The urban landscape isn’t just for wandering around at three miles an hour whilst peering in art gallery windows. Of course it’s mainly for that, but Formula E is bringing a whole new excitement to cities around the world. It turns out that things can get more exciting than nudging your companion and saying I say, look at that delightful Hogarth engraving.
Formula E is a race series for electric cars, with championship races all around the world. The third race this season was in Punta del Este in Uruguay, following on from Malaysia and Beijing, races won by Sebastien Buemi and Lucas di Grassi.
Here the two Dragon drivers Jerome D’Ambrosio and Loic Duval managed to lock out the front row for the seafront race of 33 laps, but it wasn’t far into the race before they both succumbed to Buemi’s overtaking nous. Brit Sam Bird did make it up to P2 at one point, but eventually had to retire, coming to a halt in the middle of the track.
Jean-Eric Vergne got to use the Fan Boost, which gave him extra power to get past Sarrazin. Fan Boost is an extra amount of power accessible to certain drivers – as voted for by the fans. Though this gets the fans involved, it adds an unnecessary artificiality to the racing. Vergne then lunged past Piquet on the last lap. Piquet survived and reclaimed his place, but touched the wall and spun, letting Vergne past.
Buemi took the win but Di Grassi leads the championship. Bird for Virgin Racing is third and the season is shaping up nicely. It ends in July in London when there will be two races in Battersea Park. Congratulations to Buemi and Renault e.dams.
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