Sam Bird takes maiden Formula E victory

Sam Bird took his maiden Formula E victory on Saturday as he set the tone after dominating the Putrajaya ePrix in Malaysia.

Starting second on the grid, after qualifying third, the ex-Mercedes F1 test driver attempted to make a move on Oriol Servia at turn one but was unable to make it stick.

And while he made the move stick after the first safety car period, it was the second one that made us see how dominant Bird was going to be.

Flooring it at the hairpin, the 27-year-old left the rest of the field behind as he pulled out a huge gap instantly. From there, he did not look back.

But while he dominated the race, perhaps more spectacularly, it was Lucas di Grassi and Sebastien Buemi who made the podium from 18^th and 19^th on the grid respectively, both drivers making up 16 places in the race.

Jerome d’Ambrosio finished fifth after starting 20^th, meaning he made up the second most places in the race.

Meanwhile, Nick Heidfeld’s atrocious luck continued in the series. After being taken out by Franck Montagny, he was later excluded for not changing cars in his box.

Servia took both the pole position points (Prost had a 10-place penalty for causing an avoidable collision in Beijing) and fastest lap points, giving him an extra five to his total.

Standings

The final results mean the drivers’  standings look like this:

 

 

And the teams’ standings: