Formula E Marrakech E-Prix

RasputinLives

No passing through my dirty air please
Contributor
It's so close to Xmas that the mechanics still have cold turkey sandwiches but this Saturday it's time to charge up and get back on the Formula E train. Just a single race this weekend on the series second visit to Morroco on a circuit which Isn't too bad IMO.

The double header that opened the series in Hong Kong certainly gave us something to reflect on. Virgin's Sam Bird leads the championship after taking the win in race 1. All this despite the fact he nearly took one of the officials out by crashing in the pit lane. Jean Eric Vergne, who eats up energy like housewives eat Valium, somehow find himself just two points behind in 2nd in the customer Renault team, and despite his worst weekend in the sport Felix Rosenqvist is not far behind in 3rd. All three have a problem where consistency is concerned so it will be interesting to see if this head start they've got over the others will lead to greater concentration.

Of course what we'll all be looking out for is if the new order really is a new order or if it was a fluke. Everyone expected it to be Buemi vs Di Grassi again and it still could be. Buemi claims Renault had a 'mystery' problem in Hong Kong and it's hard to believe the car won't be competitive as we saw their customer team out front. Audi is a strange one, the word prior to start of the season was that there race pace was ridiculously faster than the rest of the field but it didn't materialise. Of course they did get a victory with Danny Abt only for him to be DQ'd for an illegal car - not the first time this has happened and not appealed which makes you raise an eyebrow at Audi. It will be interesting to see if these two teams can restore the status quo this weekend.

One of the highlights for me in Hong Kong was the performance of rookie Mortara in the less fancied Ventuari. I'd never seen him race before but he is meant to be a street circuit specialist and he certainly looked it. More of that please. Also it became clear on race 2 that Jaguar have taken a leap forward and they and NIO have superior qualifying pace to most of the field even if there race pace Isn't up to scratch. I think that it will lead to some interesting races with Evans and Piquet trying to hold off faster cars behind them. Can anyone say Trulli train?

In other news Jani has ended his contract with Dragon racing after one awful round in Hong Kong (apparently a deal between Dragon and Porsche fell through) and has been replaced with Lopez who was very unlucky to be dropped by Virgin last year as he had some great drives and pushed Sam Bird quite a lot. I Don't hold out much hope for him in the Dragon car though as they look in trouble. Another change is that the sponsors who insisted that Kobayashi race for Andretti last round have obviously relented and let Andretti's actual driver for the season, Tom Blomqvist, actually get in the car. I have a lot of respect for Blomqvist's talent as he mixed it with Ocon and Verstappen back in his F3 days but you just never know what your going to get with the Andretti car.

Another Formula E thing going off the day after the race is the Rookie test which really shows the young talent thinking of getting involved in Formula E as their path to F1 seems blocked. Giovanazi, Nick De Vries, Alexander Albon, Paul Di Resta and Gary Parfeet will all take to the track. Hang on? Paul Di Resta and Gary Parfeet? *face palms*

In the UK the race will be shown live on CH5 with coverage starting at 15:00 (quali is on Spike at 11:15). It also shown on Eurosport but they Don't have the main feed and coverage is pretty poor. As usual all sessions will be shown live on the Formula E website for everyone around the world - sorry TV schedule stuff is so UK orientated!

So plug in and power up. Who'll be watching?
 
It’ll be interesting to see how Di Grassi and Buemi respond; Montreal was a bit of a fiasco for Buemi as well so he needs to get back to form quickly.
 
Is Andre crash-a-Lottera still in? It'll be fun to see if he and Felix Rosenquist can keep it pointing in the right direction this time out.
 
Lotterer is still there. He described Formula E as the hardest racing he has ever done! I thought he was going to fit in with Formula E great but he did seem out of his depth.

Rosenqvist really was poor by his standards last time out but I have a sneaky feeling he might end up champion this year. Depends on Audi and Renault really.
 
That should be accompanied by the severest possible sanction if the belts are not sufficiently attached, and the most robust was of assessing if the belts are, indeed, attached.
 
Normal service resumed in qualie with di Grassi and Buemi making the super pole shoot out.
 
3 races 2 or 3 retirements. 0 pts for di grassi. Obviously we have other terrible title defences but thats usually when they changed teams or teams dropped off competitively like 1997, 1998 & 2009 F1 seasons great example of this. But im struggling to think of a worst start to a title defence while still in a front running team
 
Ace move by Rosenqvist for the win. Enjoyable race. Audi and Renault are certainly not going to get it all their own way this year.
 
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ever since he started this time 12 months ago . There is times in motorsport just get a feeling of that guys good. getting pole in his 1st or 2nd race. in what many drivers say is complicated series take a while to get use to & should've beaten Buemi he was the faster driver but lack of experience cost him & but we knew straight away that the talent is there. To take a team of also runs to pole / race / podium contenders consistently

would like to see him in f1 but we all know that f1 is money over talent. You could be tje next ayrton senna or micheal Schumacher but if up against a guy with £30m you miss out
 
It was almost a good circuit but there are still those concrete walls. It seems as though there is no way of removing a broken down car without disrupting the race.
 
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