Two races on the Central Harbourfront Circuit opened the 2017-18 season, with Sam Bird winning race one and Felix Rosenqvist winning race two after Daniel Abt was disqualified.
The 2017 Hong Kong ePrix was a two-race Formula E double-header on 2 and 3 December 2017 that opened the 2017-18 season. Sam Bird won race one for Virgin, and Felix Rosenqvist took race two for Mahindra after Daniel Abt was disqualified.
Formula E opened its 2017-18 championship with two races run on 2 and 3 December 2017 on Hong Kong's Central Harbourfront Circuit. Roughly 27,000 people watched across the weekend, and the double-header was a first for the series in Asia.
Why was the Hong Kong double-header significant?
The weekend was the first double-header of its kind in Asia for the series, and the FIA granted the event that status for the first time. Organisers had hoped for 41,000 visitors, so the two-day total fell short of that target. The circuit went up quickly, with construction starting on 23 November, nine days before the opening race.
The layout had also changed. After the 2016 race, organisers tightened the turn three and four chicane in the hope of cutting accidents there. That tweak was in place when the opening lap ended in disruption.
Sam Bird won the first race after a drive-through penalty, and the second was handed to Felix Rosenqvist after Daniel Abt's disqualification.
Which drivers and teams were new for the season?
Several squads reshuffled before the opener. ABT Audi Sport was renamed Audi Sport ABT as Audi's involvement grew, Faraday Future left its Dragon Racing tie-up, and Andre Lotterer moved to Techeetah in place of Stephane Sarrazin.
Neel Jani took Loic Duval's place at Dragon, and Luca Filippi partnered Oliver Turvey at NIO. Nelson Piquet Jr. invoked a performance clause to leave NIO and join Jaguar in place of Adam Carroll. Alex Lynn took the Virgin seat vacated by Jose Maria Lopez, and Edoardo Mortara made his series debut with Venturi.
Tom Blomqvist had been lined up to take Robin Frijns' seat at Andretti, though Kamui Kobayashi was the driver in Hong Kong. Lucas di Grassi, the reigning champion, remained at Audi alongside Daniel Abt.
How did practice and qualifying go in race one?
Practice took place on Saturday morning, a 45-minute opener and a half-hour second session. Sebastien Buemi of e.Dams-Renault headed the first timesheet in 1 minute, 3.310 seconds, four-tenths quicker than anyone else. Mitch Evans was quickest in the second session at 1 minute, 2.875 seconds.
Plenty of drivers had difficult sessions. Prost came to a halt on track because of a battery management glitch, then restarted, Jani broke front-left suspension against the turn ten wall, and Lotterer damaged his front-right corner on the same barrier. Mortara came to rest on track at the second turn with five minutes remaining, which ended his running.
Qualifying split the field into four groups of five, each drawn by lottery and allowed six minutes on track. The five fastest overall moved into Super Pole. Bird recorded the quickest group-two time, 1 minute, 3.276 seconds, but Vergne took pole with 1 minute, 3.568 seconds. It was his first pole of the year and the fifth of his career.
Vergne's pole lap ended badly. At the final corner he lost control, struck the outside wall, and came to a halt past the timing line. His in-lap went beyond 120 per cent of his time, but the stewards judged that it posed no danger to anyone, so no penalty followed. Bird took the front row beside him after a small mistake at the second hairpin, and Heidfeld qualified third. Abt briefly held provisional pole before dropping to fourth. Rosenqvist, in fifth, had locked his brakes at the opening hairpin and run wide.
Jani lost ten places on the grid after replacing his battery following his first-practice accident, which left him near the back.
What happened in the first race?
Vergne led off the line, but the opening lap ended in disruption. Lotterer's crash at the turn three and four chicane led the race director to halt the race, the first stoppage of its kind in Formula E history. Racing resumed behind the safety car after more than half an hour, and Bird took over the lead on lap 20 and kept it.
Piquet ran over the inside kerbs at the chicane, and Lotterer, who was trying to dodge the traffic, struck the barrier. Prost, Evans, Mortara and Jani all stopped on track, and the others pulled into the pit lane while officials decided what to do. The stranded drivers were later allowed to rejoin in their proper order.
When racing resumed, Vergne led from Bird, who fought straight back. Buemi went for di Grassi on lap 5, and they touched. Filippi made contact with Rosenqvist and spun him at the first corner, sending him to 15th with radiator damage. Abt got past Heidfeld for fourth after Heidfeld's brakes locked while he attempted a pass on Turvey.
Bird's lead came on lap 20, when he passed Vergne at turn seven. He then made his compulsory stop, but locked his tyres on dust and his car skidded into the flank of the garage, which earned him a drive-through penalty for not parking inside. The buffer he had built meant he still finished ahead of Vergne, 11.575 seconds in arrears.
Bird took the chequered flag after 43 laps, a first win of the year and his sixth overall. Heidfeld came home third, and Engel dropped to 13th after receiving a time penalty for overusing energy. Piquet claimed fourth, while Abt finished fifth, Felix da Costa sixth and Mortara seventh as the top rookie.
What followed the first race?
Lotterer was disqualified: the stewards judged his car unsafe under parc ferme conditions after the race, and d'Ambrosio retired with a mechanical failure. Interference from the surrounding skyscrapers made radio contact unreliable, so drivers had to work out their energy regeneration without help.
Bird was summoned to the stewards and handed a ten-place grid penalty for the next race, for failing to stop inside his garage. Virgin's team principal Alex Tai wanted to know whether the decision could be contested, but the team accepted it.
Heidfeld objected to Vergne's defensive driving at the turn three and four chicane, saying it broke the rules. Vergne countered that he had avoided a move that could have endangered his title hopes, and that the points would count in the end.
Race two: practice, qualifying and the grid
The Sunday practice session lasted 45 minutes. Buemi led it with 1 minute, 2.002 seconds, and Lynn was three-tenths of a second slower in second place. Engel stopped briefly at the first corner, and no red flag was needed because he got going again in time.
The qualifying format changed for race two. The top five in the standings went into the first group, while everyone else was assigned into the remaining three groups in sequence. The organisers wanted drivers running close together so that shifting weather could not reshape the order.
Rosenqvist was initially on provisional pole, but Evans recorded 1 minute, 2.577 seconds in the second group and was quickest overall. Rosenqvist followed in second and Engel in third. Buemi damaged his car on the turn five barrier in group two, which dropped him to the back of the field, a position he had not occupied since the 2016 Buenos Aires ePrix.
In super pole Rosenqvist pressed hard to take pole with 1 minute, 2.836 seconds, with Evans alongside him. Evans's super pole time was then deleted for using too much electrical power, and Bird began from 13th because of his earlier penalty.
How did race two end with a disqualification?
Race two started behind the safety car after the lights failed. Rosenqvist locked his rear brakes on the approach to the first hairpin, spun and dropped to 11th. Mortara took the lead, managed his energy better than the others, and Abt stayed in second.
Filippi's track rod broke, forcing him into retirement after he reached the pit lane. With the mandatory stop for the second car approaching, Mortara pitted on lap 23 with only one percent of usable energy left. Later he had more energy than Abt and pulled out a three-second cushion, but on lap 43 his regenerative braking failed at turn two and he spun. Abt inherited first place and crossed the line first on track.
Three hours after the chequered flag, the stewards disqualified Abt, because the security labels on his inverter and motor-generator unit did not agree with the technical passport. Audi did not take the matter further and apologised to Abt. Rosenqvist inherited his second win, with Mortara second and Evans third.
Audi also received a fine of 5,000 euros (US$5,944) after five staff members gathered on the podium before the car reached parc ferme, a serious safety breach in the stewards' eyes.
Where did the championship stand?
After race one, Bird topped the Drivers' Championship on 25 points, Vergne sat four points back in second, and Heidfeld was third on 15. Once race two was counted, Bird led on 36 points, with Vergne just two points adrift, and Rosenqvist was third on 29.
Mahindra headed the Teams' Championship with 44 points, three clear of Virgin on 41. Techeetah slipped to third, while Venturi moved into fourth. Jaguar were fifth, with ten rounds still to run.
| Race | Date | Winner | Second | Third | Pole |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Race one (43 laps) | 2 December 2017 | Sam Bird, Virgin | Jean-Eric Vergne, Techeetah | Nick Heidfeld, Mahindra | Vergne, 1 minute, 3.568 seconds |
| Race two (45 laps) | 3 December 2017 | Felix Rosenqvist, Mahindra (after Abt's disqualification) | Edoardo Mortara, Venturi | Mitch Evans, Jaguar | Rosenqvist, 1 minute, 2.836 seconds |
How did the drivers react?
Bird said the win felt unreal given his drive-through penalty, and he called racing in this series ordinary. Vergne, by contrast, called it the toughest race of his career, because he had no radio and little regeneration.
Rosenqvist was content with the maximum points, though he said he did not feel he had truly won. Mortara conceded he might have been overconfident and promised to be more measured next time, while Evans was pleased with the podium but sorry that it came at the expense of a close friend.
Buemi blamed an unexplained chassis problem that also hit all four of his cars. Di Grassi believed the car had potential but was let down by small details, and Felix da Costa felt a slow pit stop had cost him second place.
