e-dams-Renault goes down in history!
Today, Saturday 27th June, will be forever engraved in the memory of the e-dams-Renault team! Sébastien Buemi’s superb victory and Nicolas Prost’s seventh place gave the French outfit the first-ever teams’ crown in the history of the Formula E Championship. Tomorrow Buemi, who dominated his rivals on the bumpy Battersea Park track, will try to add the drivers’ title to the e-dams-Renault’s collection.
After free practice sessions perturbed by a rough track – too many dangerous, car-breaking bumps – Buemi stunned his rivals with a fabulous lap in qualifying. His pole position proved crucial given the extreme difficulty of overtaking on the narrow London circuit. Prost set the sixth-quickest time while the championship leaders, Piquet and Di Grassi, were third and fourth. Buemi, who was never under threat despite a safety car intervention, took the chequered flag in first place after a fault-free race with Prost finishing seventh. As Jérôme d’Ambrosio and Jean-Eric Vergne finished in front of his main rivals, this result means that the Swiss has closed the gap to Piquet to only five points in the drivers’ overall classification. This puts him in the ideal position of hunter for tomorrow’s showdown in London!
Sébastien Buemi: “It’s been a marvellous day! For the team first of all, as the title is a reward for all their work and they fully deserve it. Then for me: everything went off like a dream, and I couldn’t really have hoped for more, except perhaps the fastest lap in the race. Now I’ll have to do a good job recuperating and keep my energy flowing for the final round.”
Nicolas Prost: “The first objective was the teams’ crown and we wrapped it up so bravo and thanks to everybody. Where I’m concerned I just missed out on second place in qualifying, which would have given us a double in the race. It was close: my pace was good although the safety car intervention didn’t help me. Now I hope that Sébastien can win the drivers’ title tomorrow.”
Alain Prost (co-owner): “We’re all very happy this evening after Sébastien’s superb victory and the fact that we’ve clinched the teams’ title; we couldn’t really have asked for more! Bravo to the whole squad who made no mistakes today, to Sébastien and to Nicolas. We’re now fully focused on tomorrow’s race as Sébastien is on an equal footing with his two main rivals. The battle for the drivers’ crown will be very close.”
Jean-Paul Driot (co-owner): “I’m absolutely delighted for the team; it’s a great feeling to inaugurate the list of Formula E Championship winners with the first constructors’ title. I’m also very happy for Renault who will be at the top of this roll call and has been ideally rewarded for its involvement. It’s been a very exciting season and everybody, including Sébastien and Nicolas, has done a really great job and deserves this title. We’ve still got one final mountain to climb tomorrow, and I’d be over the moon if Sébastien were to win the drivers’ crown: he deserves it and I know he can do it!”