2017 Montreal ePrix
The 2017 Montreal ePrix was a pair of Formula E electric car races held on 29 and 30 July 2017 at the Montreal Street Circuit in Montreal, Quebec before a two-day crowd of 45,000 people. They were the 11th and 12th races of the 2016–17 Formula E Championship and the only running of the event. The first 35-lap race contested on 29 July, was won by Audi Sport ABT driver Lucas di Grassi from pole position. The Techeetah duo of Jean-Éric Vergne and Stéphane Sarrazin finished in second and third places. The longer 37-lap race held on 31 July was won by Vergne from a third place start. Mahindra's Felix Rosenqvist took second with Virgin driver José María López third.
Di Grassi won pole position for the first race by recording the fastest lap in qualifying and held off Sarrazin to maintain the lead at the start and pulled away from the field. Attention focused on Sébastien Buemi, demoted from second to twelfth for changing his battery, who sustained steering arm damage on the first lap but was able to move up the field during the course of the race. It was neutralised with a full course yellow flag when Loïc Duval and Nick Heidfeld collided on the 14th lap. Most drivers made pit stops to switch into a second car and di Grassi kept the lead after this phase. Sarrazin ceded second to teammate Vergne who began to draw closer to di Grassi but his chase was neutralised when López crashed on lap 24, necessitating the safety car's deployment. Di Grassi kept the lead at the restart and held off Vergne for the rest of the race to take his second victory of the season and the sixth of his career. No lead changes occurred, as di Grassi was the only driver to lead laps in the first race.
Rosenqvist was the fastest driver for qualifying for the second race and maintained the lead on the first lap. After Sarrazin spun at the first turn from contact with Daniel Abt and Nelson Piquet Jr., Buemi was hit from behind by António Félix da Costa, damaging his right-rear wheel guard which flailed in the wind before detaching. Buemi was required to make a pit stop, dropping him down the order. With more electrical energy to use, Vergne began attacking Rosenqvist for the lead after ten laps. Vergne took the lead for one lap when the change into second cars began on the 18th lap. After the pit stops, Rosenqvist reclaimed the lead with a five-second lead over Vergne who began regaining the lost time having made his pit stop one lap later than the former. Vergne again had more usable electrical energy and overtook the slower Rosenqvist on the 29th lap. Vergne maintained the lead to claim his first Formula E victory. There were four lead changes among three different drivers during the course of the second race.
Di Grassi overturned Buemi's lead in the Drivers' Championship to become the third champion in Formula E history by 24 points. Rosenqvist finished the season in third place, five points ahead of Sam Bird. Vergne's form in both races consolidated his hold on fifth position. Despite its poor form in the second race, DAMS| secured their third consecutive Teams' Championship by 20 points over Audi Sport ABT. Mahindra finished the season in third with Virgin a further 25 points behind in fourth. Techeetah's performance in both races allowed the team to consolidate fifth place.
Background to race weekend
Preview
Before the race, DAMS| driver Sébastien Buemi led the Drivers' Championship with 157 points, ten ahead of Lucas di Grassi in second, who in turn, was a further 43 in front of third-placed Felix Rosenqvist. Sam Bird was fourth on 100 points and Nico Prost was fifth with 84 points. led the Teams' Championship with 259 points; Audi Sport ABT were in second place on 194 points and Mahindra with 182 points contended the team for the position. With 153 points, Virgin were in fourth position and Techeetah rounded out the top five with 94 points. A maximum of 59 points were available for the final ePrix which meant di Grassi could still win the title if he won both races and Buemi placed second twice without taking two pole positions.After reducing Buemi's lead by 22 points in the preceding New York City ePrix, di Grassi stated his team had to improve vastly in finding hope of winning the championship in Montreal and felt more confident than before: "With the experience that I have with Formula E, you know that it can go from hell to heaven any weekend, any race. We just have to do our best, try and win both races and see how it goes." Buemi, the pre-title favourite, missed the New York City races because of a World Endurance Championship commitment at the Nürburgring, but said he would prepare for the Montreal double header in the same way he would with any other event: "We will try to do the best possible. I hope we can finish this season in style and look forward to it." He created controversy when he raised the issue of his crash with di Grassi at the 2016 London ePrix, saying a similar collision would be difficult for di Grassi to explain and not to do it again." Di Grassi responded by noting Buemi lost the first season championship through an error and said Buemi had more pressure and another mistake would prevent him from reclaiming the title: "Everyone feels pressure in a different way of course. He has pressure big time this weekend, much more than me, this is because everyone will be waiting to see if those mistakes come again in Montreal."
Preparation
In September 2014 Denis Coderre, the Mayor of Montreal, entered into advance talks with Jean Todt, the president of motorsport's governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile over holding a motor race in the city. Although it was mooted the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve would host the race, Coderre preferred a city centre track. After flying to Miami to meet with Formula E holding's executive director in March 2015, Corderre said two months later that "informal agreements" had been reached with series promoters, allowing racing to be held in Montreal's streets. Planning for the event began in January 2016, and a six-year contract was signed with an option for a renewal available after half the time had passed. The round was later confirmed as part of Formula E's 2016–17 schedule in September 2016 by the FIA World Motor Sport Council as a double header. They were the 11th and 12th single-seater electric car races of the Championship, and were held on 29 and 30 July 2017 at the Montreal Street Circuit. The city expected 60,000 people to attend the two-day event.Prior to the double header, Formula One had visited the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve intermittently since 1978 and it was the first time the Formula E title was decided anywhere other than the Battersea Park Street Circuit in London. The first pictures of the 14-turn track layout were released to the press on 21 October 2016. Construction of the grandstands and paddock for the race started on 15 July, two weeks before the first ePrix. The circuit foundations were completely dismantled ten days after it had ended. Race ambassador and former driver Patrick Carpentier believed the track's layout would challenge drivers and felt the best place for overtaking would occur into the first turn. Drivers voiced positive feelings about the track. Di Grassi called it possibly "one of the best tracks in Formula E history" and Rosenqvist said it appeared "fantastic" because of its elevation change which is in contrast to most Formula E circuits which are held on flat surfaces. However, local residents complained about the lack of access, and the track's use of public streets and sidewalks for private purposes was questioned.
Race one
Practice and qualifying
Two practice sessions—both on Saturday morning—were held before the late afternoon race. The first session ran for 45 minutes and the second for half an hour. Both practice sessions took place in dry and warm weather conditions. Di Grassi recorded the first practice session's fastest lap at 1 minute, 22.451 seconds on of power, almost 1.2 seconds faster than Bird in second. Jean-Éric Vergne, Buemi, Nico Prost, Rosenqvist. Stéphane Sarrazin, Mitch Evans, Daniel Abt and Nelson Piquet Jr. were in positions three to ten. The track's surface caught several drivers off guard after locking their tyres, causing them to slide onto the run-off areas, and an oversteer affected multiple cars. Abt broke his car's left-front rim following an collision with a barrier lining the track. In the second practice session, Prost was quickest with a time of 1 minute and 22.180 seconds; Vergne, Rosenqvist, Sarrazin, Heidfeld, Bird, Loïc Duval, Robin Frijns and the two NextEV cars of Oliver Turvey and Piquet completed the top ten. Di Grassi and Adam Carroll skidded under braking on dust and slid onto the track's run-off areas. Sarrazin later stopped at the pit lane exit but restarted his car without external aid. Buemi glanced the Bus Stop chicane inside barrier, and speared straight into the exit wall at high speed. Buemi was unhurt and exited his car without external assistance. Because his vehicle was significantly damaged, he drove his second car for qualifying. The crash prompted the session to end prematurely with five minutes left due to extensive damage to the barrier and debris strewn across the circuit. mechanics worked for the next five hours to build a new car around a spare monocoque.Saturday's afternoon qualifying session ran for an hour and was divided into four groups of five cars. Each group was determined by a lottery system and was permitted six minutes of on-track activity. All drivers were limited to two timed laps with one at maximum power. The fastest five overall competitors in the four groups participated in a "Super Pole" session with one driver on the track at any time going out in reverse order from fifth to first. Each of the five drivers was limited to one timed lap and the starting order was determined by the competitor's fastest lap times. The driver and team who recorded the fastest time were awarded three points towards their respective championships. Qualifying was held in dry and warm weather conditions, and the track appeared slower than in practice. In the first group of five runners, where drivers waited 3½ minutes before venturing onto the track, Duval was fastest, three-tenths of a seconds quicker than Abt. Bird in third could not use the maximum amount of power available to him due to a mapping issue. Piquet locked his tyres on his maximum power lap, and Jérôme d'Ambrosio was the first group's slowest driver as he failed to reach the timing line to start his full power lap. Track conditions improved in the second group which saw the five drivers wait until the final seconds to begin their maximum power laps. Sarrazin recorded the fastest lap; Prost and Frijns followed in second and third. António Félix da Costa attacked but struggled with understeer and slid his car to go half a second slower than Sarrazin. José María López was the second group's slowest participant after a similar mapping error to his teammate Bird slowed him.
In the third group, di Grassi set the fastest overall lap of any driver at 1 minute, 23.026 seconds. He was followed by Buemi and Rosenqvist in second and third. Vergne made an error en route to fourth place and Evans was the third group's slowest competitor. Carroll was fastest in the fourth group with Turvey, Tom Dillmann Heidfeld and Engel in second to fifth. Heidfeld was slow due to an error through the first turn and Engel appeared to have a similar problem to both Virgin cars. After group qualifying ended, the lap times set by di Grassi, Buemi, Sarrazin, Rosenqvist and Prost progressed them to super pole. Di Grassi took his third pole position of the season with a time of 1 minute, 22.869 seconds, despite losing four hundredths of a second in the first sector but regained time in the second sector. He was joined on the grid's front row by Buemi who was 0.196 seconds slower. Sarrazin took third place by judging the first braking point correctly and demonstrated strong rear grip despite losing seven hundredths of a second through a driver error. Although he had a small amount of oversteer which cost him time Prost secured fourth. Rosenqvist locked his rear brakes going into the first corner, losing him one second worth of time and took fifth. After qualifying, Buemi was demoted ten places on the grid because he changed his car's battery after his second practice crash. Following the application of penalties, the rest of the grid lined up as Vergne, Evans, Carroll, Turvey, Dillmann, Duval, Abt, Buemi, Frijns, Heidfeld, Félix da Costa, López, Engel, Bird, Piquet and d'Ambrosio.