2017 Hong Kong ePrix

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.

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.

[16] 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.

[20] During the session, where several drivers struggled to find their preferred rhythm,[22] Prost stopped on track with a battery management system glitch and restarted his car to continue driving.

[24][25] Buemi locked his rear tyres at the turn six hairpin after going onto some dirt,[26] and oversteered into the barrier six minutes in, causing superficial damage to his car's steering.

[27] 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.

The driver and team who recorded the fastest time were awarded three points towards their respective championships.,[19] Buemi led the first group, ahead of early benchmark setter Lotterer and Engel.

[28] 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.

[31][33] Despite littering debris on the track, marshals did not wave yellow flags,[33] and Jérôme d'Ambrosio collected the barrier which wrapped around his front-left wheel, stopping the session.

[33] 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.

[36][37] 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.

[35][38] Prost, Evans, Mortara and Jani were all forced to stop on track,[37] while the rest of the field entered the pit lane and awaited further instruction from the race director.

[36] Di Grassi was the first driver to enter the pit lane on the sixteenth lap because Audi claimed that his right-rear suspension had sustained damage from his earlier contact with Buemi.

[45] It was discovered after the race that several drivers had poor radio reception due to the local skyscrapers, prompting them to recalculate their regeneration and electrical energy usage without assistance.

[48] Virgin team principal Alex Tai told the press that he sought an answer of whether Bird's penalty was appealable but chose to follow instructions since that would be difficult to do.

[52][53] During practice, where several drivers locked their brakes and drove onto the track's run-off areas,[53] Engel briefly stopped at the first turn but no red flag was necessitated since he restarted his car in time.

[56] D'Ambrosio noted that the driving in group one was difficult due a Roborace demonstration that took place between the third practice and second qualifying sessions leaving debris on the track.

[56] Buemi was group two's slowest driver as he was off the pace due to him damaging his car with a glance of the turn five inside barrier;[58] he began from the back of the field for the first time since the 2016 Buenos Aires ePrix.

[60] Despite ruining his preparation at the end of his warm-up lap and an error at turn one, Mortara took third and Bird was fourth in his attempt to minimise the effect of his grid penalty.

[60] The rest of the grid lined up after penalties as Lynn, Félix da Costa, Vergne, Turvey, Filippi, Heidfeld, Piquet, di Grassi, Bird, Prost, Engel, Kobayashi, Lotterer, d'Ambrosio, Jani and Buemi.

[61] On the grid, a circuit board failure resulted in the five red lights gantry failing to illuminate, causing the entire field to remain in their starting positions as they awaited a signal from the race director Scot Elkins.

[67] At the end of the second lap, Mortara led from Abt, Evans, Lynn, Félix da Costa, Vergne, Turvey, Piquet, Prost and Bird.

[50] Early movement within first to fifth occurred as Félix da Costa overtook Lynn around the outside for fourth place while Bird moved from fourteenth to ninth by the start of the fifth lap.

On the following lap, Mahindra suffered further problems when Heidfeld slowed and drove to the side of the circuit with a technical issue but was later able to get the fault rectified and continued racing.

[63] Upfront, Mortara opened up a four-second advantage over Abt, while Rosenqvist began to move up the field and Buemi and di Grassi struggled in the non-points scoring positions.

[61] Abt looked to lessen Mortara's lead but the latter was better managing his electrical energy usage and began to increase his advantage as the pit stop phase was getting closer.

[65][66] However, on lap 43, just as Abt used his FanBoost on the back straight,[61] Mortara endured difficulty with his regenerative braking system,[63] and lost control of his car's rear at the second turn but avoided hitting a wall.

[61] Lotterer swerved to avoid Piquet on the inside lane for turn ten,[61] and speared into the exit barriers, heavily damaging his car's front-right corner.

They discovered that the FIA security stickers on the car's inverter and the motor-generator unit did not match those declared on the vehicle's technical passport provided to the team for the ePrix.

[72] Additionally, Audi were fined €5,000 ($5,944) after five of its team personnel convened to the podium via the circuit before the final car had reached parc fermé, deemed by the stewards to be "serious breach of safety regulations".

The Hong Kong Central Harbourfront Circuit (pictured in 2016), where the race was held.
Jean-Éric Vergne (pictured in 2016) took his fifth pole position of his career in spite of spinning after completing his super pole lap.
André Lotterer (pictured in 2014) was involved in a multi-car collision which prompted Formula E's first race stoppage in its history.
Sam Bird (pictured in 2015) won his first race of the season by despite a drive-through penalty for missing his garage.
Sébastien Buemi (pictured in 2016) criticised Lucas di Grassi 's defensive driving in the early part of the ePrix.
Edoardo Mortara (pictured in 2014) led the majority of the second race but lost the victory after spinning on the 43rd lap.