Updated: Sims takes maiden Formula E win with BMW

It was an emotional day for BMW as Alexander Sims took his first victory with BMW i Andretti Motorsport scoring their first 1-2 in Formula E.

Update: BMW i Andretti driver has received a 24-second time penalty for overtaking before the first green lap after safety car. The penalty demotes the German down to 11th, as Lucas di Grassi and Stoffel Vandoorne take up 2nd and 3rd positions.

BMW i Andretti Motorsports driver Alexander Sims took his maiden Formula E victory at the second race of 2019-20 Formula E championship at Diriyah.

The British driver led dominantly throughout the race, making as much as 2 seconds after first couple of laps ahead of Sebastien Buemi.

After 45 minutes of hard racing, Sims maintained his lead to take his first win with a 1-2 finish as Maximilian Guenther took his first Formula E podium.

Guenther finished 1.3 seconds behind his teammate who kept Audi's Lucas di Grassi behind him with attack mode but most likely awaits a penalty for passing two cars under safety car conditions.

Vandoorne finished 4th in the race behind di Grassi, starting from 11th while Edoardo Mortara rounded out top 5 for Venturi Racing.

Nissan edams's Oliver Rowland finished 6th in the race while rookie Nyck de Vries took a terrific seventh place for Mercedes-Benz EQ.

Completing the top 10 were NIO driver Oliver Turvey, who takes first points for the new-look NIO 333 FE team while Daniel Abt and James Calado came from a disastrous race on Friday to score points.

The race was marred by safety car periods and penalties throughout the 45 minutes, with race results still provisional.

First incident was triggered by yesterday's race winner Sam Bird in Envision Virgin Racing and Jaguar's Mitch Evans as Evans made contact with Bird's car, sending the Briton into the wall. Bird continued, but was soon hit in the back by Mahindra's Pascal Wehrlein, ending Bird's race.

Second safety far interruption meanwhile, was caused by Bird's teammate Robin Frijns, as the Dutchman lost the rear of his car to crash into the wall and make it double-retirement for championship leading team.

DS Techeetah driver Antonio Felix da Costa made a strong start in earlier stages of the race, passing di Grassi for third and moving to second after punting Sebastien Buemi at Turn 18.

The Portuguese driver was therefore given a drive-through penalty for causing a collision while Buemi also received 10-seconds time penalty for rejoining the track unsafely.

Buemi classified 14th in the end, behind Da Costa.

After the first safety car period for clearing Bird's car, Guenther made a striking start to overtake several cars and gain second place. The incident is still under investigation as Guenther is reported to pass the cars before final lap under safety car was completed, which results in a penalty according to Formula E regulations.

Further penalties were given throughout the 24-car field, as di Grassi's teammate Abt received a drive-through penalty for throttle map infringement but the German still finished 9th to take points.

Evans also received penalty for making a collision with Bird, as the Kiwi fell out of contention from top 10 places to finish 18th.

Venturi Racing's Felipe Massa endured another strenuous weekend as he received a drive-through penalty for being out of place on the grid lineup.

Other than a double-retirement for Envision Virgin Racing, Dragon Racing's Nico Mueller also retired after making a contact with NIO's Ma Qing Hua. Ma was then given a 5-second penalty for the contact, managing 19th across the line.

Meanwhile, Jerome D'Ambrosio was first retirement of the race as the German who was starting from 4th place failed to get his car going to the start line.

2019 Formula E Diriyah E-Prix Classification