that Nico Rosberg came under from many British motorsport pundits for not sticking around to defend his hard-won Formula 1 world championship. The very act of beating Hamilton to the crown after being written off as someone simply not good enough to do so had clearly drained Rosberg. After a decade of mostly racing with uncompetitive teams – unlike Hamilton – Rosberg had hit the big time with Mercedes and troubled Hamilton enough to keep him honest in 2014 and 2015 before finally coming out on top last year. Yet not defending the title still leaves a question mark in the minds of his detractors.
Sebastien Buemi has made a bit of history en route to what looks like a successful title defence in the FIA Formula E Championship. Buemi and Renault e.dams made Formula E history by becoming the first driver to win three races in a row when the Swiss driver triumphed at the Buenos Aires ePrix.
Victory for the Renault e.dams ace continues the perfect start to his title defence. It was his ninth win in the all-electric street racing series, and the 12th for the team. That means Renault e.dams have now won half of all the Formula E races that have taken place.
But, in front of 21,000 enthusiastic fans, Buemi had to work hard for his victory. From his first-ever Julius Baer pole position, Lucas di Grassi (ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport) led away at the start, while Jean-Eric Vergne slotted his TECHEETAH into second place.
Di Grassi was struggling with his car, and in quick succession he was passed by Vergne and then Buemi. TECHEETAH uses the same powertrain as Renault e.dams, but there was nothing Vergne could do to stop Buemi charging by into the lead.
Further back di Grassi had slipped behind the impressive NextEV NIO of Oliver Turvey and the second Renault e.dams of Nico Prost as his struggles intensified.
By the time of the mandatory car change pitstop, Buemi was almost six seconds to the good and seemingly set for an easy win. But the brake balance of the second car was far from his liking, and struggling to slow the car in a straight line, his pace dropped off, allowing Vergne back into the hunt.
Di Grassi too was now a contender. A slow stop for Turvey dropped him out of the podium fight, while an aggressive pass on Prost moved di Grassi back into the top-three. With the car handling much more to his liking he was closing in on both Buemi and Vergne, but the gap was too big for him to overcome.
Three wins in a row has increased Buemi’s points lead to a huge 29 points. And after two previous disappointments at the Puerto Madero track, he was delighted to take another win.
MAHINDRA SLIPS BACK
India’s representation in Formula E has hit a slight stumbling block after the first two rounds of the championship this year. A podium for Nick Heidfeld and Felix Rosenqvist in Hong Kong and Morocco, respectively, to start the year still sees Mahindra Racing in third place in the teams’ championship. However, they are a whopping 74 points behind leaders Renault e.dams who have 111 points and lead second placed ABT by 51 points. Ninth and 15th are the results for Heidfeld in Morocco and Argentina while Rosenqvist started his season with a 15th place finish in Hong Kong and just an 18th place finish in Argentina.
The team has been making strides forward, however. Their 37 points in the teams’ championship so far is ten more than what they had managed after three rounds last year and both their drivers have managed to score a podium. And their points tally so far is already only 21 points shy of their entire season total in the 2014-15 season when Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok were driving for the team.
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