A frustrating Tokyo weekend for Buemi despite two strong comebacks

The first ever Tokyo E-Prix held under the lights gave Sébastien Buemi two days of full commitment, sadly without reward at the end of a weekend shaped by incidents and unpredictable weather.

On Saturday, heat dominated the opening day, with track temperatures climbing past 45 degrees. The team had to swap the powertrain on the #16 after FP2, a setback Sébastien overcame to set the seventh-fastest time in his group during qualifying, three tenths off the best, though not enough to reach the duels. Starting fourteenth, he was caught in contact on the opening lap, damaging his front wing and dropping as low as seventeenth before fighting back. Handed a five-second penalty for the incident, he produced a fine display in the heat of the race: his Attack Mode activated on lap thirteen propelled him up to second, before serving his Pit Boost and penalty dropped him back into the pack. Under light rain in the closing stages, he crossed the line in fourteenth, with his teammate Joel Eriksson finishing twelfth.

On Sunday, a violent storm disrupted the schedule, forcing the cancellation of FP3 and the evacuation of the paddock. On a drying track, Sébastien once again set the seventh-fastest time in his group, but a three-place grid penalty pushed him back to sixteenth on the grid. He quickly made up the deficit, passing Norman Nato to move into the top 12. Contact with Josep Maria Martí on lap fifteen triggered a Full Course Yellow, without halting his progress: his two Attack Mode activations late in the race brought him back to the edge of the points. A red flag caused by Eriksson's retirement froze the race, and Sébastien lined up seventh for a final lap shootout behind a rolling start. He held that position to the chequered flag, but a post-race penalty found him at fault for the clash with Martí, ultimately demoting him to sixteenth.

A weekend as combative as it was frustrating for Sébastien and Envision Racing, who leave Japan without a single point but eager to end the season on a high at their home finale in London, on 15 and 16 August.