Inaugral Formula E race ends with big crash
The debut of the Formula E series took place in Beijing with a last corner crash for Nicolas Prost and Nick Heidfield somewhat overshadowing the victory of Lucas Di Grassi.
The son of F1 legend Alain Prost, Nicolas led for most of the race, only to come together with Heidfield as the German attempted to pass. As a result Heidfield was pushed over the kerbing, flipped into the air and hit the crash barriers, but fortunately was relatively unhurt after climbing from his upside-down car.
The 10-race series will climax on June 27th, 2015 with a race in Battersea Park in London. Races last one hour, with a car change halfway through due to battery limitations, and other additions such as music during the races, and a fanboost with 3 drivers getting the most social media votes having the power of their cars increased.
The Beijing round was won by Di Grassi, followed by Frank Montagny and Britain’s Sam Bird.
The teams competing are:
| Amlin Aguri | Katherine Legge and Takuma Sato |
| Andretti | Franck Montagny and Charles Pic |
| Audi Sport | Lucas Di Grassi and Daniel Abt |
| China Racing | Nelson Piquet and Ho-Pin Tung |
| Dragon Racing | Oriol Servia and Jerome d’Ambrosio |
| e.dams Renault | Nicolas Prost and Sebastien Buemi |
| Mahindra Racing | Karun Chandhok and Bruno Senna |
| Trulli | Jarno Trulli and Michela Cerruti |
| Venturi | Nick Heidfeld and Stephane Sarrazin |
| Virgin Racing | Jaime Alguersuari and Sam Bird |
All teams and drivers are running the same Spark-Renault SRT 01E car for this first season. It was developed by Williams Advanced Engineering and Spark Racing Technologies, and produces the equivalent of around 270bhp from 200kW batteries. That gives a 0-60mph of 3 seconds, and top speeds of around 140mph.