Renault e.dams and Sébastien Buemi back on the podium

After both of its drivers advanced to the Super Pole for race one of the New York ePrix this weekend, Sébastien Buemi secured the fourth podium result of the season for Renault e.dams. Nicolas Prost also finished in the points in the penultimate race of the season.
Contested over two days, the final round of season 4 and the Renault e.dams era got off to a strong start for Sébastien Buemi. Despite this being his first encounter with the Red Hook circuit due to his absence last year, the Swiss driver posted the second best time in free practice one.
The dust covered riverside roads in Brooklyn remained very slippery for the second session, but the Renault e.dams drivers did themselves proud with Seb and Nico fifth and sixth respectively.
They confirmed their robust form during the group qualifying sessions. For the first time this season, both Seb and Nico qualified for the SuperPole with Buemi clinching the pole and Prost posting the third best time!
Lined up one behind the other on the start grid, Buemi got the best start and held on to the lead, while Prost dropped three places early in the race. Then Abt closed in on Buemi and took the lead on lap eight.
When it was getting close to changing cars, Seb conceded second place to Di Grassi. He was third when he came into the pits. After dropping down to ninth place, Nico picked up a position before coming in on the same lap.
Thanks to a perfectly executed pit stop, Sébastien Buemi began the second half of the race with the leaders in his sights. Nicolas Prost ran steady in eighth place.
While the positions seemed locked in, the safety car came out after the off circuit excursion of Lynn. The field was tightly bunched for the final four laps. Despite the use of his FanBoost, Seb couldn’t gain a position. After an hour of the race, he crossed the finish line in third place, his best result since the Mexico ePrix. Nico finished 10th to score his first points since the round in Santiago, Chile.
Tomorrow, the season comes to an end following the conclusion of race two from the streets of New York City. Sébastien Buemi heads into this final confrontation fourth in the championship, 17 points adrift of the season ending podium. Renault e.dams moves back into the top 5 in the Team’s Championship and is just six points shy of fourth place overall.
Renault congratulates this season’s Formula E champion Jean-Éric Vergne, who won in a Renault Z.E.17 from the Techeetah team.
Nicolas Prost, n°8
“Firstly of all, it was great to be back in the Super Pole and to be able to battle at the sharp end of the order. The race was more difficult and I couldn’t find the right pace with the energy management. We will get back to work with the engineers to try to improve and do better tomorrow in what will be our last race together.”
Sébastien Buemi, n°9
“Even though it is difficult to be fully satisfied finishing third after starting from pole, it was still a positive day. We knew that we had a very good car over one lap and that we were a bit down on race pace, so we finished where we should in being the “best of the rest” behind two unbeatable cars. After this fourth podium of the season, I hope to finish the season on a high note tomorrow.”
Jean-Paul Driot, Team owner
“Our main satisfaction came in qualifying, with two cars in the SuperPole and Sébastien Buemi on pole. In the race, we realised that the winning team had taken a leap forward and we couldn’t compete. The progress made by one and then the others is quite impressive and that is what makes this championship so interesting. We are motivated to finish the season on a high note tomorrow, before we look forward to new exhilarating challenges.”
Vincent Gaillardot, FE programme Director
“We have used the five weeks between the Zurich ePrix and New York to conduct several analyses. The entire team has put in an enormous amount of work and we reaped the benefits, because it has been a long time since we had both cars in the SuperPole. We have successfully exploited our potential, but there is still room for improvement in race conditions. This result is promising and we hope that the second New York ePrix will confirm this improvement.”