Formula E: Piquet boosts points lead with Moscow win

Nelson Piquet Jr. claimed a comfortable Moscow ePrix victory to extend his Formula E championship advantage with one event remaining.

From second on the grid, Piquet took the lead when polesitter Jean-Eric Vergne made a slow start in his Andretti Autosport machine. He broke away and led the race by as much as five seconds with 15 laps remaining, before managing his energy to eventually win by two seconds.

The wins means Piquet will take a 12-point buffer to London's double-header finale later this month.

Lucas di Grassi took second place, despite an overheating battery, having jumped Vergne during the pit stops. Vergne started the final lap in third place, but finished it fifth.

Sebastien Buemi made a move around the outside of the chicane and after crossing the run-off area appeared to slow to let Vergne back past. However, Vergne didn't reclaim the position, leaving Buemi to cross the line third, while Nick Heidfeld capitalized to pass Vergne and finish fourth.

Buemi should have featured further up the order, though, but for his e.dams team making a major mistake in working to a minimum pit stop time of 68 seconds, rather than the required 60. It hurt Buemi and teammate Nicolas Prost, who finished ninth, significantly.

Daniel Abt took sixth, ahead of Salvador Duran and Antonio Felix da Costa, who spent the bulk of the race bottled up behind Jarno Trulli. On two separate occasions, da Costa made moves down the inside of the chicane, only for Trulli to cut it and reclaim the place.

Eventually, da Costa found his way past at Turn 3, while Trulli later lost his rear wing through contact from Loic Duval, who was stuck behind Trulli and Justin Wilson.

Trulli had earlier skipped the chicane again while holding off Wilson, who finished 10th to take the final point on his Formula E debut for Michael Andretti's team.