Formula E: Buemi still becomes runner-up 🎥

TITLE TO VERGNE After Saturday's victory, Sébastien Buemi secured second place in the 2018/19 Formula E Championship with his fourth consecutive podium in the second race in New York. As expected, the champion is Jean-Eric Vergne in the DS Techeetah. For the second race on the Brooklyn Circuit, which had become significantly faster on Sunday, [...]

After the start, pole setter Alexander Sims in the BMW led ahead of Sébastien Buemi's Nissan. However, neither of them won the final race.

Sébastien Buemi put himself in a good starting position for the second race on the Brooklyn Circuit, which had become significantly faster on Sunday, by making it into super pole qualifying and starting third on the grid. The Nissan driver was just 95 thousandths behind Alexander Sims, who secured pole position for BMW's partner Andretti Motorsport in the US home race, and only 17 thousandths ahead of Robin Frjins of Envision Virgin Racing.

Only theoretical title chances left
Despite the additional point for the third-fastest Super Pole time, Buemi's last theoretical chance of the title dwindled to zero, as only another zero from championship leader Jean-Eric Vergne plus the fastest race lap (1 point) would have put him right at the front.

Although the Swiss driver overtook Frijns immediately after the start, the unleashed Dutchman regained second position shortly after the first safety car period with a successful braking maneuver in attack mode (short-term power boost). Nico Müller's unleashed DTM team-mate, whose team relies on Audi drive technology, also overtook the leading BMW iFE.18 of Sims in a similar manner shortly afterwards.

Robin Frijns drove to his second win of the season ahead of Sims and Buemi. Apart from champion Vergne, only the Dutchman won more than one race.

Frijns wins, Vergne and DS Techeetah celebrate two titles
The positions were thus secured until the end of the race. A modest seventh place was enough for Vergne to successfully defend his title, something that no Formula E champion had managed before him. In contrast to the previous year, DS Techeetah was also able to celebrate winning the prestigious team classification.

The 29-year-old Frenchman scored his three wins of the season in the sixth race in Sanya (China), the ninth in Monaco and the eleventh in Bern. Only Robin Frijns has won more than one race - after his triumph in the rain in Paris, he recorded four consecutive zeros before bouncing back in the final race.

Two for one: Jean-Eric Vergne is the first champion in two consecutive Formula E seasons (Photo: LAT Images).

Advance from 13th to second place in the table
Sébastien Buemi is one of seven other drivers who have each made it onto the winners' list once in the sixth Formula E season of 2018/19, which has been the most varied to date. The 19 points he scored in the final race put him in second place in the championship.

Lucas di Grassi dropped back to third place in the standings, although the collision with Mitch Evans' Jaguar four corners before the finish line no longer had any influence. Defending champions Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler still had a chance of winning the teams' championship and took second place in the final standings ahead of Audi customer team Envision Virgin, which had overtaken Nissan e.dams.

For Buemi, who has only finished on the podium in the last four of 14 races, this was the only downer.

Sébastien Buemi: "I can hardly believe that I still finished runner-up. After Paris, I was only 13th in the championship. I would have liked to have achieved even more in the last race, but I didn't want to risk too much and preferred to finish third rather than crash. I'm sorry for the team that we had to give up third place overall by one point."

After the first victory on Saturday, Nissan e.dams celebrated again on Sunday. No team scored more points in the second half of the season.

Proud of what has been achieved
The 2015/16 season champion still knows exactly where the potential title slipped through his and Nissan's fingers.

Sébastien Buemi: "In Paris. I was in the lead there when Robin Frijns touched me slightly. The subsequent puncture cost me more than the points that I now lack on Vergne. But things like that can happen in motorsport. After a very difficult first half of the season, we can be proud of what we have achieved."

The following short video shows the final race from Nissan's point of view:

The seventh Formula E season 2019/20 begins on November 22/23 with a double round in Al Diriyah in Saudi Arabia, just like last year.

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