The 2018 Rome ePrix (formally the 2018 CBMM Niobium Rome E-Prix Presented By Mercedes EQ) was a Formula E electric car race held at the Circuito Cittadino dell'EUR in the EUR residential and business district of the Italian capital of Rome on 14 April 2018 before a crowd of 45,000 people. It was the seventh round of the 2017–18 Formula E Championship and the inaugural running of the event. The 33-lap race was won by Virgin driver Sam Bird from a second position start. Lucas di Grassi finished second for Audi and Techeetah driver André Lotterer took third.
Felix Rosenqvist of Mahindra won the pole position by recording the fastest lap in qualifying and maintained the lead through the mandatory pit stops for the change into a second car until he hit a kerb on the 22nd lap and retired with a broken rear-left suspension. That allowed Bird into the lead but he was challenged by Jaguar's Mitch Evans, who had made a pit stop one lap later and had more electrical energy, with four laps left but he could not get ahead. Evans was then passed by di Grassi and Lotterer in the final laps as his energy depleted and Bird held off di Grassi to take his second victory of the season and the seventh of his career.
The result allowed Jean-Éric Vergne of Techeetah to retain his lead in the Drivers' Championship but his points advantage was reduced to 18 as Bird's victory put him ahead of Rosenqvist. e.Dams-Renault driver Sébastien Buemi maintained fourth and di Grassi's teammate Daniel Abt moved into fifth after coming fourth. Techeetah extended their advantage in the Teams' Championship to thirty-eight points over Virgin. Mahindra scored no points and fell to third with five races left in the season.
Background
Preview
Coming into the race from Punta del Este four weeks earlier, Techeetah driver Jean-Éric Vergne led the Drivers' Championship with 109 points and was 30 points ahead of Felix Rosenqvist of Mahindra in second. Virgin's Sam Bird was a further three points behind in third and Sébastien Buemi of e.Dams-Renault was fourth with a total of 52 points accrued. Jaguar driver Nelson Piquet Jr. was fifth with 45 points. Techeetah led the Teams' Championship with 127 points; Mahindra followed 27 points behind in second position. Virgin (93 points) and Jaguar (86) were third and fourth and e.Dams-Renault were fifth with 59 points. There were ten teams fielding two drivers each for a total of 20 participants for the event.
After the world governing body of motorsport, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), abolished the minimum pit stop time at the Santiago ePrix three races ago, Techeetah and Dragon were fined for modifying their seat felts and André Lotterer (Techeetah) clipped one of his mechanics in Mexico. These events prompted the FIA to hand all teams two cameras to aid the stewards in analysing footage after the race and were instructed to install them above the second car of their respective drivers and be positioned in an unobstructed area of the garage effective from the Rome ePrix. Jean Todt, the FIA president, reiterated his position that the responsibility of ensuring safe pit stops laid solely with teams and drivers and revealed that the decision to discard the minimum pit stop time was made following two years of research, "If you want to try and save time and to be unbuckled before you stop, [or] to buckle after you have started – you will be reported to the stewards to make some strong decisions. But if you follow the rules and the procedure, I feel that there is no problem of safety. I hope that every driver and every team will be responsible and we shouldn't have any problems."
Preparations
Plans for a Formula E race around the streets of the Italian capital of Rome were discussed on 1 December 2012 by Todt, and series founder and CEO Alejandro Agag with Gianni Alemanno, the mayor. They agreed to hold a race in the city in the 2014–15 Championship. On 1 October 2013 however, these plans changed when the initial season calendar was released, dropping the Rome race with Hong Kong. A new administration had been elected in the intervening period of time and it decided against taking further action in restoring the ePrix to the calendar. But, the project was revitalised when in November 2016, Rome's councillor for sports Daniele Frongia told news agency Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata that the recently elected administration of Virginia Raggi was in the process of planning for major events slated for 2017 and 2018. Raggi maintained written correspondence with the FIA concerning the restoration of Rome to the Formula E calendar.