An atmosphere worthy of a fantastic film, an impressive drone show and a beautiful night race - these were some of the ingredients that made the first of the weekend's two Formula E races a success.
But before the show, which was of a very high standard after a less dynamic race in Mexico a fortnight ago, the day was punctuated by a number of events which highlighted just how good the two DS E-TENSE FE23s are.
During the first test session on Thursday afternoon, second and third places for Vergne and team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne set the tone.
The following day, after a session devoted to the set-up of the electric cars, Vergne set the fastest time in his qualifying group while Vandoorne was less happy, getting stuck in traffic on his fast lap and failing to qualify for the quarter-finals.
Vergne then set the perfect lap to best Norman Nato (Avalanche Andretti), then Sergio Sette Camara (ERT) in the semi-final.
"You've just won your ticket to the final," Nicolas Mauduit, DS Penske's deputy team principal, told him over the radio.
A few seconds later, when Mitch Evans was 73% favourite to win pole, Jean-Eric Vergne proved unstoppable and, like a metronome, set another benchmark time. It was the 16th pole position for the French driver, who on this occasion became the joint-record holder of pole positions, tied with Sebastien Buemi (Envision-Jaguar).
Vergne got off to the perfect start and held onto the lead from Evans, who was still a threat in his Jaguar. The Frenchman was among the first to activate his Attack mode, with the aim of creating a little breathing space.
Source: Autosport