Bird wins race one in AD Diriyah

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Sam Bird won an enthralling opening race of the season in AD Diriyah after fighting his way from fifth on the grid.

The Brit had to methodically fight his way through the field using the Attack Mode to undercut both Alexander Sims and Nyck De Vries before passing Stoffel Vandoorne to take victory.

Bird took his ninth career FE win. It is also five years to the day since he scored his first category win in Putrajaya in 2014.

Both Porsche and Mercedes stood on the podium alongside Sam Bird on their debut race as  Andre Lotterer came home second for Porsche and Stoffel Vandoorne secured third respectively.

Pole sitter Sims led from pole for the majority of the race, but the race would take a cruel turn for the BMW driver in the latter stages.

Sims dropped to third after an aggressive move from Vandoorne forced the brit wide forcing him to lose out to Sam Bird as well. Sims ended up going backwards from there and finished the race in eighth place.

Oliver Rowland produced a late charge to finish the race in fourth with another aggressive Attack Mode strategy with Robin Frijns taking advantage of a late safety car to secure fifth place.

The safety car was caused when Daniel Abt caused a roadblock after he hit the wall and damaged his front suspension.

Nyck De Vries came home in sixth in his first race for Mercedes, with Edorado Mortara coming home in seventh.

Sims came home eighth with Jerome D’Ambrosio in the Mahindra coming home in ninth, and Mitch Evans picked up the final point in tenth.

Reigning Formula E Champion Jean-Eric Vergne failed to finish with a steering rack failure. Sebastien Buemi also was unable to finish with technical issues. Nico Muller in the Dragon failed to start the race due to his crash in qualifying.

 

         

 

 

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