Hong Kong E-Prix: FIA strips Sam Bird of Formula E victory after Andre Lotterer nudge; Edoardo Mortara wins

Sam Bird was sensationally stripped of his Hong Kong E-Prix victory more than four hours after a dramatic finish to the race on Central Harbourfront.

The DS Virgin driver had snatched victory at the death in controversial circumstances after nudging race leader Andre Lotterer on the penultimate lap on Sunday afternoon.

FIA stewards eventually dealt him a five-second penalty which dropped him to sixth place. The new result remains provisional pending further discussions, though Bird is still the new championship leader by one point.

Techeetah’s Lotterer had been holding Bird off for much of the race, but the late coming together at Hong Kong Station eventually caused a tyre puncture for the German. Bird pounced for what he thought was a second straight victory on Central Harbourfront.

Edoardo Mortara is promoted to first place, giving Formula E its fifth different race winner from five races in season five. Audi ABT Schaffler’s Lucas Di Grassi moves up to second, with Bird’s Virgin teammate Robin Frijns promoted to third.

It is the second straight year the Hong Kong E-Prix winner has been stripped of victory, after Daniel Abt was forced to give back the trophy following a technical issue in season four’s opening double header, the first race of which Bird won in December 2017.

While Bird’s celebrations were muted pending the investigation, Lotterer was visibly upset in the media pen after the race. “I hope he doesn’t get away with it,” Lotterer said. “My race is done and so even if he gets a disqualification I’m done, we are the ones who unfortunately go home empty handed.”

The FIA immediately began looking into the incident, which dropped Lotterer down to last place.

“It’s a shame,” Bird said in the pitlane. “For me, I tried to go down the inside and Andre late defended. It’s very slippery down the inside.

“I braked, locked up, hit him like what he did with JEV [Techeetah teammate Jean-Eric Vergne] in Santiago last year. It’s a big shame, my heart goes out to him. He drove a great race, it’s a shame it ended that way.

“It was clear I was quicker than Andre for most of the race with lots of energy to spare. What happened was extremely unfortunate,” Bird added in the post-race press conference. “I felt like the door was closed. I was going for a gap, and when he closed the door I simply had nowhere to go.

“I’m not up here smiling, I don’t like winning like that, that’s not the aim of the game. But it was a great race nonetheless.”

It became a straight shoot-out between the two drivers after both passed pole-sitter Stoffel Vandoorne early on.

The former McLaren F1 driver’s struggles continued when he later retired with a driveshaft problem, though he at least picked up his first points of the season for HWA Racelab with the Super Pole.

Lotterer was asked if he was gutted. “Yeah, pretty much. It should have been my race but he just used me to stop himself,” Lotterer said.

“He tried to make a move but the move was so overambitious that it destroyed my suspension and my tyre, and obviously he is under investigation now and it ruined my race.”

The incident denied Lotterer what would have been his first win in Formula E. The 37-year-old is now down to 10th in the standings, 42 points behind new leader Bird.

“It’s so hard to win a race in this championship and I’ve been working really hard and been fully committed,” Lotterer said. “It’s only winning that matters at the end.

“I mean this is a championship and you score points but I deserved my first win today and I was super close. But yeah we have more opportunities.”

Much was made of the potentially chaotic wet conditions after a rain-soaked qualifying session, but it was a mechanical fault with Felipe Nasr’s GEOX Dragon that caused the first major incident.

Former championship leader Jerome D’Ambrosio and Mahindra teammate Pascal Wehrlein both collided with Nasr at turn two a few minutes into the race, after smoke from the Brazilian’s car engulfed the track and clouded visibility.

The crash brought a full-course yellow flag and the safety car, and then a red flag with the race stopped for over around 20 minutes.

“I think it’s ridiculous,” D’Ambrosio said. “You have a guy like Nasr who has something wrong with his car, there’s a huge amount of smoke. He and his team should have pitted.

“It should be a clear penalty for the next race. He caused a collision. You should just pit and make it safe.”

Vandoorne was quickest in qualifying but Nissan’s Oliver Rowland flew away to overtake him at the first corner. The Belgian soon found himself down in third with Bird shooting up the grid. Lotterer then moved up past the Belgian too after the restart, with almost everyone activating attack mode at the Observation Wheel.

Bird took the lead when Rowland suddenly slowed after accidentally pressing the full-course yellow button on his steering wheel following another nudge by the British driver. Rowland dropped down the pack and eventually retired.

But Bird then went in too deep at Hong Kong Station as he drove over the slippery pedestrian crossing paint and lost the lead to Lotterer.

The Briton pushed as hard as he could and chipped away at the lead, setting the fastest lap several times as Lotterer’s team warned him on the radio to better manage his energy consumption – he had less than anyone in the race with around 23 minutes to go.

Lotterer slipped briefly at Hong Kong Station and Bird looked to pounce but the Belgian managed to hold him off as Bird eased off amid the threat of going into the wall.

But Bird’s 4 per cent energy advantage evaporated when the safety car came out for Vandoorne’s car stopping on the track with 15 minutes to go.

The two activated attack mode again at the restart and went back at it before the late drama unfolded.