Envision Racing has confirmed that Sébastian Buemi will not be racing in this evening’s third round of Season 10 in Diriyah, following his crash at the end of the group stage earlier today in qualifying.
Buemi caused a red flag at the death in Group B, after crashing at the opening corner just seconds after completing his final hot lap. The Season 2 Champion was aiming to keep pushing to try and complete one more lap, but completely misjudged his entry speed. It was a sizeable impact which caused significant damage, too much to be repaired in the three-hour turnaround from qualifying to the race.
An official statement from the team read: “Envision Racing can confirm the withdrawal of Sébastian Buemi’s No.16 car from Round 3 of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship. Following damage sustained during qualifying, the FIA have examined the chassis and determined it is not safe to start.
“The team will now focus on Robin Frijns’ No.4 car as he starts on the front row in Diriyah.”
His crash resulted in several big names being knocked out in qualifying, including reigning World Champion and yesterday’s winner Jake Dennis, championship leader Pascal Wehrlein and the most successful driver in Diriyah Sam Bird.
Completing the Diriyah double is not looking likely for Dennis, who is starting today’s race all the way down on the eighth row. Overtaking is expected to be almost impossible, as the race distance is a lap less than yesterday.
Because of this, energy management isn’t set to be a concern, with the race likely to be almost flat-out from start to finish. Oliver Rowland is the favourite for victory after securing his first pole position in almost two years, with Robin Frijns starting alongside him. Nick Cassidy will be one-to-watch in third, especially as he’s finished on the podium in both of his two races so far for Jaguar TCS Racing.
