Virgin Racing driver led the way from the fourth lap onwards and had an easy finish
Sam Bird celebrates his victory in Formula E Champ-ionship at Putrajaya, Malayasia, on Saturday.
Putrajaya: Virgin Racing driver Sam Bird cruised to victory in an eventful Putrajaya ePrix, the second-ever Formula E Championship, which saw three crashes, held in Malaysia on Saturday. Sam Bird led the way from the fourth lap onwards, increasing the gap and had an easy finish. Lucas Di Grassi, who won the Beijing ePrix, had to come from the ninth place to finish in the second place.
Mahindra Racing, the only Indian Formula E team, had a disappointing day as Bruno Senna, who was in the fourth position till the final lap, turned in late while overtaking Sebastien Buemi at the hairpin bend, and spun off. Karun Chandhok, the other Mahindra Racing driver, also faced troubles during the pit stop as he lost 14 seconds while changing the car. Karun was in the third position when he decided to change the car.
“Due to heating exhaustion my regular driver was hospitalized. So we had to get a replacement and he was not trained for it and we lost 14 seconds at the pit stop. If that did not happen I would be on podium for sure. It is a bit frustrating,” Mahindra racer Karun said. Karun finished 17 seconds behind from the first place. Bruno Senna had to slow down at the start of the race due to safety reasons and he was in sixteenth position until the fourth lap. However, he managed to reach fourth position in the final lap using his second car and the fan boost but he miscalculated the turn and eventually spun off and crashed.
“We had a strong race. We were very aggressive. I saw an opportunity to overtake Buemi at the hairpin but I was a bit late in the turn and had to pay off in a big way. It is disappointing to lose from fourth place but the good thing is that we were fast in the race,” said Senna.Nelsinho Piquet, Nick Heidfeld and Michela Cerruti had to pull off from the race as they crashed their cars in three separate events.
Earlier, Nicolas Prost claimed his second consecutive pole position in Putrajaya but started from 11th on the grid following a 10-place grid penalty from the opening race.
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