Britain’s Bird wins in Santiago to take Formula E lead

Tuesday, 29 January 2019 00:22 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

SANTIAGO (Reuters): Britain’s Sam Bird won the third round of the Formula E season in Chile on Saturday to take the lead in the all-electric series.

The Virgin Racing driver now has 43 points, to Belgian Jerome d’Ambrosio’s 41.

D’Ambrosio crossed the line ninth for Mahindra and then moved up to eighth, after Argentina’s Jose-Maria Lopez received a penalty, which would have kept him a point clear of Bird.

However, he was subsequently dropped to 10th after being handed a five-second penalty for speeding under yellow warning flags.

Bird took over at the front with 11 laps to go after Swiss rival Sebastien Buemi, the 2015/16 champion, crashed out while leading from pole position on the fenced-off Santiago street circuit.

D’Ambrosio’s rookie team mate and fellow former F1 driver Pascal Wehrlein finished second, for his first Formula E podium, with Audi Sport’s Daniel Abt third on a sweltering day with track temperatures of 38 degrees Celsius.

Abt finished fourth on the track behind BMW’s Alexander Sims, who was then penalised for causing a collision with Venturi’s Edoardo Mortara.

France’s reigning champion Jean-Eric Vergne retired after a collision at the start.

The series, in its fifth season, has now had three different winners in three races.