Las Vegas Formula E sim race won by Huis after Pahkala penalty

Finn Pahkala led home Huis and professional driver Felix Rosenqvist but was penalised after the race for illegal use of Fanboost, which dropped him to third.

Faraday Future Dragon Racing's Huis built a small lead from pole position in the early stages of the race, while Rosenqvist was comfortably the best-performing racing driver in the field and rebuffed a brief attack from Andretti's Aleksi Uusi-Jaakkola to maintain second.

Uusi-Jaakola's attentions turned to consolidating third, and he headed a train comprising DS Virgin Racing's Graham Carroll, Renault e.dams' David Greco, Pahkala and Enzo Bonito.

Pahkala opted out of that scrap in the first half of the race when he became the first of the leading group to stop, and soon after three drivers were eliminated from the podium fight at the halfway point.

Carroll finally got a run on Uusi-Jaakola exiting the final corner and moved to the inside of the Finn into Turn 1, as Greco made it three-abreast on the outside.

Uusi-Jaakola and Greco touched, with the former then hitting Carroll's left-rear wheel and sending all three crashing dramatically.

As the race progressed, Huis made a mistake at the front that allowed Rosenqvist to close to within two seconds.

The Dutchman and the Swede then pit as one with five laps to go, but the delay, combined with Pahkala's searing Fanboost-aided pace (which netted him $10,000 for fastest lap), meant their lead battle became a fight for second when they emerged.

Pahkala coasted to victory as Huis was able to keep Rosenqvist at bay for second, but after the race it emerged that Pahkala had illegaly used Fanboost on several successive laps.

A penalty dropped him to third and slashed his take-home prize to $50,000, with Techeetah driver Bonito fourth ahead of the recovering Uusi-Jaakola and Jaguar's Greger Huttu.

Three-time World Touring Car champion Jose Maria Lopez was second best of the professional drivers in seventh, as his Formula E rivals Sam Bird, Daniel Abt and Nelson Piquet Jr completed the top 10.

The inaugural running of the eSports event was not without its problems.

In addition to the glitch that allowed Pahkala to run two seconds quicker for half a dozen laps in the second half of the race, other problems prompted the race start to be delayed and the distance reduced to 20 laps.

Lucas di Grassi was unable to take the start after an issue with his simulator.