Formula E Miami: Prost takes Miami ePrix win

Nicolas Prost held off a late charge from Andretti’s Scott Speed to take victory in the Miami round of 2014/15 Formula E championship on Saturday.

The start of the race wasn’t ideal for Prost with Sam Bird passing the Frenchman for second position. But the 33 year old kept his calm and made major gains after his pitstop, passing Daniel Abt to take the victory on the penultimate lap of the race.

However, he was immediately put under pressure from debutant Scott Speed who had perfectly timed his pitstops and found himself at the sharp end of the oack. The American eventually finished just four tenths away from the victory in second.

Meanwhile, after much tribulations, Daniel Abt finished on the podium for Audi-backed ABT squad, having qualified in fifth place.

Jerome D’Amborsio secured his best result of the season in fourth place while Piquet Jr finished the race in fifth. The Brazilian driver originally qualified second but moved seventh places behind with a grid penalty that he was carrying from the previous round in Buenos Aires.

Sixth place went to the Buenos Aires Formula E round winner Antonio Felix da Costa while Loic Duval managed a seventh place finish in his one-off appearance for Dragon Racing.

Sam Bird briefly took the lead of the race with a textbook pass over Jean Eric Vergne, only to mess up his strategy and lose multiple positions in the pitstop sequence. He eventually salvaged a 8tth place finish for Virgin Racing.

Lucas Di Grassi lost his championship lead to Prost after finishing down in 9th place while Salvador Duran collected the final championship point in 10th.

Jaime Alguersuari and Nick Heidfeld came empty handed in 11th and 12th while a 13th place finish was nothing short of a nightmare for championship contender Sebastien Buemi.

Pole sitter Vergne lost multiple positions in the pitstop and just didn’t seem to have the pace after switching cars. He mysteriously dropped to 18th place on the final lap of the race.

Disastrous weekend for Mahindra

Miami turned out to be disastrous weekend for Mahindra with Bruno Senna retiring from the race with suspension gremlins and Karun Chandhok languishing in 14th place, having started at the back of the grid. The Indian driver showed the car had the pace by finishing second in the shortened practice session earlier today. However, problems in qualifying and a penalty for infringing the energy usage limit meant that only a miracle was required to break it into the top 10.

Miami ePrix - race results

1. Nicolas Prost eDams Renault 39 laps
2. Scott Speed Andretti +0.433
3. Daniel Abt Audi ABT +5.518
4. Jerome D’Ambrosio Dragon Racing +5.941
5. Nelson Piquet Jr China Racing +6.426
6. Antonio Felix Da Costa +8.574
7. Loic Duval Dragon Racing +9.498
8. Sam Bird Virgin Racing +19.817
9. Lucas Di Grassi Audi ABT +20.631
10. Salvador Duran Amlin Aguri +24.587