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Motor racing-Vandoorne wins second Rome Formula E race, Bird stays top

ROME (Reuters) - Mercedes' Stoffel Vandoorne won the second Formula E race of the weekend in Rome on Sunday with Britain's Sam Bird staying top of the electric championship's standings despite failing to score for Jaguar.

Belgian Vandoorne, who crashed out of the previous day's e-prix in the EUR district of the Italian capital, beat Mahindra Racing's Alexander Sims by 0.666 of a second in what he described as "redemption".

Pascal Wehrlein finished third for Porsche after Venturi's Norman Nato was demoted from the podium for using too much energy.

Former McLaren F1 racer Vandoorne also took the bonus point for fastest lap in what was his team's second victory of the season.

Bird, second on Saturday and a winner in Saudi Arabia, has 43 points after four rounds with team mate Mitch Evans of New Zealand moving up to second on 39 after finishing sixth on Sunday.

Dutch driver Robin Frijns failed to score and dropped to third overall for Envision Virgin Racing, on 34, with Vandoorne moving up to fourth on 33 and one point clear of Dutch team mate Nyck de Vries.

For the second day in a row the race started behind the safety car due to wet patches on the circuit.

Rookie Nick Cassidy was the leader once the lights turned green but that was short-lived due to a technical problem and he spun on the opening lap.

Nato took over for a few laps before he was passed by Wehrlein but Vandoorne then took the lead when the German went off the racing line to activate attack mode.

The safety car was again deployed late in the race when Audi's Rene Rast crashed.

The last lap saw Bird and de Vries collide, also collecting Nissan's Oliver Rowland. Saturday's winner Jean-Eric Vergne finished 11th for Techeetah.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Ed Osmond)