The 2018 Marrakesh ePrix (formally the 2018 ABB FIA Formula E Marrakesh ePrix) was a Formula E electric car race held at the Circuit International Automobile Moulay El Hassan in the Agdal district of Marrakesh, Morocco on 13 January 2018. It was the third round of the 2017–18 Formula E Championship and the second Marrakesh ePrix. The 33-lap race was won by Mahindra driver Felix Rosenqvist after starting from third place. Sébastien Buemi finished in second place for e.Dams-Renault and Virgin driver Sam Bird took third.
Buemi won the pole position by recording the fastest lap in qualifying and maintained his startline advantage heading into the first corner. He held the lead with Bird and Rosenqvist close behind him for much of the first half of the race until a full course yellow flag was necessitated when André Lotterer stopped on track with a hardware failure on his car. Buemi retained the lead after the field made pit stops to switch into a second car but Rosenqvist pressured and passed him with four laps to go. Rosenqvist led the final four laps to clinch his second consecutive victory of the season and the third of his career.
The consequence of the final positions gained Rosenqvist the lead of the Drivers' Championship for the first time in his career with 54 points and Bird was four points behind in second. Jean-Éric Vergne finished in fifth and this meant he fell to third while Nelson Piquet Jr. ran strongly in the race and set the fastest lap, moving him to fourth. Edoardo Mortara rounded out the top five placings. Mahindra increased their Teams' Championship advantage to 18 points over Virgin while Techeetah held third with nine races left in the season.
Background
The Marrakesh ePrix was confirmed as part of Formula E's 2017–18 series schedule in September 2017 by the FIA World Motor Sport Council. It was the third of twelve scheduled single-seater electric car races of the 2017–18 Championship, and the second Marrakesh ePrix. The race was held on 13 January 2018 at the 12-turn anti-clockwise Circuit International Automobile Moulay El Hassan street circuit in the Agdal district of Marrakesh, Morocco. The race stewards for Marrakesh included chairman Paulo Longoni, additional international steward Achim Loth and former Bentley factory driver Andy Soucek.
Coming into the race Virgin driver Sam Bird led the Drivers' Championship with 35 points, two ahead of Jean-Éric Vergne in second and a further six in front of Felix Rosenqvist in third. Edoardo Mortara was the highest-placed rookie driver in fourth with 24 points and Nick Heidfeld was fifth with 15 points. Mahindra led the Teams' Championship with 44 points with Virgin in second with 41 points. Techeetah stood in third position with 33 points and Venturi (30) and Jaguar (27) contended for fourth.
In an attempt to speed up races starting from Marrakesh, the world governing body of motorsport, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), elected not to implement a mandatory minimum pit stop time no more and told the teams of the decision. This was due to teams progressively improving their pit stop efficiency which led to the limit being lowered on a gradual scale until the FIA believed the fastest possible limit had been reached. The response from the drivers was mixed: 2016–17 champion Lucas di Grassi was positive but wished the rule was changed before the season. Bird feared drivers would not attach their seat belts on correctly in order to spend less time in the pit lane and lower safety standards, saying "If things like this start to be ignored then it's not the right thing to do." After teams signed a letter conveying their disappointment and safety concerns such as seat belt fastening to the stewards, it was decided to postpone the change until the Santiago ePrix to allow teams to obtain additional safety garage equipment for team members and invest in sports car style seat belts.