The 2018 Santiago ePrix (formally the 2018 Antofagasta Minerals Santiago E-Prix) was a Formula E electric car race held at the Santiago Street Circuit in the Chilean capital city of Santiago on 3 February 2018. It was the fourth round of the 2017–18 Formula E Championship and the inaugural running of the event. The 37-lap race was won by Techeetah driver Jean-Éric Vergne from pole position. Vergne's teammate André Lotterer finished second and e.Dams-Renault driver Sébastien Buemi was third.
Vergne won pole position by recording the fastest lap in qualifying, and held off Nelson Piquet Jr. early in the race, which was neutralised for four laps after two cars were left stranded at the side of the track from getting involved in separate accidents on the first lap. Vergne kept the lead after every driver made their mandatory pit stops to enter into a second car and his teammate Lotterer passed Piquet for second. Vergne, who was saving electrical energy due to a loss in pit-to-car radio communication, held off his teammate Lotterer for the rest of the race to win for the second time in Formula E and Lotterer finished second to achieve the first one-two finish in series history.
The result moved Vergne to the lead of the Drivers' Championship for the first time with 71 points, five ahead of previous leader Felix Rosenqvist. Sam Bird finished fifth and fell to third as Buemi's third-place finish moved him to fourth. Techeetah took the lead of the Teams' Championship with Mahindra two points behind in second. Virgin fell to third while e.Dams-Renault moved to fourth with eight races left in the season.
Background
In February 2017 a diplomatic committee led by former driver Eliseo Salazar began talking to Formula E CEO Alejandro Agag in Buenos Aires about the possibility of holding a race in the Chilean capital of Santiago. The race was officially confirmed by the world governing body of motorsport, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), in June, and was added to the 2017–18 Formula E calendar by the FIA World Motor Sport Council three months later. It was the fourth of twelve single seater electric car races of the season and took place on 3 February 2018. Prior to the event, a non-championship Formula One race won by Juan Manuel Fangio was held on the streets of Santiago in 1950. Despite also having hosted regional soccer tournament Copa América (in 1991 and 2015) or Dakar Rally (in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015), the press predicted the race would be the largest sporting event in Chile since the 1962 FIFA World Cup, and organisers expected 20,000 people to attend. A total of 20 drivers each representing ten teams of two competitors each were entered for the race.
Heading into the ePrix Mahindra driver Felix Rosenqvist led the Drivers' Championship with 54 points, four ahead of Sam Bird in second and a further seven in front of Jean-Éric Vergne in third. Nelson Piquet Jr. was fourth with 25 points and Edoardo Mortara (24 points) was the highest-placed rookie in fifth. In the Teams' Championship, Mahindra led with 75 points with Virgin 18 points behind in second place. Techeetah and Jaguar were third and fourth with 43 and 40 points respectively and Venturi was fifth with 30 points.
Starting from Santiago, the minimum pit stop time, which had been implemented since the championship began in 2014, was discarded. It came after the world governing body of motorsport, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), deferred the ruling at the preceding Marrakesh ePrix three weeks before the Santiago race after teams raised concerns over safety. To prepare for the change, chassis manufacturer Spark Racing Technology designed an endurance racing-style seat belt in its aim to improve the efficiency of its application and team and driver safety. Some teams were handed samples to practice with. The FIA later permitted teams to employ spotters behind the pit lane wall and directly opposite their garages to guide drivers into their correct stopping positions. Someone holding a sign to direct the driver into the garages was allowed to move outside the boundaries of their pit box.
The layout of the clockwise 12-turn track was unveiled on 12 October 2017. Drivers started on Santa Maria Avenue before crossing the Mapocho River and passed through Parque Forestal before returning to Santa Maria Avenue to finish a lap of the circuit. Construction of the track began on 22 January, 12 days before the race, and finished on 2 February. In response to concerns over several dogs frequenting the Parque Forestal, a local veterinary company was employed to feed them in non-circuit areas in an attempt to stop them straying onto the circuit during the weekend. Piquet believed that the layout of the track would be "technical", while the series manager of the championship's tyre supplier Michelin felt it would be a mixture of the Montreal and the Berlin Street Circuits.
Practice
Two practice sessions—both on Saturday morning—were held before the late afternoon race. The first session ran for 45 minutes and the second lasted half an hour. A half an hour untimed shakedown session was held on Friday afternoon to allow teams to check the reliability of their cars and their electronic systems. The track was cleaned overnight after drivers described the tarmac surface as dirty and slippery, but nobody chose to set a lap time at as several participants ventured onto the track's run-off areas after locking their tyres. Bird set the fastest lap in the cold first practice session at 1 minute, 19.439 seconds, more than two-tenths of a second faster than any one else on the circuit. Rosenqvist, Vergne, Mitch Evans, André Lotterer, Alex Lynn, José María López, Mortara, Oliver Turvey and Piquet rounded out the top ten drivers. Sébastien Buemi pushed, and lost control of his car's rear after losing grip leaving turn twelve. Buemi struck a tyre barrier, damaging his right-rear suspension and ending his session early. Race director Scot Elkins stopped the session with three minutes to go when Maro Engel locked his brakes and understeered into the turn three TecPro barrier, damaging his front wing. Engel was unhurt.
In the second practice session, Vergne used of power to set the fastest lap of the whole race meeting at 1 minute, 18.662 seconds. Lynn followed three-hundredths of a second behind in second and Evans followed in third. The Mahindra duo of Nick Heidfeld and Rosenqvist were fourth and fifth and Bird, Mortara, Daniel Abt, Buemi and Lucas di Grassi completed the top ten ahead of qualifying. Ten minutes into practice, Piquet slid into the turn three run-off area and stopped his vehicle before he could hit the barrier. An oversteer caused López to make light contact with the turn one wall but was able to return to the pit lane and switch into a second car. Nico Prost ran wide driving towards the 90-degree left-hand turn nine and ploughed into the barrier, removing his rear wing, and prematurely ending the session with five minutes remaining.
Qualifying
Saturday's afternoon qualifying session ran for an hour 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. Car grip appeared to be affected as track temperatures rose between second practice and qualifying and saw many drivers glancing or narrowly avoiding the tyre barriers.
In the first group of five runners, Buemi was the early pace setter with Abt second. Heidfeld took third and António Félix da Costa fourth. Evans locked his brakes, meaning he drove straight into the turn three barrier, and began from the tenth row of the grid. Bird was the fastest driver in the second group, followed by Vergne in second and Piquet third. Rosenqvist was fourth-quickest after he made errors, and Mortara locked his front left wheel entering the hairpin, meaning he was the slowest driver in the second group. Lynn led the third group, going a tenth of a second faster than Turvey. Prost was third-fastest while López and Engel rounded out the third group's slowest two drivers. Di Grassi was the initial pace setter in group four until Lotterer surprised everyone by setting the fastest overall lap in group qualifying at 1 minute, 18.796 seconds. Jérôme d'Ambrosio (Dragon), Tom Blomqvist (Andretti) and Luca Filippi (NIO) rounded out group four's top five.
At the end of group qualifying, Lotterer, di Grassi, Bird, Vergne and Buemi qualified for super pole. Vergne took his second pole position of the season and the sixth of his career with a time of 1 minute, 19.161 seconds, and was joined on the grid's front row by Buemi. Di Grassi was unable to replicate his pace from group qualifying and was third. Lotterer hit a bump in the tarmac surface entering turn one, and broke his front wing against the turn one wall. Lotterer slowed for the rest of his lap as the front wing slowly lodged itself under his car's bodywork. Bird lost control of the rear of his car entering the turn five and six double-right hand turn through carrying too much speed into the corner. Bird struck a TecPro barrier with his vehicle's rear but was able to drive back to pit lane for a replacement rear wing and the session was briefly red-flagged. After qualifying, di Grassi was automatically demoted ten places on the grid for changing his inverter, and Prost dropped two places for exceeding the number of permitted laps. The rest of the grid lined up after penalties as Piquet, Lynn, Turvey, López, Abt, Prost, Engel, d'Ambrosio, di Grassi, Rosenqvist, Heidfeld, Félix da Costa, Mortara, Blomqvist, Filippi and Evans.
Qualifying classification +Final qualifying classification Driver Team 1 25 Jean-Éric Vergne Techeetah-Renault 1:19.124 2 9 Sébastien Buemi e.Dams-Renault 1:19.182 3 1 Lucas di Grassi Audi 1:19.053 4 18 André Lotterer Techeetah-Renault 1:18.796 5 2 Sam Bird Virgin-Citroën 1:19.076 6 3 Nelson Piquet Jr. Jaguar 1:19.300 7 36 Alex Lynn Virgin-Citroën 1:19.447 8 16 Oliver Turvey NIO 1:19.574 9 8 Nico Prost e.dams-Renault 1:19.623 10 6 José María López Dragon-Penske 1:19.662 11 66 Daniel Abt Audi 1:19.726 12 5 Maro Engel Venturi 1:19.877 13 7 Jérôme d'Ambrosio Dragon-Penske 1:19.923 14 19 Felix Rosenqvist Mahindra 1:19.984 15 23 Nick Heidfeld Mahindra 1:20.012 16 28 António Félix da Costa Andretti-BMW 1:20.132 17 4 Edoardo Mortara Venturi 1:20.157 18 27 Tom Blomqvist Andretti-BMW 1:20.422 19 68 Luca Filippi NIO 1:31.271 20 20 Mitch Evans Jaguar 1:40.540 Source: Notes: — Lucas Di Grassi was deducted ten grid places for changing his inverter. — Nico Prost was deducted two grid places for exceeding the permitted number of laps during qualifying.
Race