2018 Santiago E-Prix

2018 Santiago E-Prix
The new Santiago Street Circuit.
Race Information
Date	3 February 2018
E-Prix No.	{{{number}}}
Official Name	2018 Antofagasta Minerals Santiago E-Prix
Location	Forestal Park Circuit, Santiago, Chile
Format	{{{format}}}
Lap length	2.462km (1.529mi)
Distance	37 laps / 91.094km (56.603mi)
Support Race	{{{support}}}
Qualifying Result
Pole Sitter	Jean-Éric Vergne
Team	Techeetah
Time	1:19.161
Fastest Lap
Driver	Sam Bird
Team	DS Virgin Racing
Fastest Lap	1:20.235 on lap 30
ePrix Result
First	Second	Third
Jean-Éric Vergne	André Lotterer	Sébastien Buemi
Winner Team	Techeetah
Time	1:01:24.514
ePrix Guide
Previous		Next
2018 Marrakech E-Prix		2018 Mexico City E-Prix
Post-Race Test	{{{test}}}

The 2018 Santiago E-Prix, otherwise officially known as the 2018 Antofagasta Minerals Santiago E-Prix, was the fourth round of the 2017/18 ABB FIA Formula E Championship, held around Forestal Park in Santiago, Chile on 3 February 2018. The 2018 E-Prix was the first major motorsports event to be held in Santiago since the 1950 Chilean Grand Prix, and drew a huge crowd.

Qualifying would see Jean-Éric Vergne storm to pole for Techeetah, with the Frenchman edging Sébastien Buemi out in Super Pole. Defending Champion Lucas di Grassi qualified third but would start thirteenth after a penalty, promoting André Lotterer and Sam Bird onto the second row despite their mutual crashes in Super Pole.

A dramatic start to the E-Prix would see Nelson Piquet Jr. catch the leaders sleeping into turn one, the Brazilian blasting past everyone on the brakes before being edged out by Vergne. José María López was another strong starter, but would ultimately be squeezed into the wall on the exit of turn four as the track narrowed. The resulting compression of the pack behind the Argentine's crumpled Dragon would see Nick Heidfeld and Edoardo Mortara come to blows at the back of the pack.

As a result of Lopez's now stranded Dragon, as well as a separate accident for Maro Engel later around the lap, the newly updated BMW Qualcomm i8 Safety Car was called at the end of the opening tour. Fortunately it would be a quick tidying period by the marshals, meaning the E-Prix was back underway at the start of lap five.

Vergne briefly sprinted clear at the restart, only to get harassed by Piquet partway around the lap, while Bird attacked Buemi for fourth. Vergne's teammate Lotterer joined the fight for the lead as the race wore on, allowing Vergne to pull clear as the German challenged Piquet for second.

Shortly before the now unlimited pitstops there would be a major change to the order, Lotterer surging past Piquet on lap nineteen to make it a Techeetah one-two. Piquet bolted to the pits as a result, with the rest of the field bar Bird and António Félix da Costa making their stops a lap later.

Ultimately Bird and da Costa's gambles would not pay off, meaning it was still Vergne leading from Lotterer, while Buemi moved clear of Piquet. Championship leader Felix Rosenqvist was the major winner, leaping into fifth from tenth, while Bird found himself behind teammate Alex Lynn.

However, with failing data and radios there was to be a civil war out front, as Lotterer drew right onto the back of Vergne as the end of the race approached. Several lunges from the German would ultimately result in Lotterer rear-ending the Frenchman a few laps from the end, although both managed to scramble through the following corner. Behind, Piquet lunged at Buemi for third but ran off the circuit, allowing Rosenqvist and Bird to catch the leading pack.

Ultimately Lotterer, try as he might, could not force his way past Vergne, who duly won to claim his second victory in FE. Lotterer came home second to make it a Techeetah one-two, the first ever in FE history, while Buemi held on to third after near constant harassment from Rosenqvist and Bird during the final laps. Defending Champion di Grassi, meanwhile, was to be found among the six casualties from the race, as another mechanical failure left the Brazilian on the sidelines.

Background

The first news regarding FE after the Marrakech E-Prix would result from the 2018 Rookie Test, where Nico Müller had smashed the circuit record in the Moroccan city for Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler. Jaguar Racing had also looked strong, with Pietro Fittipaldi finishing second overall while Paul di Resta had topped a damp morning session for the British squad. Elsewhere, Nyck de Vries had suffered numerous problems using Lucas di Grassi's troublesome cars, while Andrea Caldarelli crashed one of the Dragons early on.

Elsewhere, there was a major change to the calendar ahead of the Santiago E-Prix, with news that the cancelled Montreal E-Prix would not be replaced at the end of the season. The FIA and Formula E had sought to find a replacement venue since December, considering a variety of options from a race in Birmingham, UK, to staging as first E-Prix on a full racing circuit, either Brands Hatch of ex-testing venue Donington Park. Yet, FE boss Alejandro Agag felt that the six month window to prepare would not be long enough for any venue to be prepared, meaning the 2017/18 season would be reduced to twelve races.

The new Spark Gen 2, Formula E's new "batmobile".

The other major story ahead of the Santiago E-Prix would be the reveal of the new base car for the ABB FIA Formula E Championship, dubbed the Spark Gen 2. The Gen 2, built by Spark Racing Technologies, the creators of the soon-to-be retired Spark-Renault SRT_01E, won the tender to design Formula E's 2018/19 car, and will compete for the following three seasons. As with its predecessor, the Gen 2 will form the basis for manufacturers to put their own powertrains in, with the car itself coming equipped with a new McLaren designed battery capable of lasting for an entire E-Prix distance at race pace. The first of the Gen 2's was to be revealed publicly at the Autosport Show on the 6 March, 2018.

Away from the new car and there was news of a minor change to the current SRT_01E, with at least half of the current 40 examples racing in the 2017/18 Championship getting retrofitted with new seat belts. The change, which saw the car's original "single-seater style" belts replaced by "endurance" belts, was requested by several teams after the FIA opted to drop the minimum pitstop time rule. The rule, which was designed to ensure that drivers had ample time to adjust their belts during the car swap, was to be dropped in Marrakech, but was reinstated after safety concerns.

The switch to "endurance" belts was to aid the car swap, as they were designed to be released and then re-belted in as little time as possible. Further revisions to the rules also allowed teams to employ "spotters" in the pitlane, who would be able to see further up and down the pitlane to avoid potential incidents.

Elsewhere, defending Champion Lucas di Grassi was slapped with a ten place grid penalty for the Santiago E-Prix, as Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler changed an inverter on one of his cars. Electrical gremlins at opening rounds, followed by another disaster in Marrakech, had seen the Brazilian fail to secure a single points finish, which Audi had finally traced back to their inverters. Unfortunately, in their attempts to cure the issue in Morocco, Audi had already used their "free" change of inverter, meaning the Brazilian would have to fight his way up from outside of the top ten.

Over at Andretti, meanwhile, there would be a late night after the shakedown, as one of António Félix da Costa's cars failed pre-weekend scrutineering. FIA technical delegate and scrutineer Carlos Funes overlooked the car, which had been rebuilt and raced after the Portuguese racer's accident in qualifying in Marrakech, and decided the Andretti team's repairs to the monocoque were insufficient. The Andretti squad therefore forced to rebuild the car on Friday night around a new monocoque, while the team were also fined €500 ($623) after their team manager failed to appear before the stewards in an unrelated incident.

Into the Championship itself and Felix Rosenqvist had moved to the top of the standings in Marrakech after his second successive victory, the Swede four points ahead of ex-leader Sam Bird. Jean-Éric Vergne had dropped to third, seven points further back, while Nelson Piquet Jr. moved into the top four ahead of Edoardo Mortara. Sébastien Buemi, however, would be the biggest mover, shooting into sixth from fourteenth, with Nick Heidfeld, Mitch Evans, Daniel Abt and António Félix da Costa completing the top ten.

Mahindra Racing were able to extend their lead atop the Teams' Championship after Rosenqvist's victory in Marrakech, the Indian based effort holding an eighteen point lead over DS Virgin Racing. Techeetah retained third thanks to Vergne, while Jaguar Racing moved back into fourth ahead of Venturi. Renault e.Dams made progress, moving level on points with the Monegasque squad but remained outside the top five, while Dragon Racing secured their first points of the season courtesy of José María López.

Entry List

The full entry list for the 2018 Santiago E-Prix is displayed below:

2018 Santiago E-Prix Entry List
No.	Name	Entrant	Constructor	Car
1	Lucas di Grassi	Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler	Audi	e-tron FE04
2	Sam Bird	DS Virgin Racing	DS	Virgin DSV-03
3	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Panasonic Jaguar Racing	Jaguar	I-Type II
4	Edoardo Mortara	Venturi Formula E Team	Venturi	VM200-FE-03
5	Maro Engel	Venturi Formula E Team	Venturi	VM200-FE-03
6	José María López	Dragon Racing	Penske	EV-2
7	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon Racing	Penske	EV-2
8	Nicolas Prost	Renault e.Dams	Renault	Z.E. 17
9	Sébastien Buemi	Renault e.Dams	Renault	Z.E. 17
16	Oliver Turvey	NIO Formula E Team	NextEV	NIO 003
18	André Lotterer	Techeetah	Renault	Z.E. 17
19	Felix Rosenqvist	Mahindra Racing	Mahindra	M4 Electro
20	Mitch Evans	Panasonic Jaguar Racing	Jaguar	I-Type II
23	Nick Heidfeld	Mahindra Racing	Mahindra	M4 Electro
25	Jean-Éric Vergne	Techeetah	Renault	Z.E. 17
27	Tom Blomqvist	MS&AD Andretti Formula E	Andretti	ATEC-04
28	António Félix da Costa	MS&AD Andretti Formula E	Andretti	ATEC-04
36	Alex Lynn	DS Virgin Racing	DS	Virgin DSV-03
66	Daniel Abt	Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler	Audi	e-tron FE04
68	Luca Filippi	NIO Formula E Team	NextEV	NIO 003
Source:

Qualifying

The standard qualifying format would be followed in Santiago ahead of its first E-Prix, with the drivers sorted in four groups of five based on their position in the Championship. Each group would then get six minutes on circuit to set a quick time, before the fastest five drivers overall proceeded to the Super Pole shootout. Those five would then go out, one at a time, to set a quick lap, with the rest of the grid, barring penalties, sorted based on their group times.

Group 1

The opening group of the day would feature those drivers in the bottom half of the top ten in the Championship, with Sébastien Buemi the standout name. Joining him would be another favourite for Super Pole in the form of Daniel Abt, while Mitch Evans also had a strong recent record in qualifying. Nick Heidfeld was another Super Pole contender, while António Félix da Costa was only really expected to challenge for a spot in the top ten.

Three drivers hit the circuit at the same time in group one, with Buemi having to weave ahead of Abt and Evans to get to the head of the queue, with da Costa and Heidfeld sandwiching the trio. All five managed to find space despite their bunching early on, although that was little consolation for Evans who threw away his lap by skating down the escape road at turn three. Elsewhere Buemi went fastest with a 1:19.182, half a second faster than Abt, with Heidfeld and da Costa the best part of a second off Buemi's effort.

Group 2

The top five in the Championship formed the second quintet of the afternoon, with three of the strongest drivers in the field in action, and expected to make it to Super Pole. Indeed, Championship leader Felix Rosenqvist, second placed Sam Bird, and Techeetah's Jean-Éric Vergne were all expected to perform, with the former two having featured in every Super Pole shootout in the season so far. As for Nelson Piquet Jr. and Edoardo Mortara their hopes rested mainly in picking up the scraps if any of their opponents made major mistakes.

Bird and Rosenqvist headed out very early in the second group, while Mortara, Vergne and Piquet waited as long as possible to head out. Unfortunately for Rosenqvist his lap was hampered by several rear lock-ups in the first sector, leaving him well out of Super Pole contention, as Bird found a tenth to get ahead of Buemi. Piquet was also on target to beat Buemi only to make a mistake in the final sector, while Vergne snuck his Techeetah in between Bird and Buemi to knock Rosenqvist out of Super Pole.

Mortara, meanwhile, would set a very strong sector one time, but proceeded to lose a second over the rest of the lap to leave him down in ninth.

Group 3

Into the third quintet and those placed eleventh through to fifteenth in the Championship would be in action, with all five considered to be outside contenders for the top ten at best. Indeed, while Nicolas Prost and Alex Lynn certainly had the equipment to qualify in Super Pole, neither had particularly impressive form to back their hopes. Likewise, Oliver Turvey would need a vast improvement in luck to get into the top five, while Maro Engel and José María López would require some minor miracles to break into the shootout.

Prost was the first man to head out in the third group, although the Frenchman's lap at maximum attack left him half a second off of Bird and fifth at the end of his lap. Lynn duly displaced him a few moments later, despite slapping the wall at the final corner, before Turvey split them after a strong first sector. Engel, meanwhile, would put in a reasonable effort, before López scraped his Dragon across several of the walls to finish eighth, a fraction behind Prost.

Group 4

Into the final group, and the final five in the Championship, and there were two drivers whom were expected to challenge for Super Pole, for both had been outperformed by their teammates throughout the season. Those men were defending Champion Lucas di Grassi and the second Techeetah racer in the form of André Lotterer, both of whom knew that they had the equipment to get into the shootout. Joining them on track would be the luckless Jérôme d'Ambrosio, and the two rookie racers Tom Blomqvist and Luca Filippi.

It was di Grassi whom got the ball rolling in the final group, with the Brazilian setting the fastest first and second sectors to claim a 1:19.053. d'Ambrosio was next but a non-factor in terms of Super Pole, while Lotterer put together an even more impressive opening pair of sectors to claim a 1:18.796. Blomqvist was next across the line but had hit the wall in the final sector, while Filippi ruined his lap by disappearing down an escape road at turn three.

Super Pole

Buemi would get the ball rolling in Super Pole having survived in the top five since the first group of the day, with a clean effort, bar a lock up into turn one, seeing him claim a 1:19.355. Vergne followed him out and duly beat the Swiss racer's effort, the Frenchman taking a couple of hundredths out of Buemi's time through every corner to claim a 1:19.161. Bird went next for DS knowing that pole would give him the lead in the Championship, only to spin into the outside wall on the brakes through turn five.

There was a small delay as the debris from Bird's accident was swept away, with just di Grassi and Lotterer still to run. It was the defending Champion who went first, but a scrappy second and third sector saw the Brazilian finish third, half a second off Vergne's effort. Lotterer then came out to try and beat his teammate, but the German ruined his lap immediately, slapping the wall on the exit of turn, smashing his left-rear suspension. Lotterer would complete his lap to finish ahead of Bird, which would become third once di Grassi served his grid penalty.

Post Qualifying

The final qualifying result for the 2018 Santiago E-Prix are outlined below:

2018 Santiago E-Prix Qualifying Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Time	Gap	Grid
1st	25	Jean-Éric Vergne	Techeetah	1:19.161	—	1
2nd	9	Sébastien Buemi	Renault e.Dams	1:19.355	+0.194s	2
3rd*	1	Lucas di Grassi	Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler	1:19.673	+0.512s	13
4th	18	André Lotterer	Techeetah	1:46.429	+27.268s	3
NC	2	Sam Bird	DS Virgin Racing	—		4
Super Pole
1st	18	André Lotterer	Techeetah	1:18.796	—	SP
2nd	1	Lucas di Grassi	Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler	1:19.053	+0.257s	SP
3rd	2	Sam Bird	DS Virgin Racing	1:19.076	+0.280s	SP
4th	25	Jean-Éric Vergne	Techeetah	1:19.124	+0.328s	SP
5th	9	Sébastien Buemi	Renault e.Dams	1:19.182	+0.386s	SP
6th	3	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Jaguar Racing	1:19.300	+0.504s	5
7th	36	Alex Lynn	DS Virgin Racing	1:19.447	+0.651s	6
8th	16	Oliver Turvey	NIO Formula E Team	1:19.574	+0.778s	7
9th†	8	Nicolas Prost	Renault e.Dams	1:19.623	+0.827s	10
10th	6	José María López	Dragon Racing	1:19.662	+0.866s	8
11th	66	Daniel Abt	Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler	1:19.726	+0.930s	9
12th	5	Maro Engel	Venturi	1:19.877	+1.081s	11
13th	7	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon Racing	1:19.923	+1.127s	12
14th	19	Felix Rosenqvist	Mahindra Racing	1:19.984	+1.188s	14
15th	23	Nick Heidfeld	Mahindra Racing	1:20.012	+1.216s	15
16th	28	António Félix da Costa	Andretti Formula E	1:20.132	+1.336s	16
17th	4	Edoardo Mortara	Venturi	1:20.157	+1.361s	17
18th	27	Tom Blomqvist	Andretti Formula E	1:20.422	+1.626s	18
NC‡	68	Luca Filippi	NIO Formula E Team	1:31.271	+12.475s	19
NC§	20	Mitch Evans	Jaguar Racing	1:40.540	+21.540s	20
Source:

• * di Grassi handed a ten place penalty for changing an inverter on one of his cars.
• ^† Prost handed a two place penalty for exceeding the maximum number of laps permitted in qualifying.
• ^‡ Filippi failed to set a time within 107% of the fastest in the group stage but would be allowed to start.
• ^§ Evans given a ten place penalty for a change of inverter after qualifying.

Race

It was an incredibly warm 30°C as the 4:00pm start time approached, with all teams and drivers concerned about cooling ahead of the start. Further hampering their preparations was the fact that the proper grid, used for the start, was half a lap away from the dummy grid at the finish line, meaning teams would have to factor in an additional, uncounted, half lap of energy use. Regardless, nineteen of the twenty starters would line-up on the grid for the start, the only absentee being Luca Filippi, who would start from the pit lane.

Report

A dramatic start to the E-Prix would see those on the pole side of the grid make far better starts, meaning the two Techeetahs were able to beat Sébastien Buemi off the line. Their efforts would, however, be completely overshadowed by a charging Nelson Piquet Jr., who braked later than anyone to briefly grab the lead into turn three, the first corner of the opening lap, only to be eased out by pole sitter Jean-Éric Vergne. Both scrambled through before Lotterer could take advantage, with the rest of the field squeezing through in their wake.

Into the following corner and there was to be some terminal contact in the middle of the pack, as José María López was bounced into the barriers off the side of Sam Bird. The Argentine had made a fantastic start to climb to fifth into turn four, only to be the victim of the narrow squeeze on the exit of the corner. His Dragon was left crumpled in the barriers while, behind, Edoardo Mortara climbed over the side of Nick Heidfeld, causing damage to both cars.

More carnage further around the opening lap would see Maro Engel slide into the wall at turn nine, partially blocking the circuit near the pit entry. That, combined with the wrecked Dragon López had been forced to abandon, meant that the BMW Qualcomm i8 safety car was called at the end of the opening lap. As Bruno Correia scrambled into action Heidfeld came into the pits, swapping to his second car in hopes his first could be repaired.

The race would restart on lap five, with Vergne briefly sprinting clear only to have Piquet almost challenge him into turn three. Another attempt followed a lap later, with the Brazilian misjudging his braking and tagging the back of the Frenchman, removing one of the rear-pods from the back of the Techeetah. Fortunately there would be no repercussions due to the incident, with Vergne soon pulling clear to leave Piquet fighting off Lotterer.

As Vergne inched clear there would be some changes in the pack, with Lucas di Grassi breaking into the top ten with a move on teammate Daniel Abt, moments before the German hit the pits with an issue. di Grassi's next move came on lap twelve, a dive on the brakes into turn three on Oliver Turvey, with Felix Rosenqvist and Mitch Evans lining up behind the Brit a few moments later. Indeed, as the fight for second began to slow the pace for everyone in the top five, it seemed even more likely that di Grassi would get the chance to ignite his title defence.

Nicolas Prost was di Grassi's next victim in the top ten, while Rosenqvist and Evans tried but failed to edge past Turvey. Elsewhere the two Andretti's were going toe-to-toe at the back of the field, António Félix da Costa seizing the advantage over Tom Blomqvist, while Edoardo Mortara made a mistake and slithered into the barriers at turn three. Fortunately the Italian/Swiss racer escaped without damage, and would soon begin to make up for his mistake with a move on Heidfeld.

The safety car period had effectively pushed the pitwindow back a couple of laps, meaning the first of the stops were expected on lap nineteen. The first man to stop, and therefore the first to complete a full-blooded car switch without a minimum pitstop time, would be Piquet, who had lost out to a Lotterer dive earlier that lap. Prost, Turvey, Blomqvist and Filippi joined him that lap, with Vergne leading most of the field in on the following tour.

Bird was the only man, other than the lowly Mortara, to try and get an extra lap in before his stop, although both would ultimately lose out by having to reduce their pace in the final sector, lest they ran out of energy. Vergne was therefore safely in the lead ahead of teammate Lotterer, while Piquet had just held on for third ahead of Buemi. Rosenqvist was next after an excellent stop by the Mahindra crew, with Alex Lynn now ahead of Bird after the latter's pre-stop gamble.

The major absentee from this list would be di Grassi, who was struck down once again by electrical gremlins after his stop. The Brazilian made it halfway around the lap before grinding to a halt, having just seen Turvey stop on the finishing straight with his own issues. Fortunately the Brazilian managed to limp the car back to the pits without causing a full course yellow, moments before Abt was officially retired in his second car. Heidfeld also went out at the same time, having used all of his battery power in his second machine.

Another retirement came in the form of Lynn, whose overheating DS Virgin rolled to a stop on the finishing straight. As he was pushed away, Buemi tried to use his FanBoost to take Piquet into turn three, but found himself too far behind to secure the position. However, the Brazilian was now having too look in his mirrors and worry about the Swiss racer, who duly sold him a dummy into the turn eight hairpin later in the lap to claim third.

As he did so, Lotterer tagged onto the back of teammate Vergne for the lead, launching a flurry of attacks at the start of the next tour. Vergne, who believed he had to conserve more energy than needed due to a software glitch, defended heavily into turn three, meaning the pair almost made contact on the exit. An identical attack came a lap later, with the subsequent squabbling allowing Buemi and Piquet to close right onto the back of the Techeetahs.

Indeed, it was Piquet, sensing a sudden opportunity to take an unlikely victory for Jaguar who made the next move, throwing his I-Type up the inside of Buemi into turn three on lap thirty-one. Unfortunately the Brazilian had completely misjudged his braking point, and duly slid down the escape road completely locked up, nosing into the barriers as Buemi, Rosenqvist and Bird took the corner correctly. The Brazilian rejoined without major damage, and would begin to close on the leaders again well clear of Jérôme d'Ambrosio in seventh.

These changes came in the midst of a brief cease-fire in the civil war at the head of the field, with Lotterer trying another move into turn three on lap 33, five from the end. This time, however, Vergne came across and blocked the move as the pair hit the brakes, causing Lotterer to completely lock-up and hit the back of his teammate. Indeed, the #18 Techeetah would actually mount the back of the sister car as the pair came to a near stop across turn three, miraculously causing no damage to either car. They even managed to escape turn three without losing a position, although Buemi, Rosenqvist and Bird were now right behind them.

Another ceasefire saw attention return to Buemi who, after a brief attack on Lotterer post contact, was now having to defend heavily from Rosenqvist. The 2015/16 Champion put together an excellent defence, and as the race entered its penultimate tour it seemed as if Rosenqvist would not get another shot. That was, until Lotterer tried another dive on Vergne into turn three with a lap to go, causing the top five to close up once again.

Rosenqvist tried two further moves on Buemi on the penultimate tour, both moves falling short as Buemi forced the Swede wide at turns eight and eleven. Lotterer, meanwhile, tried a half-hearted move on Vergne at the start of the final tour before settling for second, meaning it was left to Buemi to fend off Rosenqvist for third. The Swede would ultimately misjudge his final attempt at taking the position, running wide onto the dust at the plaza and losing momentum to allow Buemi to escape.

With that the race was run, with Vergne flying across the line believing he still had to complete another lap, the result of a software glitch and broken radio antenna. Lotterer came home second to complete a first ever one-two for Techeetah, a first for the Formula E Championship too, while Buemi held on for third to make it a clean sweep of the podium for the Renault powertrain. Rosenqvist, Bird and a charging Piquet were next, with Evans, d'Ambrosio, da Costa and Prost rounding out the points.

Post-race

After the race and podium celebrations it was announced that the two Techeetah cars, and d'Ambrosio's Dragon, were under investigation for failing a check in scrutineering. Three of the six cars were found to have had modifications made to their new "endurance" style belts, the addition of a small grip onto the buckle of all three sets having been found. Ultimately the FIA decided that this was not an issue of safety, and duly allowed all three drivers to keep their finishing positions, but Techeetah and Dragon were fined for not consulting with the stewards before making changes.

The FIA also released a statement that they would investigate the rules regarding the new safety harness design ahead of the Mexico City E-Prix.

Result

The final classification of the 2018 Santiago E-Prix is displayed below, with the fastest lap setter indicated in italics, and the pole sitter shown in bold.

2018 Santiago E-Prix Race Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Laps	Race Time	Fastest lap	Pts.
1st	25	Jean-Éric Vergne	Techeetah	37	1:01:24.514	1:20.928	28
2nd	18	André Lotterer	Techeetah	37	+1.154s	1:20.633	18
3rd	9	Sébastien Buemi	Renault e.Dams	37	+1.959s	1:20.517	15
4th	19	Felix Rosenqvist	Mahindra Racing	37	+2.793s	1:20.424	12
5th	2	Sam Bird	DS Virgin Racing	37	+4.490s	1:20.235	11
6th	3	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Jaguar Racing	37	+6.364s	1:20.442	8
7th	20	Mitch Evans	Jaguar Racing	37	+7.099s	1:20.627	6
8th	7	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon Racing	37	+13.308s	1:20.898	4
9th	28	António Félix da Costa	Andretti Formula E	37	+14.811s	1:20.432	2
10th	8	Nicolas Prost	Renault e.Dams	37	+21.092s	1:21.210	1
11th	27	Tom Blomqvist	Andretti Formula E	37	+32.924s	1:21.468
12th	68	Luca Filippi	NIO Formula E Team	37	+44.127s	1:21.214
13th	4	Edoardo Mortara	Venturi	37	+49.398s	1:20.719
14th	16	Oliver Turvey	NIO Formula E Team	37	+1:12.282	1:20.726
Ret	36	Alex Lynn	DS Virgin Racing	26	Electrical	1:21.012
Ret	23	Nick Heidfeld	Mahindra Racing	23	Damage	1:22.832
Ret	1	Lucas di Grassi	Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler	21	Inverter	1:21.106
Ret	66	Daniel Abt	Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler	11	Retired	1:23.480
Ret	6	José María López	Dragon Racing	0	Accident	—
Ret	5	Maro Engel	Venturi	0	Accident	—
Source:

• Indicates a driver was awarded FanBoost during the race.

Milestones

• First E-Prix to be staged in Santiago, Chile.
• Sébastien Buemi and Jean-Éric Vergne made their 35th E-Prix starts.
• Second career victory for Vergne.
• Techeetah claimed their second victory as an entrant.
• Maiden podium finish for André Lotterer.
  • Lotterer's second place also meant that Techeetah were the first team to secure a one-two at an E-Prix.
• Fifth fastest lap recorded by Sam Bird.
• Twentieth FanBoost wins for Buemi and Lucas di Grassi.
• Renault became the first manufacturer to lock out the podium with their powertrain.

Standings

Victory ensured that Jean-Éric Vergne moved to the top of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship hunt, the Parisian leaving Chile with 71 points to his name. Felix Rosenqvist slipped to second in spite of his excellent recovery drive, falling five behind, with Sam Bird also losing a position as he dropped five further points back. Sébastien Buemi was up to fourth ahead of Nelson Piquet Jr., while Lucas di Grassi left Santiago as the only full-season driver yet to score in 2017/18.

The historic one-two for Techeetah would be enough to nudge the Chinese squad to the top of the Teams' Standings with a two point advantage. Mahindra Racing made way for them having extended their own advantage over DS Virgin Racing to eighteen points. Jaguar Racing remained in fourth, while three time Champions Renault e.Dams finally broke into the top five after their difficult start to the season.

 

2017/18 Drivers' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Jean-Éric Vergne 71 ▲2 2nd Felix Rosenqvist 66 ▼1 3rd Sam Bird 61 ▼1 4th Sébastien Buemi 37 ▲2 5th Nelson Piquet Jr. 33 ▼1 6th Edoardo Mortara 24 ▼1 7th Mitch Evans 21 ▲1 8th Nick Heidfeld 21 ▼1 9th André Lotterer 18 ▲9 10th Daniel Abt 12 ▼1 11th António Félix da Costa 10 ▼1 12th Oliver Turvey 8 ▼1 13th José María López 8 ▼1 14th Alex Lynn 8 ▼1 15th Nicolas Prost 7 ◄0 16th Maro Engel 6 ▼2 17th Tom Blomqvist 4 ▼1 18th Jérôme d'Ambrosio 4 ▲1 19th Luca Filippi 1 ▼2

2017/18 Teams' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Techeetah 89 ▲2 2nd Mahindra Racing 87 ▼1 3rd DS Virgin Racing 69 ▼1 4th Jaguar Racing 54 ◄0 5th Renault e.Dams 44 ▲1 6th Venturi Formula E Team 30 ▼1 7th Andretti Formula E 14 ▲1 8th Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler 12 ▼1 9th Dragon Racing 12 ▲1 10th NIO Formula E Team 9 ▼1

Only point scoring drivers are shown.

References

Videos and Images:

• 'Introducing: the Gen2 Formula E car', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 30/01/2018), http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2018/january/introducing-the-gen2-formula-e-car/, (Accessed 30/01/2018)

References: