The two Season 4 Hong Kong races – which opened the championship with a double-header dose of thrills – set the tone for what was to come: two different winners; a fast-but-unlucky Audi that deprived winner-on-the-road Daniel Abt of what looked like a certain win in race two and a strong showing from Techeetah’s Jean-Eric Vergne, who would go on to become Season 4 champion. There was even the first-ever race stoppage in race one, after a four-car snarl-up at the chicane blocked the track.

The stage was set for a year of frenetic racing, with no driver or team establishing dominance and the same tone continued into the opening rounds of Season 5 – of which Hong Kong will be the fifth race. Four different drivers from three different teams took the first three victories in Riyadh, Marrakesh and Santiago, as competition for top spot proved fraught.

The Hong Kong circuit is likely to prove just as unpredictable, as it has become notorious among the ABB Formula E fraternity for its intense, uncompromising track layout, which offers little margin for error and a mixture of surfaces ready to catch out the unwary.

Over the course of its 1.85 kilometres, which feature 10 turns including a chicane at Turns 3 & 4 that tightens on exit, drivers encounter both dusty concrete and low-adhesion tarmac – neither of which offer much grip to the series-standard Michelin tyres. If past races are a guide, contact between drivers and walls seems an inevitability at some point of the weekend. The 2019 Hong Kong E-Prix will be the first of a two-race Asian tour for ABB Formula E, with the first-ever round in the Chinese tourist resort of Sanya following a fortnight later.

At both events, humidity and tough working conditions will present a challenge for teams as well as for the 22 drivers.