Round 5 – Miami ePrix – Nicolas Prost and e.dams Renault strike a double blow!

It was a great weekend for the French team. By winning in the streets of Miami Nicolas Prost became the first driver to cause the French national anthem to ring out on the Formula E podium, and at the same time he took the lead in the championship. And the cherry on the cake is that his victory has helped the e.dams Renault team to open up a big lead (31 points) in the teams’ classification despite the glitches that hit Sébastien Buemi.

The programme was considerably delayed due to bad weather the day before the race with the result that free practice was restricted to half-an-hour, and qualifying to eight minutes per session. This didn’t prevent the Americans from flocking to the circuit in large numbers. Despite the disadvantage of going out for qualifying in the first group Nicolas Prost set a remarkable third-fastest time. This put him on the front row after Nelson Piquet Jr was demoted. Buemi spun after locking up and started the race in 13th place on the grid.

Prost drove a very intelligent race and his concentration never wavered despite the many distractions on the yachts anchored in the harbor beside the circuit! In the first part he was in third place behind pole sitter Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Abt, and he then snatched second place after the car change. He latched on to Abt’s gearbox and took advantage of better energy management to slice past him two laps from the finish. He then fought off the challenge of the aptly-named Scott Speed and scored a dominant first victory in Formula E. Buemi, whose radio went on the blink, suffered from over-consumption of energy and saw the flag where he started – in 13th place.

Nicolas Prost: “It’s been a perfect day! First of all, a big thank you to the team which provided me with a very quick car throughout the event, as well as an excellent strategy. I was especially happy with my qualification on a track that was still green. After that, the race went off without problems and we managed our consumption well so that we were able to push at the end”

Sébastien Buemi: “Above all I’d like to congratulate Nicolas on his victory, which he fully deserved. Unfortunately, I had a more difficult day. I had a problem in qualifying with a brake locking up and then I had no radio during the race. I didn’t know how much energy I’d used and I was obliged to lift off in the closing laps. It’s a Saturday to forget. Revenge at Long Beach!”

Alain Prost (co-owner): “I’m very happy and proud for both Nicolas and for the team. He deserved his victory, in particular today, after his best race of the season. It consolidated the work done by everybody in the squad with which I associate Sébastien who, unfortunately, ran into a few technical problems. There’s still a long way to go in the championship and we’re going to fight to defend our positions till the very end.”

Jean-Paul Driot (co-owner): “I’m really delighted for Nicolas. Since the first race he’s showed his ability to manage the energy supply as well as his sheer speed. He thoroughly deserves his maiden victory. It’s also a great reward for the team and for Renault whose support has helped us to be as competitive as we are in this championship, which is quite simply getting bigger and bigger with every passing day.”