What a turnaround this was. Sam Bird won a remarkable final Formula E round of the year from fourth on the grid as Nelson Piquet Jr. recovered from a nightmare qualifying to take the title by just one point.
It was a race which had everything, a fitting finale to the inaugural Formula E season that wasn’t decided until the very last lap.
Starting sixth, having escaped the worst of the weather in qualifying, Sebastien Buemi was in prime position to overhaul Piquet’s slender five point margin to become the incumbent World Endurance Championship and Formula E champion simultaneously.
All went to plan in the opening stages as he passed Bruno Senna off the line to run fifth, behind the pole-sitting Stephane Sarrazin, the two Dragons of Loic Duval and a slow-starting Jerome d’Ambrosio and Bird.
Piquet meanwhile had made an excellent getaway from 16th to run 12th at the end of the first lap, but sacrificed enormous amounts of time to the leaders in a bid to save energy. He was ultimately successful in managing to run a lap longer than everybody else and emerged from the pits in tenth, but was in dire need of a Safety Car to close the deficit.
But if luck hadn’t been on his side in qualifying, it certainly was when it most mattered. With team-mate Oliver Turvey taking fastest lap – and the points which came with it – away from Buemi, the gap was reduced to three. It was then further reduced to two when Buemi spun on cold tyres at turn three, losing a spot to Senna and resuming in sixth, right in front of Lucas di Grassi.
Then, crucially, debutant Fabio Leimer missed his braking point into the Turn 11 chicane, prompting the arrival of the Safety Car. Piquet’s prayers had been answered, and once Turvey had relinquished ninth, it was only Amlin’s Salvador Duran standing in his way.
With far more usable energy, Piquet bravely made it stick around the outside of Turn 11.
The ball was now firmly in Buemi’s court, but Senna was proving a tough nut to crack. He was being sucked along at a frantic pace by the lead group, now headed by Sarrazin, Bird and d’Ambrosio, as Duval was forced to conserve energy.
Sarrazin was in a very similar position, but defended robustly from Bird, the two making contact with one lap to go as Sarrazin held on to the flag. In the end, it was academic – crossing the line with 0% energy remaining, Sarrazin was dealt a 40 second penalty which relegated him to a miserable 15th and handed victory to an elated Bird, who took fastest lap away from Turvey for good measure.
“It’s been a mixed season for us at Virgin, but what a way to finish. Unbelievable!” he said.
Anxious to avoid a similar fate, Duval slowed dramatically on the final lap, presenting Buemi with his golden opportunity.
As Senna tried to pick his way past the struggling Frenchman – who crossed the line with 1% remaining – Buemi barged his way alongside into turn 15, but Senna was not to be denied. Blissfully unaware of the ramifications of the fight, Senna held firm into 16, to score his best result of the year and deliver a grateful Piquet the title.
“I was determined to defend hard today and not let our friend overtake, so I didn’t!” he said afterwards. “I was doing my own race, racing for myself. [Buemi] put himself in that position anyway with the spin after the pitstop, so it’s too bad for him. You know that you don’t go and brake in the same place you normally do unless you have something special in your car. We’re just happy that we finished the season with the best result we’ve had so far and hopefully next season we are going to have plenty more of those and maybe even better.”
As Buemi was left to rue what might have been, Piquet was struggling coming to terms with what he had just accomplished.
“It’s been an amazing year, to think that two weeks before the championship started I didn’t have a contract and when I signed the contract it was only a five-race contract,” he said. “This morning pissing down with rain in group three right when I went out, I thought things couldn’t get any worse. But the team said to me ‘Nelson, don’t ask any questions, just drive, we’ll take care of the rest and tell you what to do, when to push, when to save, don’t ask where Lucas is, where Sebastien is, just drive’ and that’s what I did. I only knew I won the championship when the commentator came on the radio – the team didn’t know!”
“Congratulations to Nelson, in my opinion the most deserving champion,” Bird added. “The speed he showed in the middle of the year had us scratching our heads, it was horrible!”