2016 Hong Kong ePrix

Background

The idea for a race in Hong Kong was first raised in 2013 with a design team visiting the city and was intended to be included in the 2014–15 season schedule but negotiations and approval from local authorities and motorsport's international governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), went longer than anticipated. In October 2015 the Hong Kong ePrix was announced by the CEO and founder of Formula E Alejandro Agag in a press conference at the Central Harbour Front Event Space but pended further review from the FIA. The event was later confirmed as part of Formula E's 2016-17 series schedule in September 2016 by the FIA World Motor Sport Council. It was the first of 12 scheduled single-seater electric car races of the season, and was held on 9 October 2016 at the Hong Kong Central Harbourfront Circuit. The event was contested by ten teams of two drivers each. The teams were e.Dams Renault, Audi Sport ABT, DS Virgin Racing, Dragon Racing, Mahindra Racing, Venturi, MS Amlin Andretti, Techeetah, NextEV and Jaguar.

Heading into the new season, some teams opted to keep the same line-up as they had in the previous season, however some teams changed drivers. One of the main changes involved the début appearance of Jaguar in the sport with the 2008–09 A1 Grand Prix champion Adam Carroll and the 2012 GP3 Series title winner Mitch Evans competing for the team. Team Aguri was purchased by Chinese sports development and management firm SECA during the previous season and was renamed Techeetah with Jean-Éric Vergne and Ma Qinghua announced as the team's drivers. Defending FIA GT World Cup champion Maro Engel was hired by Venturi to replace World Endurance Championship driver Mike Conway, while DS Virgin Racing employed three-time consecutive World Touring Car champion José María López to partner Formula E race winner Sam Bird. The final change involved two-time Macau Grand Prix winner and reigning European Formula Three champion Felix Rosenqvist who entered the series with Mahindra Racing and partnered Nick Heidfeld. Defending drivers' champion Sébastien Buemi stayed at e.Dams Renault after his title-winning campaign, with the Swiss driver again being joined by Nicolas Prost.

Buemi believed that the increase in competition for the championship's third season meant he was unable to focus on emulating his triumph from the previous season, saying that while he was not thinking about clinching the title he wanted to win as many races as he could. Lucas di Grassi, who finished second to Buemi in the drivers' championship the previous season, stated that his team had a high amount of motivation and aimed to become the new drivers' champion after having placed third and second in the previous two seasons but felt that the sport was going to possibly experience "the most diverse and perhaps most exciting Formula E season.” di Grassi hoped to win the race and it would be "amazing" if he became the race's inaugural winner. Heidfeld revealed that he was looking forward to the new season commencing and aimed to help his team gain positions in the championship.

The ten-corner track is 1.860 kilometres (1.156 mi) long and was designed by Rodrigo Nunes. It was constructed in eight days and was completed on the Friday before the event because the local authorities denied permission for the streets to be closed to traffic before that day. US$2.6 million (HK$20 million) was spent on relocating street lighting and cutting down trees, lowering underground facilities covers and converting existing roadside infrastructure. The circuit received positive feedback from drivers. Ma called the track "very exciting" and felt that the race would see a large amount of overtaking manoevures. Rosenqvist felt the track appeared "incredible" which went beyond his expectations. It reminded him more of race circuits in the United States than Macau and noted that the track was bumpy. However, concerns were raised over the turn three chicane which had no kerbs or any visible markings. Heidfeld felt there was an risk of a driver crashing his car in the area with António Félix da Costa backing up the Mahindra Racing driver's view and stated that tyres needed to be installed along with observation of the turn's run-off area.

Practice and qualifying

Two practice sessions—both on Sunday morning—were held before the Sunday late afternoon race. The first session ran for 45 minutes and the second lasted 30 minutes. A 30-minute shakedown was held on Saturday afternoon before the practice sessions and saw Ma record the fastest time of one minute and 8.633 seconds, four-tenths of a second faster than Nelson Piquet Jr. in second. The session was temporarily halted when Prost's car stopped on track. Both practice sessions took place in warm weather conditions. di Grassi used the full 200 kilowatts (270 hp) available to him and recorded the fastest time of the first practice session at one minute and 2.381 seconds, 0.145 seconds faster than Buemi in second. Daniel Abt was third-fastest, ahead of Engel and Vergne. Bird, Stéphane Sarrazin, Prost, da Costa and Rosenqvist rounded out the session's top ten fastest drivers. The session was first disrupted when Oliver Turvey's vehicle stopped on track with an electrical issue after four minutes, necessiating the brief deployment of red flags, to allow course workers to remove his car from the circuit. A second stoppage occurred when Robin Frijns (who previously spun twice) lost control of his car at turn nine and blocked the track, and Rosenqvist impacted the first turn barrier and was stranded at the corner's run-off area.

In the second practice session, Vergne was quickest with a lap of one minute and 2.350 seconds, ahead of Prost in second and Bird third. Rosenqvist was fourth-fastest; da Costa was fifth and Heidfeld sixth. Buemi was seventh-fastest, Ma eighth, Sarrazin ninth and Loïc Duval rounded the top ten ahead of qualifying. Duval lost control of his car and crashed into the turn ten outside barrier's exit, removing both his right-hand side tyres, and caused the session to be stopped for ten minutes to allow his car to be removed from the centre of the track. Engel spun and damaged his right-rear suspension, but was able to drive slowly back to the pit lane. di Grassi ran wide and went deep into the turn two run-off area. He spun his car to leave the corner but made contact with the wall, removing his rear wing. López lost his vehicle's nose cone in a collision with the wall at the same corner, and his rear wing was removed from his car when he impacted the turn eight barrier. The driver's rear wing was off the racing line, avoiding the need for yellow flags, and Piquet caused the session to conclude under red flag conditions when he heavily collided with the chicane exit barrier.

After the practice sessions but before qualifying, event officials elected to removed a kerb at the chicane with the teams notified of the change shortly before qualifying began. Saturday afternoon's qualifying session ran for 60 minutes was divided into four groups of five cars. Each group was determined by a lottery system and were permitted six minutes of on-track activity. All drivers were limited to two timed laps with one at maximum power. The fastest five competitors in the four groups were scheduled to participate in a "Super Pole" session with one driver on track at any time and went out in reverse order. Each of the five drivers were limited to one timed lap and the starting order was determined by the competitors fastest times. The driver who recorded the fastest time was awarded three points towards both championships. Qualifying was held in warm weather conditions. The modifications to the kerb and a dirty track resulted in lap times being a least one second slower than had been seen in qualifying and Super Pole was cancelled following several long delays caused by drivers crashing their cars and the starting order was determined by the fastest overall times in the three groups.

Piquet clinched the first pole position of his career and the maiden first position start for his team NextEV with a time of one minute and 3.099 seconds. He was joined on the grid's front row by teammate Turvey who was 0.132 seconds slower than Piquet's time. In his first Formula E qualifying session, López qualified third in front of his teammate Bird. Buemi went out first in the fourth group and was initially two-tenths of a second slower than Piquet despite not running wide or making contact with the barriers on his full power lap and took fifth place. Rosenqvist was the first driver to go onto the track in the group three and drove aggressively which saw him make light contact with the barrier to qualify sixth. Abt took seventh place, ahead of Duval but the driver served a three-place starting position penalty after he was observed speeding under red-flag conditions in the shakedown session. As a result, Vergne inherited the position and his fastest time was achieved on cold tyres and brakes. Prost's full power lap saw him narrowly avoid impacting the chicane and his car slid at the final turn which restricted him to starting ninth. Heidfeld rounded out the top-ten qualifiers.

Engel was the fastest driver who was not issued with a penalty to not qualify within the top ten; his fastest time was eight-tenths of a second slower than Piquet's pole position lap. He was more than one-tenth of a second faster than 13th-placed qualifier da Costa, who in turn, was nearly four-tenths ahead of débutant Carroll. The three drivers were followed by Sarrazin in 15th, and Evans in 16th; the latter struggled with cold brakes and tyres which prevented him from going faster. Ma's left-rear quarter was damaged when he made contact with the barriers lining the circuit and qualified 17th. Jérôme d'Ambrosio struggled and was restricted to starting behind Ma. di Grassi pushed hard and made a mistake at the chicane, making contact with the wall, and his front-left quarter was damaged, triggering red-flag conditions with three minutes left of the second group's running. He was restricted to starting 19th. Frijns completed the field and caused qualifying to be temporarily stopped when his car went airborne after hitting the kerbs at the chicane and collided with the barrier.

Race

A special feature of Formula E is the "Fan Boost" feature, an additional 100 kilowatts (130 hp) of power to use during the second half of the race. The three drivers, who were allowed to use the boost, were determined by a fan vote. For the Hong Kong race, Buemi, di Grassi and López were handed the extra power and the results were announced on the 14th lap. Weather conditions at the start of the race were dry, warm and mostly sunny with an air temperature ranging from 28.0–28.8 °C (82.4–83.8 °F) and a track temperature between 36.1–37.8 °C (97.0–100.0 °F). Rain showers from an nearby typhoon had been forecast for the race but moved away from Hong Kong before it started. 30,000 people attended the event. The race began at 16:00 Hong Kong Time (UTC+8). When the event started, Piquet and Turvey made clean getaways and maintained the first and second positions on the straight heading into the first turn. López ran wide leaving the first corner, made minor contact with the turn's barrier, allowing teammate Bird and Buemi to overtake him. López lightly hit Bird and fell down the running order because of heavy steering damage. Under braking for the second turn, Abt's rear wing was removed when an Andretti vehicle collided with him, causing Ma to heavily apply his brakes, and struck the back-end of da Costa's car, which led to the former's front wing becoming removed in the incident. di Grassi was unable to slow and collided with Ma's back-end, removing the front-right section of his nose cone.

Prost made the worst start in the field because of an incorrect power setting, moving from ninth to 14th by the end of the first lap, while Heidfeld made four positions over the same distance. At the end of the first lap Piquet led from teammate Turvey, who in turn, was followed by Bird, Buemi, López, Heidfeld, Rosenqvist, Duval, Vergne, Abt, Engel, da Costa, Evans, Prost, Sarrazin, Carroll, di Grassi, d'Ambrosio, Frijns and Ma. Piquet pulled away from the rest of the field as Buemi started to close the gap to Bird and Turvey. López fell down to eighth on the second lap after he was overtaken by Mahindra Racing drivers Heidfeld and Rosenqvist along with Duval. Both di Grassi and Abt were shown a black flag with an orange circle, requiring the pair to make pit stops for repairs to their cars. Ma switched to a second car but became the race's first retirement shortly afterwards because of an battery issue. Bird placed Turvey under pressure which allowed Piquet to open up a two-second advantage by lap four. di Grassi moved to the outside line heading into the chicane on the fifth lap and overtook Sarrazin and López leaving the turn and moved in front of Carroll heading into the second corner. Bird overtook Turvey for the second position on lap six, and Buemi overtook the NextEV driver by taking the inside lane in turn one on the following lap.

Vergne dropped down the order when his car developed a water pump battery failure and was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop to move into his second vehicle on lap eight, while di Grassi made his required pit stop for a replacement front wing on the same lap and narrowly avoided striking a trackside marshal after leaving his pit stall. López had dropped to 18th place by the start of the following lap. Bird briefly reduced the time deficit to Piquet until the Brazilian driver responded to the DS Virgin Racing car's fast pace. Rosenqvist lost control of the back-end of his car and slid backwards into the turn five barrier on the 14th lap, damaging his rear wing. The incident forced him to make a pit stop for the switch into his second car. López carried a large amount of speed exiting the chicane and made heavy contact with the wall on lap 17. Piquet was close behind him and took avoiding action but reacted late and had an understeer which sent him into the barrier. He did not damage his car and was able to reverse out of the barrier but lost the lead to Bird and Buemi moved into second place. The incident necessitated the deployment of the safety car to allow marshals to repair the wall and extract López's car from the track. Some drivers (including Buemi) elected to make mandatory pit stops to switch into their second cars under safety car conditions at the end of the 20th lap.

Bird elected to not to make a pit stop and maintained the lead at the lap-21 restart, ahead of da Costa. Piquet chose to make his pit stop immediately after racing resumed. Bird pulled away from da Costa who was being held up by the delayed Vergne. He chose to remain on the circuit with a strategy to conserve his car's electrical energy usage which was being followed by both Jaguar drivers. Bird made his pit stop at the end of the 25th lap and it appeared that he would rejoin the race in the lead but technical problems with his second car caused him to search for different reset proceducres, losing the driver one minute and 27 seconds and rejoined the circuit one lap down in 15th position. An electrical issue was discovered on Evans' second car during his pit stop and his team elected to retire him on the same lap to prevent further damage. Frijns led the field for one lap before making his pit stop on the 26th lap. Buemi took over the first position from Frijns with di Grassi in second place and Heidfeld third. di Grassi closed to within less than two seconds behind Buemi with ten laps of the race left with the e.Dams Renault driver reacting by extending his advantage to 2.5 seconds. Rosenqvist set the race's fastest lap on lap 36, competing a circuit of one minute and 2.947 seconds, which earned him one championship point.

By the 38th lap, drivers who made their stops during the safety car period entered into their electrical energy conservation phase. MS Amlin Andretti chose to allow their drivers to remain on the circuit for as long as possible and their strategy allowed da Costa and Frijns to catch and overtake d'Ambrosio and Turvey for the fifth and sixth positions in the event's closing period. da Costa then attempted to catch the fourth-placed Prost but was unable to get close to the driver. As the field began the final lap, di Grassi, Heidfeld and Prost had five percent of usage electrical energy remaining and Buemi was unchallenged for the remainder of the race to secure the victory. di Grassi finished second, ahead of Heidfeld in third. Prost was fourth and da Costa fifth. Frijns, d'Ambrosio, Turvey, Engel and Sarrazin rounded out the top ten points-scoring positions. Piquet, Carroll filled the next two positions. Bird was fast enough to unlap himself by passing the race leaders, despite spinning his tyres at the circuit's low-speed exit turns, and finished in 13th. Duval and Rosenqvist were the last of the classified finishers. It was Buemi's first victory of the season and the seventh of his Formula E career. There were three lead changes in the race; four drivers reached the front of the field. Buemi led once for a total of 20 laps, more than any other competitor. Of the two late event retirements, Vergne stopped with an overheating battery, and Abt lost all electrical energy in his car after completing 34 laps.

Post-race

The top three drivers appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and in a later press conference. Buemi said that the race had not been easy because his battery had greatly overheated and another lap would have meant he would not have been able to finish. Nevertheless, the driver was happy that he had begun the new season with a victory after having ended the previous campaign badly. He later confessed that luck played a role in him securing the win as his car was not set-up to his preferences but reserved praise to his strategist. Second-place finisher di Grassi said that he was delighted with the result and that his race had been "crazy" which demonstrated that this team they did not stop and it was "a great start" to his season. The driver praised his mechanics for helping him remain on the same lap as the leaders and believed that he was targeting the fastest lap award but his team instructed him to keep pushing. Heidfeld, who finished in third, stated that he was happy to achieve a podium position in the first race of the season and hoped that his team could finish their forward progress in the championship.

Piquet said it was a mixed day for his team considering that he had achieved the pole position and that he made a quick getaway at the start but was disappointed with his eleventh-place finish. He stated that the incident with López may have happened to any other driver but the driver was looking forward to the next race of the season where he hoped to qualify in a good position and his team were going to keep pushing. Bird was disappointed with the result, saying it was beneficial if the technical problems with his second at the pit stop were diagnosed in the season's first race rather than later on. His teammate López thanked the sport's fans for voting him to receive the Fan Boost and was upbeat despite retiring from his maiden ePrix: "The car is fast and I think qualifying proved that. I’m sure the end result will be much, much better in Marrakech." Vergne stated that he lost the chance to achieve a strong result in the race when his car developed problems with his car's water pump and described the event as "a big mess" but felt certain that he could secure the championship.

As this was the first race of the season, Buemi led the Drivers' Championship with 25 points, seven ahead of nearest rival di Grassi in second, who in turn, was a further three in front of the third-placed Heidfeld. Prost was fourth on 12 points, and da Costa rounded out the top five with ten points. e.Dams Renault's first and fourth-place finishes meant they became the leaders of the Teams' Championship with 37 points; Audi Sport ABY and MS Amlin Andretti were tied for second with 18 points each. Mahindra Racing stood in fourth on 16 points, nine ahead of NextEV in fifth place with eleven races left in the season. Despite negative press reviews over the Hong Kong ePrix, Agag reaffirmed his commitment to holding a race in the city and stated that he would not be discouraged by any incurred financial losses from the event.

Qualifying

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Race

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Standings after the race