2017 Buenos Aires ePrix

A special feature of Formula E is the "Fan Boost" feature, an additional 100 kW (130 hp) of power to use in the driver's second car. The three drivers who were allowed to use the boost were determined by a fan vote.^[13] For the Buenos Aires race, Buemi, di Grassi and Abt were handed the extra power.^[26] The weather at the start were dry and sunny with the air temperature between 29.0 to 29.7 °C (84.2 to 85.5 °F) with a track temperature at 26 °C (79 °F);^[1] a 90 per cent chance of rain was forecast.^[27] When the race started at 16:00 Argentina Time (UTC+3) before 21,000 attendees,^[28][29] di Grassi maintained the lead entering the first turn.^[30] Vergne held off Buemi to keep second.^[31] Rosenqvist made a brisk start, overtaking Evans and Prost and challenged Piquet for fifth.^[32] The full course yellow was necessitated when Carroll was unable to move off the grid but was able to restart his car as the field came to lap him.^[31] Carroll was ordered by his team to catch up to everyone else while abiding by the full course yellow speed limit.^[32] At the end of the first lap, di Grassi led from Vergne, Buemi, Turvey, Piquet, Rosenqvist, Prost, d'Ambrosio, Bird and Evans.^[1]

The race restarted on lap two with di Grassi leading and Vergne second.^[31] Evans overtook d'Ambrosio to move into eighth place,^[32] while Vergne began challenging di Grassi for the lead.^[31] Vergne passed di Grassi at turn four on the third lap to claim the lead and di Grassi immediately battled Buemi for second position.^[31][33] Buemi overtook di Grassi for second place three corners later,^[33] while Vergne set what was at that point the fastest lap of the race—at 1 minute, 12.926 seconds—to pull away from Buemi.^[1][32] After sustaining damage to his vehicle's rear-right suspension,^[31][33] Bird fell to the rear of the field. Piquet went off the racing line and lost fifth position to Prost.^[32] Buemi got a fast exit through the final corner, drafted off Vergne before turning left onto the inside line and passed him by braking late to take the lead at the first corner on lap six.^[31][32] Buemi took a wide line to prevent Vergne from retaking the position entering turn two.^[30] Di Grassi struggled with his car's handling and Turvey overtook him for third place and Prost closed the gap to di Grassi. Buemi pulled away from the rest of the field. Bird made a pit stop with the damage to his car and switched into his second vehicle, intending to recording the fastest lap but he would not be able to finish the race.^[32]

Engel stopped on the track with powertrain issues; after he restarted, he was shown a black flag with an orange circle, requiring him to enter the pit lane to repair car damage.^[32] Prost overtook di Grassi around the inside at turn four to claim fourth position on lap 12,^[26][32] and Piquet reduced the time deficit to di Grassi.^[31] López forced Sarrazin wide through the fourth turn to take over 18th on the following lap.^[30] Buemi led Vergne by 4.5 seconds Vergne with Turvey, Prost and di Grassi close by for the third place battle.^[32] The mandatory pit stops change into a second car began on lap 19 when Turvey, Evans and Duval entered the pit lane.^[13][1][31] Evans was imposed a five-second time penalty after he was observed to have exceeded the speed limit under full course yellow conditions.^[32] Most drivers followed one lap later and after the pit stops Buemi was in third place.^[31] Di Grassi was released into Piquet's path, causing the latter to brake to avoid a collision.^[34] Engel lost engine power at his pit stop and retired from the race.^[35] Mahindra elected to keep their drivers Rosenqvist and Heideld on the track for one further lap to allow both drivers to push in the finals laps from having more electrical energy.^[31]

Rosenqvist's car failed to start because of a battery management system problem that left him stationary in his garage for one minute longer than usual,^[36] and rejoined the circuit in 17th place.^[32] Di Grassi closed up to Prost, used an error by the latter leaving the final turn, and overtook him by braking late on the inside into the first turn for third on lap 24.^[31][32] Frijns battled Abt for tenth because the latter was delaying several cars but later used FanBoost to pull away.^[26][32] Heidfeld overtook Sarrazin and Frijns for 11th but the stewards imposed a five-second time penalty on him for exceeding the minimum pit stop time by four-tenths of a second and fell to 15th.^[32][36] Di Grassi pushed hard in an effort to close up to Vergne but he reacted by stabilising his lead to two seconds.^[31] Buemi activated FanBoost to extend his advantage over Vergne,^[31] while Rosenqvist set the race's fastest lap (and overall race track record) at 1 minute, 9.467 seconds on lap 31, earning him one point.^[1][36] Lopez gained three positions to run in 11th by lap 35 and the stewards announced that di Grassi was under investigation for his pit stop release on that lap.^[26]

Both Dragon drivers were informed over their radios that they had to ensure that they finished the race while Duval was told d'Ambrosio had more electrical energy. Duval reduced the time deficit to teammate d'Ambrosio and attempted an overtake for sixth place, causing light contact between the duo and passed him.^[37] Abt overtook Turvey for eighth. On the final lap, Bird was forced wide into a wall by d'Ambrosio, causing him to retire.^[32] Despite braking difficulties on his second car that rendered him unable to brake in a straight line,^[38] Buemi took his third victory of the season, the ninth of his career, and became the first driver in the history of Formula E to win three consecutive races.^[39] Vergne finished 2.9 seconds behind in second, with di Grassi in third, Prost fourth, Piquet fifth and Duval sixth.^[31] Abt used the rest of his electrical energy to pass d'Ambrosio for seventh.^[32] Turvey's car overheated and took ninth and López finished tenth.^[40] Félix da Costa and Sarrazin finished 11th and 12th.^[2] Evans was in a points-scoring position but a slower pace dropped him to 13th.^[40] Frijns, Heidfeld, Ma, Carroll and Rosenqvist were the final finishers.^[2] There were four lead changes in the race; four drivers reached the front of the field. Buemi led twice for a total of 31 laps, more than any other competitor.^[1]

The top three drivers appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and spoke to the media in a later press conference. Buemi was delighted with the race victory, praising his team for their work and said he was hopeful his recent form would continue into the season's next rounds.^[39] His team was concerned over his battery overheating; Buemi stated that he drove cautiously in the first few laps to know where he was and that he had the situation under control.^[40] Second-place finisher Vergne was delighted because of his relatively new team having had no prior testing of his car, new personnel and equipment. He said he corrected the problems he had in the season's first two races and felt certain that he would focus on winning races: "I think the whole team did a fantastic job, working really, really hard, sometimes many hours overnight and in the end it paid off."^[40] Di Grassi, who finished in third, said that it was a good day for his team although he acknowledged he was not on the same pace levels as the e.Dams-Renaults. He revealed his first car had excess oversteer and stated the smallest of change would make a large difference in terms of the championship.^[28]

Di Grassi was imposed a formal reprimand and a €1,500 fine by the stewards for the pit stop release that caused Piquet to brake to avoid hitting him.^[34] Piquet felt it was unfair for different punishments to exist for the same penalty and complained of inconsistency from the stewards. He warned drivers would become quickly disenchanted and believed stewards would not be taken seriously in the future. Piquet advocated for more people to observe the track, install more cameras and a GPS system in all cars.^[34] D'Ambrosio felt aggrieved over the battle between his teammate Duval, saying it was "a little bit of a pity" and was unsure whether it was a misunderstanding.^[37] Duval insisted the battle was firm but fair, saying he gave d'Ambrosio room but would make it difficult for anyone to overtake him: "As you have seen in the past though we have had fights and most of the time I was really gentle, and this weekend I was in this position where I was competitive and I had less energy available so I fought."^[37] Dragon's team principal Jay Penske revealed his drivers were allowed to battle each other cleanly but if one eliminated the other from contention, that driver would be required to miss the following race.^[37]

Attention also focused on Jaguar's improved pace in Buenos Aires. Prior to the race, the team had been criticised by the media for their inability to perform well in Formula E with some publications criticising the decision to sign Evans and Carroll to the squad.^[41] Evans said his improved performance encouraged Jaguar's staff and made the team more confident: "If you look at the bigger picture, I’ve got to be satisfied with today. Qualifying was great, to be honest, I topped the group. If you ask me or the whole team if this would have happened after Marrakesh, we would have taken it with both hands."^[42] Carroll stated he hoped to have perform well in Buenos Aires and go quicker but it was an issue that could be improved on.^[43] Jaguar team principal James Barclay said the improvement was "a little bit of a positive surprise" but was unsure if Carroll's problem at the start was caused by driver error or an electrical issue. He admitted the team had to improve their understanding of the full course yellow procedure in future races.^[44]

The result extended Buemi's lead at the top of the Drivers' Championship to 29 points in front of second-placed di Grassi, who in turn, was a further ten ahead of Prost in third. Vergne's second-place finish moved him to fourth on 22 points and Rosenqvist was fifth on 20 points.^[7] e.Dams-Renault's strong result increased their advantage in the Teams' Championship over Audi Sport ABT to 51 points, with Mahindra remaining in third place on 37 points. NextEV moved into fourth on 25 points with Techeetah three points behind in fifth with nine rounds left in the season.^[7]

Drivers who scored championship points are denoted in bold.

Final race classification

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	9	Sébastien Buemi	e.dams-Renault	37	45:45.623	3	25
2	25	Jean-Éric Vergne	Techeetah-Renault	37	+2.996	2	18
3	11	Lucas di Grassi	Audi Sport ABT	37	+6.921	1	15+31
4	8	Nico Prost	e.dams-Renault	37	+8.065	6	12
5	3	Nelson Piquet Jr.	NextEV NIO	37	+9.770	5	10
6	6	Loïc Duval	Dragon-Penske	37	+35.103	14	8
7	66	Daniel Abt	Audi Sport ABT	37	+35.801	16	6
8	7	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon-Penske	37	+36.335	9	4
9	88	Oliver Turvey	NextEV NIO	37	+37.111	4	2
10	37	José María López	Virgin-Citroën	37	+38.206	18	1
11	28	António Félix da Costa	Andretti-BMW	37	+43.740	17
12	4	Stéphane Sarrazin	Venturi	37	+44.243	11
13	20	Mitch Evans	Jaguar	37	+44.918	7
14	27	Robin Frijns	Andretti-BMW	37	+49.683	13
15	23	Nick Heidfeld	Mahindra	37	+51.456	12
16	33	Ma Qinghua	Techeetah-Renault	36	+1 Lap	19
17	47	Adam Carroll	Jaguar	36	+1 Lap	15
18	19	Felix Rosenqvist	Mahindra	34	+3 Laps	8	12
Ret	5	Maro Engel	Venturi	26	Electrical	20
Ret	2	Sam Bird	Virgin-Citroën	20	Accident	10
Source:[1][2]

Notes:

• ^1  — Three points for pole position.^[13]
• ^2  — One point for fastest lap.^[13]

Drivers' Championship standings[7] +/– Pos Driver Points 1 Sébastien Buemi 75 2 Lucas di Grassi 46 (−29) 3 Nico Prost 36 (−39) 8 4 Jean-Éric Vergne 22 (−53) 1 5 Felix Rosenqvist 20 (−55)

Teams' Championship standings[7] +/– Pos Constructor Points 1 e.Dams-Renault 111 2 Audi Sport ABT 60 (−51) 3 Mahindra 37 (−74) 2 4 NextEV NIO 25 (−86) 3 5 Techeetah-Renault 22 (−89)

• Notes: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.