2019 Sanya eTrophy Race

2019 Sanya eTrophy Race
The eTrophy version of the Sanya Street Circuit.
Race Information
Date	23 March 2019
Official Name	2019 Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy Sanya Race
Location	Haitang Bay Circuit, Hainan Island, China
Lap length	2.360 km (1.466 mi)
Distance	12 laps / 28.320 km (17.597 mi)
Supporting	2019 Sanya E-Prix
Qualifying Result
Pole Sitter	Cacá Bueno
Team	Jaguar Brazil Racing
Time	1:27.373
Fastest Lap
Driver	Bryan Sellers
Team	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Fastest Lap	1:28.357 on lap 5
eTrophy Result
First	Second	Third
Cacá Bueno	Simon Evans	Stefan Rzadzinski
Winner Team	Jaguar Brazil Racing
Time	27:57.386
eTrophy Guide
Previous		Next
2019 Hong Kong eTrophy Race		2019 Rome eTrophy Race

The 2019 Sanya eTrophy Race, otherwise officially known as the 2019 Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy Sanya Race, was the fourth round of the 2018/19 FIA Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy, staged at the Haitang Bay Circuit in Hainan Island, China, on the 23 March 2019. The race was held in support of the 2019 Sanya E-Prix, and would see Cacá Bueno claim his first victory of the season after a late red flag.

Qualifying for the eTrophy race had seen Bueno sweep to his maiden pole position in the series, beating Simon Evans with an early effort. Sérgio Jimenez was next, surviving a brush with the wall, while Bandar Alesayi secured top spot in the PRO-Am field.

Bueno would ace his getaway off the grid at the start of the race, fending off a challenge from Evans into the first corner. The rest of the field got off the line without major issue, and essentially remained in grid order in both PRO and PRO-Am.

Indeed, the race soon settled into a rather tepid affair, the only action of note being a squabble between Katherine Legge and Stefan Rzadzinski at the lower end of the top six. That was, until Tao Wang stopped on circuit, bringing out a red flag as he ground to a halt in a very difficult position to recover a car.

The race was subsequently stopped for ten minutes, although there was no provision to stop the clock as happened for Formula E. As such ten minutes was lost from the 25 minute race, with the race subsequently resuming behind the BMW Qualcomm i8 safety car with eight minutes to go.

Bueno duly aced the restart and went on to claim victory, in spite of a late challenge from Evans in the closing stages. Bryan Sellers claimed third to extend his Championship lead, only to be excluded post-race after his car failed post-race scrutineering. Rzadzinski was hence classified in third, his and TWR Techeetah's maiden podium finish.

Background

The Chinese resort city of Sanya was chosen to host the sixth round of the 2018/19 ABB FIA Formula E Championship, with provision also made for the FIA Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy to run in support. Indeed, the Sanya race would be an important one for the eTrophy, serving as the home race for TWR Techeetah, as well as Jaguar China Racing and their drivers Yaqi Zhang and Qi Lin. There would be another Chinese racer in the field for the Sanya slog, with LMP2 racer and Jackie Chan DC Racing co-owner David Cheng set to make his debut in the VIP entry.

Into the Championship and victory in Hong Kong had ensured that Bryan Sellers sat at the head of the PRO Championship field, the American ace establishing a four point lead over teammmate Katherine Legge. Their closest challenger had remained Sérgio Jimenez, who arrived in Sanya five off of Legge's 42 point tally. Simon Evans was next having failed to stand on the podium since Ad Diriyah, while Cacá Bueno and Stefan Rzadzinski were still awaiting their first podium finishes.

Bandar Alesayi had retained the lead in the PRO-Am field in Hong Kong, despite being beaten to victory for the first time. Indeed, PRO-Am race winner Zhang had only climbed to third after his maiden triumph, although the Chinese racer was just a point behind Alesayi's teammate Ahmed Bin Khanen in the title hunt. Elsewhere, Célia Martin had moved off the foot of the table with her strong finish, leaving Qi Ling and Tao Wang level on eleven at the bottom of the pile.

Entry List

The full entry list for the 2019 Sanya eTrophy Race is displayed below:

2019 Sanya eTrophy Race Entry List
No.	Name	Entrant	Constructor	Car
0	Cacá Bueno	Jaguar Brazil Racing	Jaguar	I-Pace eTrophy
1	David Cheng	Jaguar VIP Car	Jaguar	I-Pace eTrophy
3	Katherine Legge	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Jaguar	I-Pace eTrophy
6	Bryan Sellers	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Jaguar	I-Pace eTrophy
7	Célia Martin	Viessman Jaguar Team Germany	Jaguar	I-Pace eTrophy
8	Tao Wang	Team China	Jaguar	I-Pace eTrophy
9	Yaqi Zhang	Team China	Jaguar	I-Pace eTrophy
10	Sérgio Jimenez	Jaguar Brazil Racing	Jaguar	I-Pace eTrophy
12	Bandar Alesayi	Saudi Racing	Jaguar	I-Pace eTrophy
24	Ahmed Bin Khanen	Saudi Racing	Jaguar	I-Pace eTrophy
99	Simon Evans	Team Asia New Zealand	Jaguar	I-Pace eTrophy
Source:

Qualifying

Post Qualifying

The final qualifying result for the 2019 Sanya eTrophy Race are outlined below:

2019 Sanya eTrophy Race Qualifying Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Time	Gap	Grid
1st	0	Cacá Bueno	Jaguar Brazil Racing	1:27.373	—	1
2nd	99	Simon Evans	Team Asia New Zealand	1:27.383	+0.010s	2
3rd*	10	Sérgio Jimenez	Jaguar Brazil Racing	1:27.415	+0.042s	5
4th	6	Bryan Sellers	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1:27.456	+0.083s	3
5th	18	Stefan Rzadzinski	TWR Techeetah	1:27.522	+0.149s	4
6th	12	Bandar Alesayi	Saudi Racing	1:27.864	+0.491s	6
7th†	9	Yaqi Zhang	Jaguar China Racing	1:27.871	+0.498s	11
8th	3	Katherine Legge	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1:28.094	+0.721s	7
9th	24	Ahmed Bin Khanen	Saudi Racing	1:28.128	+0.755s	8
10th‡	7	Célia Martin	Viessmann Jaguar Team Germany	1:28.294	+0.921s	—
11th	8	Tao Wang	Jaguar China Racing	1:28.589	+1.216s	9
12th	1	David Cheng	Jaguar VIP Car	1:29.014	+1.641s	10
110% Time: 1:36.110
Source:

• * Jimenez was handed a two place grid position for incidents in Hong Kong.
• ^† Zhang received multiple grid penalties for incidents in Hong Kong and illegal blocking.
• ^‡ Martin was unable to start the race due to damage sustained during qualifying.

Race

Result

The final classification of the 2019 Sanya eTrophy Race is displayed below, with the fastest lap setter indicated in italics, and the pole sitter shown in bold.

2019 Sanya eTrophy Race Race Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Laps	Race Time	Fastest lap	Pts.
1st	0	Cacá Bueno	Jaguar Brazil Racing	12	27:57.386	1:28.574	21
2nd	99	Simon Evans	Team Asia New Zealand	12	+1.576s	1:28.575	15
3rd	18	Stefan Rzadzinski	TWR Techeetah	12	+6.255s	1:28.592	11
4th	10	Sérgio Jimenez	Jaguar Brazil Racing	12	+6.890s	1:28.749	8
5th	3	Katherine Legge	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	12	+6.986s	1:28.934	6
6th	12	Bandar Alesayi	Saudi Racing	12	+7.978s	1:29.124	21
7th	1	David Cheng	Jaguar VIP Car	12	+18.247s	1:30.157
8th	24	Ahmed Bin Khanen	Saudi Racing	12	+20.379s	1:29.533	15
9th	9	Yaqi Zhang	Jaguar China Racing	12	+26.288s	1:29.078	11
DSQ*	6	Bryan Sellers	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	12	Disqualified	1:28.357
Ret	8	Tao Wang	Jaguar China Racing	4	Retired	1:29.521
DNS	7	Célia Martin	Viessmann Jaguar Team Germany
Source:

• * Sellers was disqualified from the results of the race after his car failed post-race scrutineering.

Milestones

• Debut race for David Cheng.
• Maiden victory for Cacá Bueno.
  • This was also the first eTrophy win for Jaguar Brazil Racing.
• Maiden podium finish for Stefan Rzadzinski.
• Third PRO-Am win for Bandar Alesayi.
  • Also the third win for Saudi Racing in PRO-Am.

Standings

The post-race disqualification for Bryan Sellers was a fair blow to the American's title hopes, for it ensured that Sellers lost his lead in the PRO Championship. He duly dropped to third behind teammate Katherine Legge, as Simon Evans moved a point clear at the head of the field. Sellers himself was just three off the lead, while race winner Cacá Bueno had moved just five off the lead in fifth.

In the PRO-Am Championship it was still advantage Bandar Alesayi, with the Saudi Arabian racer collecting his third win of the season. He hence established a 32 point lead over teammate Ahmed Bin Khanen in second, with a further five points back to Yaqi Zhang in third. Those three were the only scorers in Sanya, with Célia Martin best of the rest in fourth.

 

2018/19 PRO Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Simon Evans 49 ▲3 2nd Katherine Legge 48 ◄0 3rd Bryan Sellers 46 ▼2 4th Sérgio Jimenez 45 ▼1 5th Cacá Bueno 44 ◄0 6th Stefan Rzadzinski 16 ◄0

2018/19 PRO/AM Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Bandar Alesayi 77 ◄0 2nd Ahmed Bin Khanen 45 ◄0 3rd Yaqi Zhang 40 ◄0 4th Célia Martin 17 ◄0 5th Tao Wang 11 ▲1 6th Qi Lin 11 ▼1

Only point scoring drivers.

References

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