- Team-Mate Battles - Monaco ePrix

In Formula E, the most important person to beat is your teammate. Who did just that in Monaco? Let’s go through the field and hand out the Team Mate Battle points!

These are the rules to which the drivers are being judged.

Points system:

1 point is awarded to the driver who sets the faster race lap.
 3 points are awarded to the driver who performs best in qualifying.
 5 points are awarded to the driver who performs best during the race.

Amlin Aguri:

Ever since his race-winning Buenos Aires ePrix, Antonio Felix da Costa just hasn’t been able to secure a decent qualifying session, which often leaves him with much to do in the race. He didn’t get a fast lap together in Miami, he was penalised for excessive power usage in Long Beach, and he crashed out in Monaco qualifying. Duran looks to be getting faster in ‘qually’ trim and is now challenging Da Costa for the team-mate qualifying honours.

Come race day, Duran was a passenger when Vergne bumped the rear of his car and was fairly unsighted in the Abt pile-up, too, causing a lot of damage to his car. Da Costa benefited from the incident-packed start to gain two points from the race, but would he have been able to catch – and pass – Duran in what looked like the hardest circuit of the season to overtake? My prediction would’ve been no. Therefore, a first race points win to Duran, giving him the clean sweep.

Fastest Lap: Salvador Duran (3-2 to Da Costa)
Qualifying: Salvador Duran (9-6 to Da Costa)
Race: Salvador Duran (20-5 to Da Costa)

Totals:

Race 1: Takuma Sato 9-0 Katherine Legge
Race 2: Antonio Felix da Costa 9-0 Katherine Legge
Race 3 onwards: Antonio Felix da Costa 32-13 Duran

Amlin Aguri: Da Costa 32-13 Duran

Andretti Formula E:

it was a disastrous first lap for the Andretti team. The backed-up turn one force Scott Speed into the back of Jean-Eric Vergne, before Vergne himself clattered Daniel Abt’s stricken car. Both were able to continue, but Speed spent half of the race with only half a front wing, and Vergne had to change to his second car after only one lap, leaving the Frenchman chasing fastest lap times for the rest of the race.

Speed originally finished in eighth, but a post-race power usage penalty dropped him to 12th. Vergne managed to set the fastest lap of the race, meaning the Andretti team are rewarded with two points, ensuring they avoided their first pointless finish since Putrajaya.

In a poor team qualifying session, Vergne was only less than one tenth faster than Speed. In race mode, however, the only thing that can separate these two is the fact that Speed managed to involve himself in the wars less than Vergne. Race points to Speed for Monaco.

Fastest Lap: Jean-Eric Vergne (2-1 to Vergne)
Qualifying: Jean-Eric Vergne (9-0 to Vergne)
Race: Scott Speed (10-5 to Speed)

Totals:

Race 1: Franck Montagny 9-0 Charles Pic
Race 2: Franck Montagny 1-8 Matthew Brabham
Race 3: Matthew Brabham 0-9 Jean-Eric Vergne
Race 4: Marco Andretti 0-9 Jean-Eric Vergne
Race 5 onwards: Scott Speed 11-16 Jean-Eric Vergne

Andretti: Speed 11-16 Vergne

Audi Sport Abt:

Lucas di Grassi put on a strong defensive display during the race to finish second after it became apparent he was unlikely to get by eventual winner Sebastien Buemi. He extends his lead at the top of the drivers championship to four points and he may well start to play the role of a mathematician in these final four races. He was probably slightly fortunate that Piquet had calmed down from his early qualifying grumbles (where he accused di Grassi of using blocking tactics).

Abt wasn’t very happy after the race, and lay the blame for his crash squarely at the feet of Nico Prost, whom he believed forced him into the wall, starting the chain reaction of collisions behind him. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to challenge for any team-mate honours in the race, after being out-paced in qualifying.

Race points go to di Grassi, but through no fault of Abt’s.

Fastest Lap: Lucas di Grassi (4-3 to di Grassi)
Qualifying: Lucas di Grassi (12-9 to di Grassi)
Race: Lucas di Grassi (25-10 to di Grassi)

Audi Sport Abt: di Grassi 41-22 Abt

China Racing:

Those hoping for a closer contest at China Racing after the departure of Ho-Pin Tung are probably going to be disappointed with how this one is shaping up. Charles Pic was seeming optimistic heading into Monaco for what would effectively be his ‘home’ race, even looking quite competitive during the practice sessions. However, for the qualifying and race, it would still be a one-sided affair. Piquet outqualified Pic by over one second, with Pic not looking like reducing the gap during the race at all. Their respective fastest laps were over one second apart. the good news for the Frenchman, though, is he scored his first points in China Racing colours.

Piquet may have lost a little bit of ground in the driver’s championship, but he is one of the in-form drivers heading to Germany, with four podiums in his last five races. All points to Piquet for Monaco.

Fastest Lap: Nelson Piquet Jr (2-1 to Piquet Jr)
Qualifying: Nelson Piquet Jr (9-0 to Piquet Jr)
Race: Nelson Piquet Jr (15-0 to Piquet Jr)

Totals:

Race 1-4: Nelson Piquet Jr 36-0 Tung/Garcia
Race 5 onwards: Nelson Piquet Jr 26-1 Charles Pic

China Racing: Piquet Jr 26-1 Pic

Dragon Racing:

It was a very solid performance in qualifying for the Dragon Racing team, with Jerome D’Ambrosio third and Loic Duval fifth. However, a penalty for changing the RESS system for Duval meant that he started ten places further back.

Loic Duval was an unlucky passenger of Daniel Abt’s crash as drivers swerved into his path in an attempt to avoid a collision. Had he not have had the ten-place grid drop, he probably would’ve avoided any trouble, but as it was, he had to swap cars on lap one and, like several others, he was left to chase lap times. He succeeded in beating D’Ambrosio’s best lap, but there was no fastest lap reward for the former 24 Hours of Le Mans winner.

D’Ambrosio had a strong race. He may have been unable to keep Piquet and bird behind, but a consistent drive from the Belgian keeps his respectable points-scoring habits going. He gets the race points this time.

Fastest Lap: Loic Duval (3-0 to Duval)
Qualifying: Jerome D’Ambrosio (9-0 to D’Ambrosio)
Race: Jerome D’Ambrosio (15-0 to D’Ambrosio)

Totals:

Race 1-4: Jerome D’Ambrosio 25-11 Oriol Servia
Race 5 onwards: Jerome D’Ambrosio 24-3 Loic Duval

Dragon Racing: D’Ambrosio 24-3 Duval

e.dams-Renault:

As if Buemi’s Monaco exploits couldn’t get any better, he now finds himself one point away from Prost in our TM Battle feature. Prost simply did not have any response to Buemi around the streets of Monaco, with the Swiss pilot taking pole position, leading from start-to-finish and taking the race win. The only thing missing was the fastest lap, but it still remains the biggest points total ever achieved in a Formula E weekend so far. He is now back in championship contention and takes all the points in this round’s team-mate battle.

Fastest Lap: Sebastien Buemi (5-2 to Buemi)
Qualifying: Sebastien Buemi (15-6 to Prost)
Race: Sebastien Buemi (20-15 to Buemi)

e.dams-Renault: Prost 32-31 Buemi

Mahindra Racing:

Karun Chandhok was unable to find any performance at Monaco. He couldn’t get a lap together in qualifying and, despite flashes of decent pace, he was unable to pass Trulli in the race and could only manage 13th. On the flip side, Bruno Senna had a very dramatic, albeit brief, race. Caught out by the rapid deceleration of Daniel Abt’s damaged car, Senna clipped the rear of the motionless car and took off, almost barrel-rolling. Thankfully Senna was unhurt but his race went no further. It’s hard to know if Senna could have done more to avoid the collision, but looked comfortably faster than Chandhok at the weekend, so split points for Monaco.

Fastest Lap: Karun Chandhok (4-3 to Chandhok)
Qualifying: Bruno Senna (12-9 to Chandhok)
Race: Split points (17.5-17.5)

Mahindra Racing: Chandhok 33.5-29.5 Senna

TrulliGP:

If there was to be a place where you would’ve looked for a stellar performance from Jarno Trulli, it would’ve been Monaco. The 2004 Monaco Grand Prix winner was unable to capitalise on the first lap mayhem, despite sitting in eighth place by the end of lap one. After the race restart, he was unable to keep up with the top seven, and lead a – ahem – train of cars for several laps until he lost ground at the pit stops, dropping to 12th and staying there until the end.

Tonio Liuzzi faired worse, though. Forced to swap cars after being caught up in the first lap traffic jam, he trailed the field for much of the race in his second car until he ran out of battery. A poor day for the Trulli team who fail to score for the fourth race in a row. Trulli gets the race points for avoiding chaos.

Fastest Lap: Jarno Trulli (2-1 to Trulli)
Qualifying: Jarno Trulli (6-3)
Race: Jarno Trulli (15-0 to Trulli)

Totals:

Race 1-4: Jarno Trulli 24-12 Michela Cerruti
Race 5 onwards: Jarno Trulli 23-4 Vitantonio Liuzzi

Trulli: Trulli 23-4 Liuzzi

Venturi:

The home ePrix for the Venturi team saw Stephane Sarrazin’s best result of the season, coming home in seventh place. The Monegasque team were one of very few to negotiate the first lap dramas unscathed, and it promoted Sarrazin and Nick Heidfeld to 5th and 10th respectively. With race pace looking good, they may well have had a bigger points haul, but unfortunately errors at the pit stops cost them both a lot of time, it may well have cost Sarrazin a challenge for a podium, but we’ll never know how the second half would’ve played out. Sarrazin had the performance advantage over Heidfeld in Monaco and, if it wasn’t for Heidfeld’s slightly better fastest lap, he would’ve had his third TM battles clean sweep in a row. All of a sudden, the contest at Venturi is looking a lot more appetising.

Fastest Lap: Nick Heidfeld (4-3 to Sarrazin)
Qualifying: Stephane Sarrazin (15-6 to Sarrazin)
Race: Stephane Sarrazin (20-15 to Sarrazin)

Venturi: Heidfeld 35-28 Sarrazin

Virgin Racing:

Jaime Alguersuari got the job done in qualifying, but a ten-place grid drop for a component change meant he was facing an uphill task before the race had even begun, with his team-mate starting seven places higher than him.

Only half of the Virgin Racing drivers managed to avoid the mayhem in the first couple of corners. Alguersuari was the first retirement because of the concertina at turn one; he bumped into the back of Tonio Liuzzi before Da Costa brushed past and finished off his left-front suspension. Sam Bird, meanwhile, managed to benefit from the pile-up and move up to seventh by the end of lap one. From there, thanks to smart overtaking and a quick pit-stop he managed to finish in fourth place and challenging for a podium.

It’s always difficult to assess drivers who start at opposite ends of the grid, especially with one being eliminated very early on. That being said, it’s difficult to imagine how Alguersuari would’ve beaten Bird’s race performance. Race points to Bird for Monaco.