Buemi wins lights-to-flag, Vergne clashes with Massa on final lap

Full New York ePrix (Race 1) results

Sebastien Buemi has secured Nissan’s maiden Formula E victory in the opening New York E-Prix of the season finale, as Jean-Eric Vergne fails to wrap up the title due to a last-lap clash with Felipe Massa.

The Nissan e.dams driver enjoyed a flawless performance in the penultimate race of the season to convert his pole position into a first Formula E win since the 2017 Berlin race and Nissan’s first-ever victory in the all-electric series.

The drama unfolded behind the Swiss driver with Vergne charging through the field, with the aid of a mid-race safety car, and back into the poimts places after being caught up in a second-lap clash which dropped him down to 17^th place.

But battling Massa for ninth place, the pair clashed at Turn 2 on the final lap to cause a temporary road block which dropped both of them out the points.

The collision guaranteed the Formula E title fight would continue to the tomorrow’s final race with Vergne leading by 22 points from Lucas di Grassi – while both Mitch Evans and Buemi remain in mathematical contention.

Evans produced a stellar charge up the order to take second place for Panasonic Jaguar Racing, which acted as justice after his teammate Alex Lynn was cruelly denied a podium with a mechanical issue while running in second place earlier in the race.

Antonio Felix da Costa completed the podium for BMW i Andretti Motorsport after passing teammate Alex Sims on the final lap, with di Grassi keeping his title hopes alive in fifth place for Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler.

Di Grassi’s teammate Daniel Abt grabbed sixth place ahead of Pascal Wehrlein for Mahindra Racing, with Sam Bird dropping to eighth place due to a 10-second time penalty for causing the second lap pile-up.

With Jerome d’Ambrosio in ninth for Mahindra Racing, Oliver Turvey secured the final point position for NIO after the Vergne-Massa clash late on.

Gary Paffett narrowly missed out on points for HWA Racelab ahead of Jose Maria Lopez in the GEOX Dragon and Stoffel Vandoorne with Oliver Rowland in 14^th place.

With Vergne crossing the finish line in 15^th place and Massa in 16^th place after their late crash, Andre Lotterer completed the finishing order after falling one lap down early on.