Formula E now has the stories it was missing

One day before Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas bored their way to a fifth Formula 1 one-two in succession, Jean-Eric Vergne triumphed in a gripping and controversial ABB FIA Formula E event in Monaco.

It wasn't a brilliant FE race - far from it - but it was another classic example of what the electric championship does well. That means an intense focus on driver skill in qualifying, a tense and tight tussle for the lead - even if this one featured no overtaking for first place - and battling scraps throughout the field.

By winning the Monaco race, Vergne actually stopped a success streak that FE had been thoroughly pleased with. The previous eight races had been won by eight different drivers, with Vergne building on his Sanya triumph by taking the win in the principality, visiting the Monaco podium for the first time in his career in the process. And, despite what many will probably say on the social media postings of this column, that streak ending is a good thing.

The first eight races of the 2018/19 season were all very good, with the wet-weather crashfest in Paris a possible exception. But they were brilliant in isolation. The unpredictable results - brought about mainly by the new championship-order qualifying format - were not creating an engaging narrative for the title fight. FE has arguably produced the perfect racing rules for a single event, but they had not added up to the sort of captivating, human endeavour story that grips an audience.

People do want sport to be unpredictable - nothing in 2019 will top the comebacks made by Liverpool and Tottenham in last week's Champions League semi-finals, unless a last-minute drop-goal wins the Rugby World Cup. But it's also the human element that makes a story worth telling. Those footballing examples are single events in isolation too, but they are a product of the competition UEFA has built.

Mercedes may be dominating F1 2019 - and deserves praise for its brilliance - but it's the way its drivers have been performing from a personal point of view that will keep people interested if Ferrari's challenge never sparks into life this season. Bottas raising his game from being utterly nowhere at the end of '18 is fascinating - so too was his "To whom it may concern: Fuck you", comment after he triumphed in Melbourne. How Hamilton responds to another intra-team title fight will also be captivating if it comes to seeing if he can throw off a challenge from a fired-up rival in the same car while heading towards the end of his remarkable career.

Such narratives had been missing in FE this season.

"If the fans like it, the people like it and the show is there - who are we to change it?" Antonio Felix da Costa

The Gen2 car looks and sounds amazing. It's solved FE's car-change image problem and the individual races, again, have been brilliant. But when it came to the drivers, the focus has been on complaints about the amount of contact - which resulted from the car being too strong - and the qualifying format. That last point is key - although it mixes up the grids, it makes it much harder for those watching from the outside to see who is performing best in 2018/19.

"It's just frustrating," BMW Andretti's Antonio Felix da Costa said after the Monaco race. "I understand what's trying to be achieved with the qualifying system, it's to make the people at the front of the championship qualify at the back. But then, you need tracks that allow you to come up from the back to the front and [Monaco] is not the place.

"And we were so fast - we came across Seb [Buemi] and Sam Bird, who were super slow at the time, and they completely compromised my race. They were blocking - they're good drivers and can put the car in the right places. Then you start to back up a group of cars and you start getting hit like there is no tomorrow. It's just way too much contact and it's not fair.

"The best driver, the best car and the best package will not win the championship like this.

"I'm just frustrated, I feel like we had the car to win this thing. For the sixth or seventh time, I was P1 in my group against, theoretically, the best guys in this championship [da Costa ran in group one in Monaco qualifying for the eighth time out of eight group sessions this season] - but it's only enough to start in P9.

"Considering all that, and where we are, finishing sixth is good points, but I'm afraid, like this, I will never be able to be on the podium again this season.

"I don't even know how to plan for the future - how can I win this championship? Is it just by doing our best, or should we plan to be in group two and win a race every now and again? It's just what it is."

That is quite a statement from a driver who is one of the most laidback in the FE paddock. And da Costa was speaking before he discovered he had been disqualified for running at 225kW when not in attack mode towards the end of the race. A mistake he says stems from contact with Jaguar's Mitch Evans.

"The rules were created to provide a good show," he continued. "If the fans like it, the people like it and the show is there - who are we to change it? We are actors and we need to provide the show, I understand all of that. If that's happening, then happy days.

"It's just for us, the athlete in the car, we go to the simulators and spend days and days there. I'm never home, I'm working my ass off to try and win this thing - [but] you come here and execute everything perfectly, and you have to start P9.

"That's why I'm frustrated. If it's right or wrong, that's not up to me - I don't make the rules. I arrive, I drive and I go. I'm just giving my honest opinion."

Da Costa's frustration is understandable - he is putting everything on the line to win the championship (after spending four seasons towards the back of the FE field) - and the title run-in is now here.

But, and it must be pointed out that he does acknowledge this, the rules have been known since the start of the season. And by taking away the lottery element of group qualifying from the previous campaigns, they are arguably 'fairer' than before.

FE's position on the fluctuating formbook is clear.

The 'JEV vs Andre' fight is a nice narrative - even if, thanks to their close relationship and vows not to fall out, it's not quite FE's equivalent of Hamilton vs Bottas just yet

"I love it," said CEO Alejandro Agag at the previous round in Paris. "For me as a promoter it's a dream situation. It's great - I think it's the most competitive championship in the world."

When asked on what he thinks the success streak was down to, he replied: "It's different things - first I think the qualifying method that we have with the groups helps. Second, I think having a new car puts everyone back to the same level and they need to start developing.

"So of course the ones that do better work maybe will have a little bit more [of] an advantage in season two, season three of this generation. But I think getting a new car puts everyone on the same level. And also the quality of drivers is very high - but very even. We have a really great group of fantastic drivers, who are all top quality. They're all very competitive."

Whatever your position on FE's current championship state, with Vergne's win it is now fundamentally different to how it was before last weekend. The 25 points he earned for the win in Monaco have catapulted him to the head of the standings, one point ahead of his DS Techeetah team-mate Andre Lotterer.

That's a nice narrative - even if, thanks to their close relationship and vows not to fall out, 'JEV vs Andre' is not quite FE's equivalent of Hamilton vs Bottas just yet.

"Being in the same team, we share everything, and there is no reason to change anything from that point of view," Vergne said in the post-race press conference in Monaco.

"[The media is] going to start creating some stories and start saying that we are going to fight, but that's not going to happen. We are good friends. On the track, we are here to do our job and there is no friendship - but there is a lot of respect between the two of us and that's all that matters.

"Everything can change so quickly in Formula E - we may not even be in the championship [fight] at the final race, you never know. But that's not going to change anything."

This isn't an attempt to force a narrative of a team-mate war, as Vergne suggests may happen. It's merely pointing out that right now, he heads Lotterer in the championship - and if it does boil down to a title battle between them, then that would be great.

But there are a fair few reasons why that might not happen. First of all, technically every single driver that has raced in FE so far in 2018/19 - including Felix Rosenqvist, who made a one-off appearance at the season-opener and Nelson Piquet Jr, who has been dropped by Jaguar - is still in mathematical contention for the title.

Then there's the fact that Techeetah has been here before, sort of, when Lotterer drove into the rear of Vergne's car at the Santiago race last season. They went on to finish one-two and did not fall out then, but of course there were no major consequences from the incident.

And, probably most importantly of all, the current qualifying rules will likely give both drivers plenty more ups and downs over the remaining races. Lotterer's 20th place starting spot in Monaco, followed by a brilliantly measured drive to seventh in the final results, proves that point.

But, at least the 2018/19 title fight now has some sort of story, even if it's not quite hit the shelves just yet. And there are plenty more manuscripts waiting to be picked up by publishers.

There's Lotterer's search for a maiden FE victory, allied to his impressive consistency in his title quest. Plus, there's Robin Frijns's breakthrough success this season, da Costa being there or thereabouts all year and hoping to lead BMW to glory in its first season as works FE squad, while Bird eyes a famous comeback after enduring four straight races where he has been effectively taken out by other drivers.

There may basically be as many protagonists involved as an Avengers film, but FE's 2018/19 endgame is here. And it finally has the plotlines to make it engaging.