The 2017 Hong Kong ePrix (formally the 2017 FIA Formula E HKT Hong Kong ePrix for sponsorship purposes) was a pair of Formula E electric car races held on 2 and 3 December 2017 at the Hong Kong Central Harbourfront Circuit in Hong Kong before a two-day crowd of 27,000 people. They were the first and second races of the 2017–18 Formula E Championship and the second running of the event. The 43-lap race on 2 December was won by Virgin driver Sam Bird from second place. Jean-Éric Vergne finished second for the Techeetah team and Mahindra driver Nick Heidfeld was third. The longer 45-lap race held on 3 December was won by Heidfeld's teammate Felix Rosenqvist from pole position. Edoardo Mortara of the Venturi team was the highest-placed rookie in second and Jaguar's Mitch Evans was third.
Vergne won the pole position for the first race by recording the fastest lap in qualifying and maintained his startline advantage on the first lap. The race saw the first race stoppage in Formula E history on the first lap when rookie André Lotterer was caught out by traffic and hit the turn three and four chicane barrier, forcing three other cars to stop on track. After the running order was sorted, the race restarted half an hour later behind the safety car with Vergne leading Bird. On lap 20, Bird took the lead from Vergne, and held it for the rest of the race despite incurring a drive-through penalty for a collision with the side of his garage in the pit lane claim his sixth career victory.
Rosenqvist took pole position for the second race which began behind the safety car because of a technical failure that stopped the lights gantry from working. He immediately lost the lead when he half-spun at turn one, allowing Mortara to pass him for the position. Mortara managed his electrical energy usage better than the rest of the field to lead for most of the race. With three laps left, however, Mortara spun at turn two, promoting Abt into first place who held it to finish first on-track. Three hours after the race, Abt was disqualified because his inverter and motor-generator unit security stickers did not match those on his car's technical passport. Audi did not take up an appeal to protest the decision and Rosenqvist took his second career victory.
After the races Bird led the Drivers' Championship by two points over Vergne in second. Rosenqvist's victory in the second race put him third on 29 points while Mortara was a further five points behind in fourth and Heidfeld was fifth. Mahindra took the early lead in the Teams' Championship with 44 points; Virgin were in second place on 41 and Techeetah were a further eight points behind in third. Venturi were fourth on 30 points and Jaguar rounded out the top five with ten races left in the season.
Background
The Hong Kong ePrix was confirmed as part of Formula E's 2017–18 series schedule in September 2017 by the FIA World Motor Sport Council. They were the first and second of twelve scheduled single-seater electric car races of the 2017–18 Championship, and the second running of the event, The ePrix was granted double header status for the first time by motor racing's world governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Additionally, the event was the first Asian double header round in Formula E history and was held on 2 and 3 December 2017 at the Hong Kong Central Harbourfront Circuit. Organisers expected that 41,000 people would attend the race. Construction of the track started on 23 November, nine days before the first race. After the 2016 race, the turn three and four chicane was tightened in an attempt to reduce the likelihood of accidents there.
Heading into the new season, some teams opted to keep the same line-up as they had in the previous season; however, some teams switched drivers or changed names. ABT Audi Sport became Audi Sport ABT to reflect the increased manufacturer involvement from Audi. Faraday Future ended their partnership with Dragon Racing and NextEV NIO's name was shortened to become NIO. 2011 Formula Nippon title winner and 2012 World Endurance Champion André Lotterer was employed by Techeetah to replace Stéphane Sarrazin, while 2007–08 A1 Grand Prix champion and 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans co-winner Neel Jani took over Loïc Duval's seat at Dragon.
Former IndyCar Series podium finisher and Blancpain GT Endurance Series racer Luca Filippi joined Oliver Turvey at NIO, replacing Nelson Piquet Jr. who left the team by enabling a performance clause and went to Jaguar to replace Adam Carroll. José María López's place at Virgin was taken over by 2014 GP3 Series champion and 2017 12 Hours of Sebring co-winner Alex Lynn, while 2010 Formula 3 Euro Series champion and two-time Macau Grand Prix winner Edoardo Mortara entered the series with Venturi. Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters driver Tom Blomqvist was due to replace Robin Frijns at Andretti but his car was driven in Hong Kong by World Endurance Championship and Super Formula competitor Kamui Kobayashi. Defending drivers' champion Lucas di Grassi stayed at Audi after his title winning campaign and was again joined by Daniel Abt.
Race one Practice and qualifying 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. Although drivers were concerned over the possibility of reduced visibility, Sébastien Buemi of e.Dams-Renault set the fastest time in the first practice session with a lap of 1 minute, 3.310 seconds at of power, four-tenths of a second faster than any one else on the track. His closest challenger was Mitch Evans in second. The Audis of Abt and di Grassi, Sam Bird, Nico Prost, Piquet. Mortara, Jean-Éric Vergne and Turvey rounded out the session's top ten drivers. During the session, where several drivers struggled to find their preferred rhythm, Prost stopped on track with a battery management system glitch and restarted his car to continue driving. Later, Jani broke part of his car's front-left suspension in a collision with the turn ten inside wall but returned to the pit lane to switch into a second car. Lotterer glanced the same wall and damaged his car's front-right quarter. A short full course yellow flag was called for when Rosenqvist drove off the circuit at the final corner.
In the second practice session, Evans set the fastest lap of the weekend so far at 1 minute, 2.875 seconds, and was two-tenths of a second quicker than Abt in second. His Audi teammate di Grassi, Turvey, Nick Heidfeld (Mahindra), Bird. Piquet, Rosenqvist, Prost and António Félix da Costa completed the top ten. Buemi locked his rear tyres at the turn six hairpin after going onto some dirt, and oversteered into the barrier six minutes in, causing superficial damage to his car's steering. Heidfeld hit the turn ten barrier while on his maximum power lap and Maro Engel slid onto the turn two run-off area. Yellow flags were waved with five minutes left when Mortara stopped his car on track at the second turn and ended all competitive running in the session.
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., Buemi led the first group, ahead of early benchmark setter Lotterer and Engel. Mortara was on a fast lap but Lynn's loose car delayed him, and Mortara twice struck the barrier. Lynn took fourth and Mortara was the first group's slowest driver. Bird set the fastest overall lap time in the second group at 1 minute, 3.276 seconds, while Félix da Costa in second was quickest until Bird's lap. Kobayashi was third despite hitting the barrier and Filippi was fourth. Evans was group two's slowest driver after failing to set a maximum power lap due to him not crossing the start-finish line after an inter-team miscommunication. In the third group, Heidfeld had more on-circuit grip and was fastest, demoting Vergne to second. Rosenqvist was third-fastest and Piquet and Jani (who aborted his maximum power lap) were the third group's slowest runners.
Prost struck the turn five barrier in group four and collected a trackside sponsorship banner that entangled on his front wing and then his rear wheel. Despite littering debris on the track, marshals did not wave yellow flags, and Jérôme d'Ambrosio collected the barrier which wrapped around his front-left wheel, stopping the session. When qualifying restarted, Abt ended the group fastest and prevented his teammate di Grassi from progressing to super pole. Turvey was third and d'Ambrosio fourth. The stewards did not allow Prost to continue in qualifying and was the fourth group's slowest driver. At the end of group qualifying, the times set by Bird, Heidfeld, Vergne, Rosenqvist and Abt advanced them into super pole. Vergne took the first pole position of the season and the fifth of his career with a lap of 1 minute, 3.568 seconds. As he completed his lap, Vergne lost control of his car at the final turn, slightly damaging it from contact with the outside wall, and stopped after the timing line. Vergne's spin meant his in-lap was more than 120 per cent of his qualifying time but was not penalised since he was deemed not to have been a danger to others. Vergne was joined on the grid's front row by Bird who made a small error at the second hairpin. Heidfeld qualified third. Abt set a benchmark time that put him on provisional pole but fell to fourth. Rosenqvist, fifth, locked his brakes at the first hairpin and ran wide. After qualifying, Jani was demoted ten places on the grid for changing his car's battery after his first practice crash. Following the application of Jani's penalty, the remainder of the grid consisted of di Grassi, Turvey, Félix da Costa, Buemi, Piquet, d'Ambrosio, Lotterer, Kobayashi, Engel, Filippi, Lynn, Prost, Mortara, Evans and Jani.
Race
The weather at the start of the race were dry and warm with the air temperature between and the track temperature ranged from . A special feature of Formula E is the "Fan Boost" feature, an additional of power to use in the driver's second car. The three drivers who were allowed to use the boost were determined by a fan vote. For the first Hong Kong race, Kobayashi, Abt and Filippi were handed the extra power. When the race began from its standing start at 15:00 Hong Kong Time (UTC+08:00), Vergne maintained his pole position advantage heading towards the first corner with Bird remaining in second position. Heidfeld launched an attack for the lead of the ePrix but ran wide and fell to fourth after failing to get past Bird. Turvey steered onto the outside line and moved from seventh to third pass Rosenqvist, di Grassi, Abt and Heidfeld at the first turn as the majority of the field went defensive.