Perfect weekend for Sam Bird in Buenos Aires

Sam Bird started the Argentine round in the best way by securing his first pole in the category. It was also the first for his team, DS Virgin. One of the main contenders for this pole self-eliminated; Sébastien Buemi made a mistake before the Super Pole. As a result, the Swiss driver was relegated to the back of the grid, while his teammate, Nicolas Prost, managed to secure a strong second place in the qualifications.

In his misfortune, Sébastien Buemi saw his main rival for the title, Lucas di Grassi, fail to take advantage of the opportunity since the Brazilian also made a small mistake, preventing him from participating in the Super Pole and forcing him to settle for 7th place on the grid.

This grid also held a nice surprise with the third-fastest time by Antonio Felix da Costa, who achieved a time just one hundredth behind Nicolas Prost despite his car being from last season.

All the elements were in place to offer a great show to the 17,000 spectators who gathered around the circuit in the Argentine capital.

The main attraction of the race was undoubtedly the incredible comeback by Sébastien Buemi. He was able to leverage the superiority of his car to recover the positions lost in qualifying. However, he also executed very daring maneuvers, especially during the first lap, where he boldly overtook three competitors in a single move!

He had already moved up to fifth place when the safety car came back on track to remove Antonio Felix da Costa’s broken-down car. It was then that the main rivals rushed into the pits for the mandatory car change. The Swiss took advantage of this to pass his teammate Nicolas Prost and emerge in 3rd place.

He even managed to overtake his rival for the title, Lucas di Grassi, when the latter tried to constantly pressure Sam Bird. But in trying to do too much, the Brazilian ended up making an error himself, allowing Sébastien Buemi to take a fine second place. The Swiss driver acknowledged that he had missed a great opportunity to win again by making a mistake in qualifying: « To be honest, I feel sorry for the team because today, I had a great car, and I didn’t get the best out of it. But the race was fantastic. It was tough because, apart from da Costa who retired, I had to overtake all the other guys. So it feels good to finish second. I was lucky with the safety car. In fact, very lucky. Without it, I think it would have been even more difficult. »

The French achieved a strong group finish in the points as Stéphane Sarrazin placed his Venturi in 4th position, just ahead of Nicolas Prost and Loic Duval. However, Jean-Eric Vergne finished just outside the points in 11th place, despite missing both free practice sessions due to food poisoning.

In the championship, Sébastien Buemi consolidates his lead by taking an additional three points ahead of Lucas di Grassi. The day’s winner, Sam Bird, makes a strong comeback by moving up to 3rd place. However, with 52 points, he still trails the leader by 28 points.