Both Nissan e.dams cars have been disqualified from the results of the opening London E-Prix on Saturday after being deemed to have overused power during the thirty-three-lap race.
Sébastien Buemi had finished a season’s best fourth and Oliver Rowland tenth, but both drivers have now lost their points, much to the dismay of the drivers and the team. They both exceeded the maximum 48kWh energy cap that had been introduced to prevent a flat-out E-Prix.
Buemi reckoned it was a software glitch that caused the issue, and despite it not giving any kind of performance gain, he acknowledges the rules are there for a reason.
“It’s a software glitch,” the Swiss racer said to Motorsport.com. “It’s a mistake in the set-up. The power cut off like a hundredth of a kilowatt too late.
“It wasn’t even a tenth of a second too late, but the rule is the rule. We got disqualified because we didn’t set it up properly. Obviously, there’s absolutely zero performance [gain].”
Buemi’s disqualification promotes Tag Heuer Porsche Formula E Team’s André Lotterer to fourth ahead of the two Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler drivers, René Rast ahead of Lucas di Grassi, while Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team’s Stoffel Vandoorne moves up to seventh ahead of DS Techeetah’s António Félix da Costa.
The two additional points for Félix da Costa have seen him move up from third to second place in the Drivers’ Championship ahead of race winner Jake Dennis.
After initially failing to score points, Edoardo Mortara now takes two points for ROKiT Venturi Racing, while the final point goes to Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein.
Nissan were not the only ones to struggle with power usage in London, with Norman Nato retiring his Venturi on the final lap from tenth place after running out of usable energy. Nato had been disqualified for the same reason in the Rome E-Prix earlier this year for the same reason.