Marrakesh (Morocco), Jan 14 (PTI) Mahindra Racing's FelixRosenqvist bided his time and made amends for missing out onvictory in Marrakesh last year with a late move on SebastienBuemi to clinch his second consecutive win of the Formula Eseason.
The Mahindra Racing driver looked comfortable in thefight at the front and closely followed Buemi for the secondstint ready to pounce.
The Swede, who was fortune to complete the distance aftera battery change between qualifying and the race, stuck behindthe slipstream of the Renault e.dams driver and made a lungeup the inside of Turn 7 to take the lead.
From there Rosenqvist didnÂ’t look back and held on tovictory at the same venue where he lost out on the win in onlyhis second-ever Formula E race.
ItÂ’s the first time Rosenqvist has stood at the top ofthe Formula E Championship standings, four points clear of DSVirgin RacingÂ’s Sam Bird who came home in third place.
Mahindra Racing also lead the team standings with two winsfrom three races.
Buemi, who only managed to score a solitary point in theopening two rounds in Hong Kong, showed a return to formstarting from the front of the grid from Julius Baer poleposition.
The Swiss champion made a clean getaway and led throughthe pitstop phase, but ultimately lost out to Rosenqvist.
However, it wasnÂ’t such plain sailing for Buemi as hispreparations were hampered by an issue with the water pump.
The Renault e.dams engineers had to invert the order of hiscars to ensure they could fix the problem and get him out intime.
It was a similar story for Bird, who remained behind therear wing of Buemi in the opening laps but gave up theposition to Rosenqvist after a recurring technical issuecaused him to slow down.
Despite relinquishing the place, Bird took the chequeredflag in third place to continue his strong start to theseason.
Another name carrying over form from Hong Kong was seasonone champion Nelson Piquet Jr, who equalled his best-placedfinish of the current campaign in fourth for Panasonic JaguarRacing and scored the extra point for Visa fastest lap.
The Brazilian gained a place in the mandatory car swap,coming out ahead of Jose Maria Lopez making his Formula Ereturn with the DRAGON outfit.
RosenqvistÂ’s team-mate Nick Heidfeld scythed his waythrough the pack to finish seventh after hitting the wallduring qualifying. Formula E debutant Tom Blomqvist claimedpoints in his first-ever race for Andretti in eighth.
It wasnÂ’t a day to remember for Nico Prost. The Frenchmanand three-time E-Prix winner was pitched into a spin by AndreLotterer sending him to the back of the field, and laterpicked up a 20-second post-race penalty for speeding underFull Course Yellow - leaving Alex Lynn and Daniel Abt to roundout the top-10 positions.
Race winner Rosenqvist said: "At one point in the day Iwas going to be settling somewhere in the middle of the mid-field after practice as we were struggling a lot.
"We then made some analysis and in qualifying we foundout how to work the tyres properly, so that was a really goodcomeback before the race.
I was told I had to change my battery thirty-minutesbefore jumping in the car before the grid, so I was prayingthat my second car would be ready. Big thanks to the Mahindraguys," he added. PTI BSBS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.