2019 New York E-Prix: Jean-Eric Vergne wins his second consecutive Formula E title

While Robin Frijns took his second season victory in the championship finale, Jean-Eric Vergne scored enough points in Brooklyn to become a two-time Formula E world champion. 

Despite the championship title fight coming right down to the wire in the season's final round in Brooklyn, the New York City E-Prix, for a change, bore expected results as Jean-Eric Vergne (DS Techeetah) won his second consecutive ABB FIA Formula E title. While DS Techeetah (Techeetah in the 2017-18 season) lost the constructor's title to Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler by just two points in the previous season, this year, the Chinese racing outfit asserted next-level of dominance as it also claimed the constructor's title with a healthy 19-point lead over Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler. With his second world title, Vergne becomes the only driver in the sport's history to have achieved the feat twice.

Coming to the race itself, the Alex Sims (BMW i Andretti Motorsport) outpaced everyone in the Superpole session to claim pole position in the season finale. Behind him, Robin Frijns (Envision Virgin Racing) started from second while previous race winner and last-minute championship contender Sebastien Buemi (Nissan e.dams) rounded off the top three. The remaining two championship contenders, Mitch Evans (Panasonic Jaguar Racing) & Lucas di Grassi (Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler), could only manage 8th & 11th in qualifying, respectively. Behind di Grassi, Vergne started the race from 12th.

While the title contenders got off the line with good & clean starts, drama ensued within opening minutes of the race as Andre Lotterer (DS Techeetah), due to an unnecessarily aggressive approach, bumped Jose Maria Lopez (Geox Dragon) which forced the latter to spin around. An angry Lopez then denied Lotterer to pass through cleanly as he rammed the DS Techeetah driver while tuning his car into the right direction. With enough damage sustained by their cars, both drivers eventually retired from the race. While Lotterer managed to drive back to the pits, Lopez came to a halt after Turn 7, which brought out the safety car.

As the safety car went back in, Alex Sims got a good restart and sped away from the pack. This also gave the drivers a chance to activate the Attack Mode. However, Frijns was the one who put in every ounce of effort as he took the race lead from Sims. Before taking on Sims, Frijns had overtaken Buemi to take second place. While Frijns was able to hold on to his lead from Sims & Buemi, at the back, Vergne had managed to move into seventh from twelfth. Evans & di Grassi, fighting for second and third in the championship, crashed into each other on the final lap. However, despite not crossing the chequered flag, they had driven the required distance to classify as 17th & 18th, respectively.

While Vergne secured the championship title with his 7th-place finish, with a total of 136 points, Sebastien Buemi finished a praise-worthy second in the championship, with 119 points. This was a big achievement for Nissan as this was their debut Formula E season, and also, the debut of a Japanese constructor in the sport. Previous season's runner-up Lucas di Grassi managed to claim an overall third-place finish in the championship, scoring a total of 108 points.

Read more:

2019 NYC ePrix: Sebastien Buemi claims maiden win in penultimate round

2019 Swiss E-Prix: Hard-fought victory for Jean-Eric Vergne