The 2016 Hong Kong ePrix (formally the 2016 FIA Formula E HKT Hong Kong ePrix for sponsorship purposes) was a Formula E electric motor race held at the Hong Kong Central Harbourfront Circuit in Hong Kong before a crowd of 30,000 people on 9 October 2016. It was the first race of the 2016–17 Formula E Championship and the first edition of the event. The 45-lap race was won by e.Dams-Renault driver Sébastien Buemi who started from seventh place. Audi Sport ABT's Lucas di Grassi finished second and Mahindra driver Nick Heidfeld was third.
Nelson Piquet Jr. won the pole position by recording the fastest lap in qualifying. He pulled away from the rest of the field and led until he collided with the barrier after swerving to avoid José María López's crashed car on the 17th lap allowing Sam Bird to take the lead. Some drivers elected to make pit stops to switch to their second cars with Bird choosing to remain on the circuit until his own stop eight laps later. He had technical problems with his second car and Buemi moved into the lead. Di Grassi was no more than two seconds behind Buemi but was unable to get close enough to challenge him because he had to conserve electrical energy and Buemi remained the leader for the rest of the race to win. There were three lead changes among four different drivers during the course of the race.
It was Buemi's first victory of the season and the seventh of his career. The result gave the Buemi of the Drivers' Championship with 25 points, seven ahead of di Grassi and ten in front of Heidfeld. Buemi's teammate Nico Prost was fourth on 12 points and António Félix da Costa was fifth with ten points. e.Dams-Renault held a 19-point advantage in the Teams' Championship over joint second-placed Audi Sport ABT and Andretti. Mahindra Racing were nine points ahead of the fifth-placed NextEV with eleven races left in the season.
Background
The idea for a race in Hong Kong was first raised in 2013 when a design team visited the city. It was intended for inclusion in the 2014–15 season schedule but negotiations and approval from local authorities and motorsport's international governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), went longer than anticipated. In October 2015 the Hong Kong ePrix was announced by the CEO and founder of Formula E Alejandro Agag in a press conference at the Central Harbour Front Event Space, pending further review from the FIA. The event was later confirmed as part of Formula E's 2016–17 schedule in September 2016 by the FIA World Motor Sport Council. It was the first of 12 single-seater electric car races of the season, and was held at the Hong Kong Central Harbourfront Circuit on 9 October 2016. A total of ten squads entering two drivers each competed in the event.
Heading into the new season, some teams opted to keep the same line-up as they had in the previous season; however, some teams changed drivers. One of the main changes involved the début appearance of Jaguar in the sport with the 2008–09 A1 Grand Prix champion Adam Carroll and the 2012 GP3 Series title winner Mitch Evans competing for the team. Team Aguri was purchased by Chinese sports development and management firm SECA in mid-2016 and was renamed Techeetah with Jean-Éric Vergne and Ma Qinghua announced as the team's drivers. Defending FIA GT World Cup champion Maro Engel was hired by Venturi to replace World Endurance Championship driver Mike Conway, while Virgin employed three-time consecutive World Touring Car champion José María López to partner Formula E race winner Sam Bird. The final change involved two-time Macau Grand Prix winner and reigning European Formula Three champion Felix Rosenqvist joining the series with Mahindra, partnering Nick Heidfeld. Defending drivers' champion Sébastien Buemi stayed at e.Dams-Renault after his title-winning campaign, and was again joined by Nico Prost.
Buemi said the increase in competition for the championship's third season meant he was not thinking about the title but on winning as many races as possible. Audi Sport ABT's Lucas di Grassi, who finished second to Buemi in the previous season's drivers' championship, stated his team was highly motivated and aimed to win the championship after having placed third and second in the previous two seasons. He spoke of his feeling that the series was going to possibly experience "the most diverse and perhaps most exciting Formula E season.” Di Grassi said that his objective was to win the race and spoke of his astonishment if he became its inaugural winner. Heidfeld revealed that he was looking forward to the new season and aimed to help his team gain positions in the championship.
The 10-corner long track was designed by Rodrigo Nunes. It was constructed in eight days and was completed on the Friday before the event because the local authorities denied permission for the streets to be closed to traffic before that day. US$2.6 million (HK$20 million) was spent on relocating street lighting, cutting down trees, lowering underground facilities covers and converting existing roadside infrastructure. The circuit received positive feedback from drivers. Ma called the track "very exciting" and stated his belief that the race would see a large amount of overtakes. Rosenqvist said that he felt the track appeared "incredible" which went beyond his expectations. It reminded him more of American race circuits than the Guia Circuit and noted the track's bumpiness. Concerns were raised over the turn three chicane which had no kerbs or any visible markings. Heidfeld felt there was a risk of a driver crashing his car in the area with António Félix da Costa backing up his view and calling for the installation of tyres and observation of the turn's run-off area.
Practice
Two practice sessions—both on Sunday morning—were held before the Sunday late afternoon race. The first session ran for 45 minutes and the second for 30 minutes. A 30-minute shakedown was held on Saturday afternoon before the practice sessions and had Ma post the fastest time of 1 minute, 8.633 seconds, four-tenths of a second faster than Nelson Piquet Jr. in second. The session was temporarily halted when Prost's car stopped on track. Both practice sessions took place in warm weather. Di Grassi used of power to post the first practice session's fastest lap at 1 minute, 2.381 seconds, 0.145 seconds faster than Buemi in second. Daniel Abt, Engel, Vergne, Bird, Stéphane Sarrazin, Prost, Félix da Costa and Rosenqvist rounded out the session's top ten fastest drivers. The session was first disrupted when Oliver Turvey's vehicle stopped on track with an electrical issue after four minutes, necessitating the brief deployment of red flags, to allow course workers to remove his car from the circuit. A second stoppage occurred when the Andretti of Robin Frijns (who previously spun twice) lost control of his car at turn nine and blocked the track, and Rosenqvist impacted the first turn barrier and was stranded at the corner's run-off area.
In the second practice session, Vergne was quickest with a lap of 1 minute, 2.350 seconds, ahead of Prost, Bird, Rosenqvist, Félix da Costa, Heidfeld, Buemi, Ma, Sarrazin and Loïc Duval (Dragon). Duval lost control of his car and crashed into the turn ten outside barrier's exit, removing both of his right-hand side tyres, and stopping the session for ten minutes to allow his car to be removed from the centre of the track. Engel spun and damaged his right-rear suspension, but was able to drive slowly back to the pit lane. Di Grassi ran wide and went deep onto the turn two run-off area. He spun his car to exit the corner but struck a wall, removing his rear wing. López lost his vehicle's nose cone in a collision with a wall at the same corner, and his rear wing was removed from his car when he hit the turn eight barrier. His rear wing was off the racing line, avoiding the need for yellow flags. The session concluded early when Piquet collided with the chicane exit barrier.
Qualifying
After practice but before qualifying, circuit officials elected to remove a kerb at the chicane with the teams notified of the change shortly before qualifying began. Saturday afternoon's qualifying session ran for 60 minutes and was divided into four groups of five cars. Each group was determined by a lottery system and was permitted six minutes of on-track activity. All drivers were limited to two timed laps with one at maximum power. The fastest five overall competitors in the four groups participated in a "Super Pole" session with one driver on the track at any time going out in reverse order from fifth to first. Each of the five drivers was limited to one timed lap and the starting order was determined by the competitor's fastest times (Super Pole from first to fifth, and group qualifying from sixth to twentieth). The driver and team who recorded the fastest time were awarded three points towards their respective championships. Qualifying was held in warm weather. The modifications to the kerb and a dirty track slowed lap times by at least one second than in practice. Super Pole was cancelled following several long delays caused by multiple crashes and the starting order was determined by the fastest overall times in the four groups.
Piquet clinched the first pole position of his career and the first for NextEV with a time of 1 minute, 3.099 seconds. He was joined on the grid's front row by teammate Turvey who was 0.132 seconds slower. In his first Formula E qualifying session, López qualified third in front of his teammate Bird. Buemi went out first in the fourth group and was initially two-tenths of a second slower than Piquet despite no driver errors on his full power lap and took fifth place. Rosenqvist was the first driver to venture onto the track in the group three and drove aggressively which saw him make light contact with the barrier to qualify sixth. Abt took seventh place, ahead of Duval but he served a three-place starting position penalty after he was observed speeding under red-flag conditions in shakedown. Hence, Vergne inherited eighth and his fastest time was set on cold tyres and brakes.
Prost's full power lap saw him narrowly avoid hitting the chicane and his car slid at the final turn, leaving him ninth. Heidfeld took tenth, ad Engel was the fastest driver who was not issued with a penalty to not qualify within the top ten. He was more than one-tenth of a second faster than 13th-placed qualifier Félix da Costa, who in turn, was nearly four-tenths ahead of débutant Carroll. The trio were followed by Sarrazin in 15th, and Evans 16th; cold brakes and tyres slowed Evans. Ma's left-rear quarter was damaged when he made contact with a barrier beside the circuit and qualified 17th. Jérôme d'Ambrosio struggled and began behind Ma. Di Grassi, 19th, pushed hard and made an error at the chicane, hitting the wall, damaging his front-left quarter, and triggering red-flag conditions with three minutes left in the second group. Frijns completed the field and temporarily stopped qualifying when his car went airborne after hitting the kerbs at the chicane and collided with the barrier.
Qualifying classification