FE Talk: Di Grassi Cruises to Audi Home Win

Lucas Di Grassi took a comfortable victory in Berlin at Audi’s home race. The result makes him only the second driver to win 2 races in the 2018/19 season after Jean-Eric Vergne’s win last time out in Monaco.

Pole sitter Sebastian Buemi was passed by the Audi on lap 3 up the inside of turn six. The Nissan e.dams driver would hold onto second place to record his first podium of the season.

Completing the podium was current championship leader Jean-Eric Vergne. The Frenchman was the star of the day with an aggressive set of overtakes that saw him move up from 8th on the grid. With Vergne grabbing third it meant that we had an all Champions podium for the first ever time in Formula E.

Further back Antonio Felix Da Costa held onto his championship ambitions with a solid 4th place after holding off Stoffel Vandoorne. The Belgium will be pleased with his pace as he looked perfectly at ease running with the top guys in the championship in his HWA.

6th place man Daniel Abt could not repeat his utterly dominant display from 1 year ago. Despite having the same car as race winner Di Grassi, the German driver never looked likely to offer any serious challenge to the podium positions once Vergne and Da Costa got clear.

Despite qualifying in Superpole, Alexander Sims was pushed back to 11th on the grid following a penalty he received last time out in Monaco. Sims worked his way back into the points though and was able to record a respectable 7th place kicking off a trio of Brits.

Oliver Rowland and Sam Bird had started in 12th and 13th places respectively and found themselves in a frenetic battle for the final points paying positions. Rowland was given a warning for squeezing the Mahindra of Pascal Wehrlein into the wall but avoided further sanction. Wehrlein would round out the top 10, finishing exactly where he started.

Elsewhere, championship contenders Andre Lotterer and Robert Frijns endured torrid weekends and saw their title aspirations potentially dashed, though still remain within 21 points of Vergne. It was always going to be tough for the pair as they occupied the final row of the gird. Lotterer failed to make the start of his quali lap by 1 second after backing up behind other drivers where as Frijns had a 5-place grid drop.

Andre Lotterer then faced the first Gen2 battery DNF after cooling issues struck his Techeetah. He was running P11 and challenging for points. Frijns however continued to look well off the pace and could only muster up 13th come the chequered flag.

The race had been broken up by a Full Course Yellow on lap 24, when Alex Lynn, who had been running inside the top five seized his suspension in the final corner, abruptly stopping on track. The caution had come at the worst time for Vergne, who had been scything his way through the field, having to stop in fourth behind Da Costa. He would later get past, but it left questions open about whether he could have challenged for the win.

With his result Jean-Eric Vergne now holds a 6 point lead over Lucas Di Grassi in the standings with 3 rounds remaining.

Next ePrix: Bern, Switzerland – 22/06/19