2017 New York City ePrix

Preview Coming into the double header from Berlin five weeks earlier, e.Dams-Renault driver Sébastien Buemi led the Drivers' Championship with 157 points, 32 ahead Lucas di Grassi in second, and a further 39 in front of third-placed Felix Rosenqvist. Nico Prost was fourth on 72 points, nine points ahead of Nick Heidfeld in fifth position. e.Dams-Renault led the Teams' Championship with 229 points; Audi Sport ABT were second on 171 points, and Mahindra third with 149 points. With 97 points, Virgin were in fourth place, and Techeetah was fifth 40 points adrift. Formula E's founder Alejandro Agag told CNN in May 2016 he was "very optimistic" about the possibility of hosting an event in the city, having visited potential sites there, "Our dream would be to have a race in New York." Originally, planners considered Governors Island, Central Park, and Liberty State Park in Jersey City as possible locations for the track. However, these sites were not chosen since a Governors Island track would have been too costly; a Central Park circuit would have required cutting down trees; and Liberty State Park is outside city limits. New York City deputy mayor Alicia Glen visited Paris in May 2016. After attending the ePrix, she lent her support to the New York City race with backing from the New York City Economic Development Corporation. A one-year contract to stage the race was signed with a renewal option every year for the next ten years. , where the race was held On September 21, 2016, officials announced the New York City ePrix would be held on the long Brooklyn Street Circuit in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook. Senior figures supported the race with mayor Bill de Blasio calling Red Hook the place where is "no better home for the ePrix", and the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) president Jean Todt said bringing the series to the city was "an amazing achievement in itself". They were the ninth and tenth single-seater electric car races of the Championship, and were held on July 15 and 16, 2017. It was the first FIA-sanctioned open-wheel motor sport round to be held in New York City, The New York City ePrix was the third city to hold a Formula E race in the United States, following the Miami ePrix in 2015 and the Long Beach ePrix in 2015 and 2016. The press expected the races to be attended by about 18,000 to 40,000 spectators. The first pictures of the planned layout were released to the media on September 21. More than $20 million was spent renovating the area which included the dismantling of pedestrian crosswalks, sections of curb and bus canopies because they protruded into the circuit and a terminal guardhouse in the track's centre was rebuilt to make it portable for moving before and after the event. Rosenqvist described the track as "one of those really technical circuits" and believed the layout was comparable to the Circuit des Invalides. World Endurance Championship clash in the paddock prior to Sunday qualifying. He replaced Sébastien Buemi who had a World Endurance Championship commitment. With the races scheduled for July 15 and 16, the event conflicted with the 2017 6 Hours of Nürburgring. The clash occurred because the CEO of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) Gérard Neveu and teams agreed not to hold a race within four weeks after the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the Nürburgring required a two-week gap leading into a proposed 30 July date for the German Grand Prix. Previously Neveu and Agag had a "gentlemen's agreement", preventing their respective series from holding races on the same weekend as several drivers participate in both disciplines. The dates for the New York City races could not be changed because of its location and ship docking schedules, and the Nürburgring event was not rescheduled due to freight needing transporting to Mexico City and the circuit had been rented for the weekend after. WEC and Formula E reached an agreement in July 2017, preventing both series from clashing in 2018. Prost and Nelson Piquet Jr. (Jaguar) were the first two WEC drivers to confirm their participation in New York in February, with Jaguar's Adam Carroll leaving the endurance racing series to focus on Formula E. Sam Bird reached an agreement with his team AF Corse to contest the New York races, and was partnered at Virgin by the team's development driver Alex Lynn after José María López was required to prioritize WEC by Toyota. Championship leader Buemi could not reach an agreement that would allow him to enter the first race because of logistical problems, and Toyota mandated he attend the Nürburgring WEC round. He was replaced by 2016 GP2 Series champion and Super Formula driver Pierre Gasly. ==Race one==

Practice and qualifying Two practice sessions—both on Saturday morning—were held before the late afternoon race. The first session ran for 45 minutes and the second for 30 minutes. A 30-minute shakedown session took place on Friday afternoon in which no competitive lap times were set was held on a wet track for the first time in Formula E history. Lynn was fastest in the first session, which took place on a damp track created by heavy rain from Friday but dried as the session progressed, with a late lap of 1 minute, 5.977 seconds, almost two-tenths of a second faster than teammate Bird in second and Rosenqvist third. Prost was fourth-fastest, ahead of both Audi Sport ABT drivers Daniel Abt and di Grassi. Jérôme d'Ambrosio, Mitch Evans, Robin Frijns and Adam Carroll rounded out the session's top-ten drivers. The session was temporarily halted three minutes in when Tom Dillmann (Venturi) stopped his car on track and could not restart. Jean-Éric Vergne later drifted wide onto the run-off area but avoided damage to his car. The damage however was not severe enough to rule him out and was repaired. (pictured in 2015) qualified second and led the first race's 15 laps before retiring with car problems.|left Saturday's afternoon qualifying session ran for 60 minutes and was divided into four groups of five cars. Each group was determined by a lottery system and was permitted six minutes of on-track activity. All drivers were limited to two timed laps with one at maximum power. The fastest five 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. Each of the five drivers was limited to one timed lap and the starting order was determined by the competitor's fastest times (Super Pole from first to fifth, and group qualifying from sixth to twentieth). The driver and team who recorded the fastest time were awarded three points towards their respective championships. Qualifying took place in dry and warm weather. In the first group of five runners, Vergne paced the session despite minor contact with a barrier lining the circuit, going four-tenths of a second faster than second-placed Duval. Andretti teammates Frijns and António Félix da Costa were third and fourth (the latter lightly impacted a wall between the eighth and ninth corners) and Gasly was the group's slowest driver after hitting a concrete wall, damaging his suspension. D'Ambrosio set the second group's fastest lap time, three-tenths of a second faster than Heidfeld in second. Prost, Stéphane Sarrazin and Evans were group two's slowest three participants. In the third group, Abt was fastest with Lynn second. Piquet took third with Carroll fourth. Bird set the fastest overall lap at 1 minute, 2.806 seconds, going almost six-tenths of a second faster than Oliver Turvey in second. Di Grassi, Dillmann, and Maro Engel was the fourth group's slowest three drivers. Lynn took the first pole position of his career, with a lap of 1 minute, 3.296 seconds in his first race meeting. Lynn was joined on the grid's front row by Abt, who lost time in the final third of a lap. When the race started, Lynn spun his tires, allowing Abt to overtake him at the turn one hairpin. Bird and di Grassi gained one position at the start; traffic delayed di Grassi at the hairpins, where multiple cars made contact but sustained no bodywork damage. Evans was required to switch into his second car because of a broken right front wheel, and d'Ambrosio entered the pit lane with left-corner front wing damage after contact with Piquet. Lynn defended from teammate Bird but the latter grew frustrated over his manoeuvres. Bird was granted permission to pass Lynn at the second corner on lap nine. Heidfeld overtook Vergne for fourth place at the end of the same lap. Vergne finished second, 1.3 seconds behind and his teammate Sarrazin took third. Di Grassi was fourth, Duval fifth and Turvey sixth. The two e.Dams-Renaults of Gasly and Prost were seventh and eighth. Frijns and Carroll rounded out the top ten. Piquet and Félix da Costa were in the next two positions. He said both Berlin races were "a turning point" for his team as they had been extensively educated on their performance and praised his teammate Lynn for taking the pole position. He was also disappointed over losing the possibility of finishing on the podium, but said it was continually satisfying to compete at the front of the pack; however he claimed to feel more satisfied to be the first driver to finish the race: "I don’t know why this always happens to me, so many times. It’s just really annoying because in the end people forget what happened." The result reduced Buemi's Drivers' Championship to 20 points by di Grassi finishing fourth. Rosenqvist remained in third position on 86 points, but his advantage over Prost in fourth place had decreased to ten points. Bird's victory moved him from eighth to fifth. e.Dams-Renault still led the Teams' Championship on 239 points, although their lead over Audi Sport ABT had been narrowed slightly by two points. Mahindra maintained third place on 149 points. Virgin consolidated fourth position with 125 points, and Techeetah further extended their advantage over NextEV for fifth with three races left in the season. Standings after the race • Bold text indicates who still had a theoretical chance of becoming Champion. ;Drivers' Championship standings ;Teams' Championship standings • Notes: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. ==Race two==

Practice and qualifying One 45-minute practice session on Sunday morning was held before the early afternoon race. of 1 minute, 2.209 seconds, almost two-tenths of a second faster than Vergne in second. Engel, Turvey, Piquet, Dillmann, Lynn, di Grassi, d'Ambrosio and Heidfeld were in positions three to ten. Dillmann broke his front-left suspension following an impact with a barrier leaving the turn six hairpin. He could not drive back to pit lane, and stopped his car at the next corner, necessitating a red flag. Di Grassi carried excess speed into the turn one hairpin, and steered in the opposite direction to continue driving. The session ended early when Frijns lost control of his car's rear, and hit the turn ten wall, littering the circuit with debris. Duval had trouble selecting second gear, and ran deep into the first turn, ending the first group slowest. Rosenqvist set a lap immediately made him fastest in the second group, ahead of Turvey and Abt. D'Ambrosio and Félix da Costa were the second group's slowest participants. In the third group, Gasly set the fastest overall time in group qualifying at 1 minute, 2.080 seconds, one-tenth of a second faster than Vergne in second place. Sarrazin and Evans finished the third group as its slowest competitors. For the second consecutive day, it was not the pole sitter who led as Rosenqvist accelerated faster than Bird and passed him into the turn one hairpin. Gasly fell to fifth behind Heidfeld. Just as in the first race, several drivers made contact in the first turn. Abt's rear wheel guard was damaged from contact with teammate di Grassi and Dillmann. Abt slowed halfway through the first lap, stopping in the centre of the track to perform a full reset, and fell to the rear of the field. However he did not achieve this as Abt set the fastest lap on his seventh lap. Abt completed a circuit in 1 minute, 3.898 seconds to earn one point. This allowed Bird to further increase his lead by a second. He was the first driver to win both races of a double header weekend since Prost at the 2016 London ePrix. Gasly caught the Mahindras of Rosenqvist and Heidfeld on the final lap, and all three drivers concertinaed through the final turn. He suggested pole position be moved to the right-hand side if Formula E returned to New York City, and did not rule out challenging for victories at the season's final race weekend in Montreal. Heidfeld, who finished third, spoke of his enjoyment of the second race. Because of the problems affecting his teammate Rosenqvist, he said he made an effort to put pressure on Bird but wanted to drive more calmly following his suspension failure in the previous day's race. In regards to the final lap collision with Gasly, Heidfeld said that he did not encourage Gasly to run on the inside, as he was attempting to remain close behind teammate Rosenqvist so there would be no space available to in which the latter could steer into: "For sure I didn’t touch him on purpose, and it’s a pity to finish like this, but at least we both made it over the line." Nevertheless, he described his weekend as "very positive", but did not anticipate his advancing into super pole after having just a day's worth of experience driving in the series: "We had a very busy schedule, especially with me arriving later on during the event. There was a lot to learn but we did great. We scored important points for the team. It was a great opportunity to discover a new discipline and I enjoyed the challenge very much." Félix da Costa spoke of his disagreement of the drive-through penalty he received from the stewards after his collision with Duval late in the race, something he said ended it competitively for him. The result further reduced Buemi's Drivers' Championship advantage over di Grassi to ten points. Rosenqvist remained in third place on 104 points, and was four points ahead of Bird. Prost's sixth-place finish dropped him to fifth position. Standings after the race • Bold text indicates who still had a theoretical chance of becoming Champion. ;Drivers' Championship standings ;Teams' Championship standings • Notes: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. ==Classification==

Qualifying one Race one Drivers who scored championship points are denoted in bold. ;Notes: •  — Three points for pole position. •  — One point for fastest lap. Qualifying two ;Notes: •  — Robin Frijns was demoted ten places because he changed his gearbox. •  — Nelson Piquet Jr. was demoted ten places because he changed his engine. Race two Drivers who scored championship points are denoted in bold. ;Notes: •  — Three points for pole position. •  — One point for fastest lap. ==References==