2019 Marrakesh ePrix

That promoted d'Ambrosio into the lead, which he maintained through a safety car period; he held off Frijns on the final lap to win by 0.143 seconds.

In the Teams' Championship, Techeetah led with 47 points, Mahindra and BMW were tied for second as Virgin progressed to fourth with eleven races left in the season.

The Marrakesh ePrix was confirmed as part of the 2018–19 Formula E Championship by the FIA World Motor Sport Council in October 2018.

[12] Following a software-related drive-through penalty that lost him a potential victory in Ad Diriyah, Vergne said he was eager to demonstrate his team had the fastest car in Marrakesh, "Being so close to the victory in the first round has left me very hungry for more, and it’s what my focus is all about right now, Marrakesh hasn’t been a good track for us in the past so I’m hoping that we can change that and leave Morocco on a high note this year.

"[13] D'Ambrosio stated that he thought he could achieve another podium finish in Marrakesh, and aimed to continue improving his performance and maintain Mahindra's strong record at the track: "It’s a challenging street circuit and, while it hasn’t been the best track for me over the past two years, I’m going to make sure that I change that and I’m looking forward to having a good race this weekend.

Having missed the Ad Diriyah ePrix because his Mercedes-Benz contract barred him from driving with another team until 31 December 2018 without performing certain pre-requisites,[16] 2015 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters champion Pascal Wehrlein replaced the outgoing Felix Rosenqvist at Mahindra; Rosenqvist moved to Chip Ganassi Racing's IndyCar Series team for 2019.

[19] The first practice session was first held in darkness and cold weather with drivers struggling to get tyre temperature before the sun rose.

[20] During the session, where drivers locked their tyres due to them fine-tuning their brake-by-wire systems,[22] several competitors ran onto the turn seven run-off area because they braked later than usual.

[23] Buemi, Félix da Costa, Frijns, Rowland, José María López for Dragon, Turvey, Vergne, and Sims completed the top ten ahead of qualifying.

[24] As Massa activated 250 kW (340 hp) mode, his car shut down on the start/finish straight;[23][24] he restarted it with radio engineer assistance.

The fastest six overall competitors in the four groups participated in a "Super Pole" session with one driver on the track at any time going out in reverse order from fifth to first.

[19] In the first session to have a direct comparison between the two cars—the preceding Ad Diriyah race was rain-affected—the SRT05e was three seconds a lap faster than the Spark-Renault SRT 01E.

[28][29] In group one, Félix da Costa was fastest, ahead of Vergne, Evans, d'Ambrosio and Lotterer after a driver error at turn seven.

[1] Dragon's Maximilian Günther was fifth after hitting a bump on a kerb on the exit to turn six, going airborne briefly, and crashing into the side of a barrier.

[30][31] Stoffel Vandoorne's HWA car shut down halfway through his maximum power lap as he looked set to enter the top ten.

[31][35] After qualifying, Félix da Costa was demoted three places on the starting grid because he was adjudged to have exceeded the maximum amount of permitted electrical power on his non-timed lap at 204.92 kW (274.80 hp) because of a temporary spike.

[36] Hence, the grid lined up after penalties as Bird, Vergne, Buemi, Sims, Evans, Félix da Costa, Wehrlein, Frijns, Piquet, d'Ambrosio, di Grassi, Rowland, López, Turvey, Massa, Abt, Mortara, Dillmann, Paffett, Lotterer, Günther and Vandoorne.

Vergne went onto the inside run-off area and clattered into Bird's left-hand sidepod on the turn-one apex at high speed.

[39] That caused a small titanium television camera from Vergne's car to detach and lodge itself in the aperture of Bird's left-hand sidepod.

[42] Wehrlein's suspension, diffuser, rear tyre bearing and rims were damaged when di Grassi misjudged his braking point for the first turn and rammed into him.

On the third lap, a brief yellow flag was waved as Paffett spun exiting the chicane as the slow puncture deteriorated, causing him to retire.

[45] Félix da Costa tried again going into the turn-four and five chicane on lap 11, and moved past Bird on the inside as the latter cut the corner under braking.

Di Grassi began to pressure d'Ambrosio as Bird activated the attack mode, falling to seventh behind López on the next lap.

[45] As the pack began to close up to the BMWs, Félix da Costa and Sims activated their first attack modes on the 19th lap in an attempt to increase their lead.

[48] Despite his team's liaison, Sims, approaching turn seven on the 26th lap, challenged his teammate Félix da Costa for first on the outside as both drivers locked their brakes.

This caused Félix da Costa to slide wide and hit the front-left quarter of Sims's car, who had regained control; he could not avoid the former and their front wings interlocked.

[49] It was d'Ambrosio's third career victory, his first since the 2016 Mexico City ePrix,[49] and his first on-track win; his previous two came via technical disqualifications involving di Grassi.

He additionally stated to the media he did not wish to challenge Félix da Costa because he was conserving electrical energy and was attempting to maintain the gap over the rest of the field.

[57] Jens Marquardt, director of BMW Motorsport, said that any similar incidents would not re-occur in the future and the team would learn over the rest of the season.

[57] Griffiths later emphasised a priority scenario was non-existent over favouring one driver over the other and praised Félix da Costa for accepting responsibility for the accident.

Pascal Wehrlein (pictured in 2011) made his Formula E debut for Mahindra .
Sam Bird (pictured in 2015) took the fifth pole position of his career notwithstanding rear diffuser damage from a three-car accident in the pit lane .
António Félix da Costa (pictured in 2012) led for 15 laps until he and his teammate Alexander Sims made contact on the 26th lap, which he took responsibility for.
Jerome d'Ambrosio (pictured in 2011) took the third victory of his career and his first on the track after his previous wins came as a result of driver disqualifications.
Alexander Sims (pictured in 2009) attributed the clash with his teammate António Félix da Costa to an inter-team communication breakdown.