Frijns wins Formula E finale, Vergne seals second title

Full New York E-Prix (Race 2) results

Robin Frijns has dominated to take victory in the Formula E season finale in New York, as Jean-Eric Vergne wraps up the 2018-19 title after seeing his major title threats Lucas di Grassi and Mitch Evans crash out together on the final lap.

Frijns recovered from a poor start dropping from second to third behind Sebastien Buemi to pull off near-identical overtakes on both Buemi and pole-sitter Alexander Sims at Turn 1 to charge to his second win of the season.

But the drama unfolded behind the front-runners with the title contenders running together on track. Vergne, who had a 22-point advantage coming into the final round, knew eighth place or better would seal the title regardless of what di Grassi or Evans could produce.

With both di Grassi and Evans struggling to make sufficient moves up the order in the closing stages, the pair crashed at the Turn 11 hairpin fighting for sixth place which made the title a formality for Vergne who crossed the finish line in seventh place to successfully defend his Formula E title from last season.

With di Grassi failing to finish due to damage and Evans missing out on the points, Buemi jumped up to second place in the overall drivers’ championship for Nissan e.dams thanks to his third-place podium following his dominant victory in the New York opener.

That pushed di Grassi to third place in the championship for Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler, while Frijns’s victory saw him take fourth place in the final standings having seen off Sims who grabbed his maiden Formula E podium in the BMW i Andretti Motorsport.

Sam Bird capped his frustrating 2018-2019 Formula E campaign just missing out on the podium in fourth place for Envision Virgin Racing ahead of Daniel Abt in fifth place for Audi.

Oliver Rowland profited from the di Grassi-Evans crash to take sixth place for Nissan e.dams, with champion Vergne in seventh.

Former Formula 1 driver Stoffel Vandoorne ended his rookie Formula E campaign with an eighth place for HWA Racelab ahead of Antonio Felix da Costa for BMW, with Gary Paffett rounding out the points places for HWA.