Round 5 of Formula E will take place around Hong Kong Central Harbourfront this weekend and it certainly has a lot to live up too if the previous rounds this season are anything to go by. It certainly seems impossible that the race will be any closer than the finish of the previous race in Mexico where Lucas Di Grassi won by around 3ft. Formula E's race format at the moment seems spot on though so I expect another good race.
By the time you reach round 5 of a series you would expect to know who the title contenders are but this year I genuinely have no idea who they are going to be. The championship leader is Jerome D'ambrosio but he's not even talked about as a number 1 in his own team that'll own a title challenger. His results so far though are not too be sniffed at. In fact in the chaos of the last round it was missed that he came from the back of the grid to 4th whilst his much fancied team mate ran out of energy. 2nd in the championship is Felix Da Costa but he's actually crashed out of 2 of the 4 races - scoring a win and a 2nd in the others. He certainly should be considered as a contender given that the BMW is arguably the best car in the field but needs to start being consistent. 3rd right now is Sam Bird who always seems to be in and around the challenge but, like every year, seems to have a great result followed by a poor one. Surprisingly finding himself now 4th is Lucas Di Grassi. The Audi has looked way off the pace but seems to be getting better, however its nowhere near the dominance we've seen from them previously. 5th is the new darling of the Formula E media Pascal Whrelein. Pascal has only been in 3 of the races this year and whilst he went out on lap one on his debut he has been in contention for the win in the previous 2 races. It should be noted he has pretty much run out of energy in both of those though so maybe some more experience needed.
Contenders from outside the top 5? Well Jean-Eric Vergne is well down the order (he's even behind his team mate) despite being in one of the fastest cars as those results just won't come. He needs that to change round very fast. It's also worth casting an eye over to Nissan who have the evergreen Sebastian Buemi and the much under-rated Oli Rowland. Both looked on for good results in Mexico but lost out when it turned out that Nissan had made an embarrassing mis-calculation on energy and neither made it to the line.
Elsewhere on the grid Mercedes have just announced their entrance into Formula E with a big snazzy promo video and will be preying that HWA (their probe team) can finally get them some good results. Vandoorne has shown some promise but needs to get his head in order. Venturi seemed to have found something in their car which might mean we see Massa up the sharp end a bit more but jury is still out on him. Jaguar need to wake up quick start as they appear to be sleep walking their way out of the series.
For whatever reason the race is in Sunday this time out and will be live on the BBC (red button), Eurosport and on the Formula E website from 6am GMT.
By the time you reach round 5 of a series you would expect to know who the title contenders are but this year I genuinely have no idea who they are going to be. The championship leader is Jerome D'ambrosio but he's not even talked about as a number 1 in his own team that'll own a title challenger. His results so far though are not too be sniffed at. In fact in the chaos of the last round it was missed that he came from the back of the grid to 4th whilst his much fancied team mate ran out of energy. 2nd in the championship is Felix Da Costa but he's actually crashed out of 2 of the 4 races - scoring a win and a 2nd in the others. He certainly should be considered as a contender given that the BMW is arguably the best car in the field but needs to start being consistent. 3rd right now is Sam Bird who always seems to be in and around the challenge but, like every year, seems to have a great result followed by a poor one. Surprisingly finding himself now 4th is Lucas Di Grassi. The Audi has looked way off the pace but seems to be getting better, however its nowhere near the dominance we've seen from them previously. 5th is the new darling of the Formula E media Pascal Whrelein. Pascal has only been in 3 of the races this year and whilst he went out on lap one on his debut he has been in contention for the win in the previous 2 races. It should be noted he has pretty much run out of energy in both of those though so maybe some more experience needed.
Contenders from outside the top 5? Well Jean-Eric Vergne is well down the order (he's even behind his team mate) despite being in one of the fastest cars as those results just won't come. He needs that to change round very fast. It's also worth casting an eye over to Nissan who have the evergreen Sebastian Buemi and the much under-rated Oli Rowland. Both looked on for good results in Mexico but lost out when it turned out that Nissan had made an embarrassing mis-calculation on energy and neither made it to the line.
Elsewhere on the grid Mercedes have just announced their entrance into Formula E with a big snazzy promo video and will be preying that HWA (their probe team) can finally get them some good results. Vandoorne has shown some promise but needs to get his head in order. Venturi seemed to have found something in their car which might mean we see Massa up the sharp end a bit more but jury is still out on him. Jaguar need to wake up quick start as they appear to be sleep walking their way out of the series.
For whatever reason the race is in Sunday this time out and will be live on the BBC (red button), Eurosport and on the Formula E website from 6am GMT.
