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<strong> Ad Diriyah Race 2</strong>: Sims takes first victory in Formula E ahead of teammate Gunther

Ad Diriyah Race 2: Sims takes first victory in Formula E ahead of teammate Gunther

Published on 23 Nov 2019 13:01
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By: Coilin Higgins

BMW's Alexander Sims has won the second race of the Diriyah E-Prix this afternoon to take his first win in Formula E, with teammate Max Guntherfinishing behind to take second. Lucas Di Grassi managed to finish in third and take the final podium position for Audi.

Sims managed to lead away from the line and pull out an early lead as Sebastien Buemi struggled to hold back a challenging Di Grassi as everybody managed to stay in line and not make any gains from the start.

Jerome D'Ambrosio suffered with an issue early on the formation lap, with his Mahindra refusing to move off the line, leaving him stranded as everybody moved around to the starting grid.

Antonio Felix Da Costa managed to exploit Di Grassi for third position, passing the Brazilian as he locked up and went wide coming into turn 18. leaving him open to Jaguar's Mitch Evans also, as Sam Bird found his way past Evans with a late lunge at turn 1

Da Costa and Buemi came together after Da Costa made contact with Buemi's rear coming into turn 18. A frustrated Buemi also almost caused a collision with Felipe Massa and Nissan teammate Oliver Rowland as he tried to turn his car.

Daniel Abt was given a drive through penalty for a throttle map infringement, while Bird was forced into the wall and into retirement by Evans, bringing out a safety car, with Pascal Wehrlein also suffering wing damage after making contact with Bird, eventually righting the broken piece after purposely brushing off the wall.

Stoffel Vandoorne finished the second race of the season in fourth, while Edoardo Mortara managed to take the chequered flag in fifth.

Sims took his second attack mode during the safety car restart and managed to keep his lead from Da Costa, while Max Gunthermade a good restart to take two positions and moved up into third, while Da Costa was handed a drive through penalty on the restart for his collision with Buemi earlier in the race, with Buemi getting a ten second penalty for his unsafe re-join.

A second safety car was soon out after Robin Frijns spun at turn 8 and became another of the wall, ending a disastrous day for the Virgin Racing team, while Massa was also handed a drive through penalty for a false start, being out of position on the original starting grid.

A mistake in bringing in the safety car prompted an immediate full course yellow, as the safety car was brought in while marshals were still attempting to recover Frijns' stricken Virgin. Evans was eventually handed a drive through penalty for the incident with Bird.

Despite Di Grassi's best efforts, he could not find a way by Guntherfor second, while it was Sims that came home to take his first Formula E victory.

Sixth and seventh went to Andre Lotterer and Oliver Rowland, eighth and ninth were taken by Nyck De Vries and Oliver Turvey, while Daniel Abt took the final points scoring position in tenth.