Team's second esports race drives awareness of global Covid-19 charity appeal
Yokohama, Japan – Nissan e.dams entertained a global audience today in a drama-filled second round of the ABB Formula E Race at Home Challenge, helping raise funds for UNICEF.
With the live Formula E racing season currently suspended, Nissan e.dams are participating in the nine-week esports competition that features teams and drivers from the ABB FIA Formula E Championship, and a field of top sim racers.
The new online racing series draws parallels between Formula E as the pinnacle of Zero Emission racing in the real world, which is now Zero Emission through virtual racing. This aligns with Nissan's goal of Zero Emissions and Zero Fatalities - an important pillar of Nissan Intelligent Mobility - the brand's vision for changing how cars are driven, powered and integrated into society.
The ABB Formula E Race at Home Challenge will raise funds for UNICEF's global coronavirus appeal. Nissan e.dams supports Formula E's fundraising partnership with UNICEF that aims to keep children around the world safe, healthy and learning in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
The ABB Formula E Race at Home Challenge is split into two grids and two races; the Driver Grid made up of Formula E racers, and the Challenge Grid of sim racers.
Competing on a high-speed, fictitious virtual track aptly named ‘Electric Docks', Nissan e.dams drivers Oliver Rowland and Sebastien Buemi qualified in P5 and P15. The entertaining, incident-packed race saw wheel-to-wheel racing throughout the pack, with the Nissan drivers running as high as P3 and P8, before eventually finishing the race in P11 for Buemi and P15 for Rowland.
In the Challenge Grid sim racer event, returning for Nissan e.dams was Jan von Der Heyde and debuting for the team, sim racer Niek Jacobs, qualified in P5 and P15. In the race, the Nissan pairing took a solid top 10 team finish in P4 and P9, respectively.
DRIVERS QUOTES
OLIVER ROWLAND
"A little bit disappointed in the end. I think the speed was good enough to challenge for the win today, but unfortunately an unavoidable incident in turn one, after a good start, pushed me down the order. Still, I had a lot of fun and we'll come back next week for another go. The most important thing is that it's for a great cause."
SEBASTIEN BUEMI
"A bit better today than last week, I finished eleventh and I made it to the end of the race. We were lapping consistently and inside the top 10, but then I clipped the wall and damaged the car which cost me some speed. Still, we made some steps forward and I'm looking forward to the next round."
NEXT RACE
Date: Saturday, May. 9
Track: Monaco Formula E virtual street circuit
Catch the online racing action: 3:30 p.m. – 5:15 p.m. (British Standard Time)
WHERE TO WATCH
Facebook: facebook.com/nismo
Website: fiaformulae.com
Instagram: instagram.com/fiaformulae
Twitter: twitter.com/fiaformulae
YouTube: www.youtube.com/FIAFormulaE
Twitch: www.twitch.tv/fiaformulae
Follow Sebastien and Oliver's live video streams on Twitch:
www.twitch.tv/seb23nissanedams
www.twitch.tv/oli22nissanedams
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