Buemi win sets up Formula E decider

Sebastien Buemi claimed victory in the opening Formula E race in London's Battersea Park to move within five points of the championship lead ahead of Sunday's series finale.

Pole position and a third win of the season for Buemi closed the gap to championship leader Nelson Piquet Jr. from 23 points to five.

Together with seventh place for teammate Nicolas Prost, Buemi's win secured the teams' championship for the French e.dams squad.

"I'm happy with what we did today and now we need to look at all the data to make sure we achieve the same tomorrow," said the winner.

Buemi stretched a lead over Dragon Racing driver Jerome d'Ambrosio to more than three seconds before the mid-race changes of car and emerged from the pits with a similar advantage. That disappeared with a three-lap safety-car period, but Buemi was able to control the gap over the final nine laps to take victory in his Spark-Renault SRT-01E by just over a second.

Jean-Eric Vergne claimed third place for the Andretti team from fifth place on the grid. The Frenchman overtook Piquet on lap three after the Team China Racing driver lost momentum trying to pass Lucas di Grassi's Abt entry. Vergne then needed four more laps to pass di Grassi and resisted a challenge from the Brazilian over the final laps to take his second podium of the season.

Piquet ran with di Grassi after the safety car before dropping five seconds over the final laps.

The championship is now led by Piquet on 138 points from Buemi with  133, while di Grassi, who claimed an additional two points for fastest lap, has 125 points.

RESULTS - 29 LAPS:

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS:

Originally on Autosport.com