Buenos Chaos: Antonio Felix da Costa Wins

The frenetic and at times chaotic racing has emerged as Formula E’s ultimate selling point even if the cars are still on the slower side

Antonio Felix da Costa emerged as the winner of the fourth round of the FIA Formula E Championship, the Buenos Aires ePrix, on Saturday after a number of race leaders fell out of contention.

It was a race of two halves with a midway safety car paving way for a chaotic end to the race. Sebastien Buemi, who had been leading ever since the five lights, went out, hit the wall at the final chicane, immediately retiring from the race. Lucas di Grassi then took over from his e.Dams rival before a suspension failure handed the race lead to Nick Heidfeld.

Just as the order at the front started to settle down, the stewards slapped Heidfeld with a drive through penalty for speeding in the pitlane, pushing the German down in ninth place by the time the chequered flag came out.

Felix da Costa, who had been gradually moving up the order, eventually won the race by a five seconds margin from Nicolas Prost with Nelson Piquet Jr finishing a further three seconds behind to take the final spot on the podium.

Jaime Alguersuari survived from two separate accidents with Jean Eric Vergne and Sam Bird to finish the race in fourth place.

Behind Alguersuari came the Mahindra of Bruno Senna, who successfully charged his way from a poor grid slot for a second race running.

Karun Chandhok did not get a chance to capitalise on the eventual chaos after a right-rear suspension failure on his car sent him straight into the wall, just before the pitstop sequence.

Talking to autoX from the UK, where Mahindra Racing was going through simulations of previous races to find an edge in the remaining seven rounds of the inaugural Formula E season, Chandhok said that the suspension failure issue was one that had plagued other teams as well (it is a common chassis that teams use as they see fit) but an update to rectify it was on the way.

“Reliability and bad luck have definitely cost us two podiums this year,” said Chandhok. “It is pretty clear after four rounds that e.Dams and Abt have the raw pace but we should not be too far behind them by the end of the year.”

Chandhok was also looking forward to the third year of the championship (2016/17) when teams will be allowed to use their own batteries, which should lead to an increase in straight line speed to go with the already impressive initial acceleration of the cars.