Lucas Di Grassi takes the win and the lead of the championship after a spectacular race in Mexico City. The Brazilian started third on the grid, behind Nico Prost and Jerome D’Ambrosio, but, with the help of the FanBoost, was able to take the win.
Qualifying
It had been a typical Formula E morning, with Renault e.dams’ Sebastien Buemi showing off the car’s pace in the practice sessions but, once again, the then championship leader cracked under pressure.
Buemi was able to make it into the super pole shoot out – which was postponed after Nelson Piquet Junior tried his hand at track rearranging in a crash at the first chicane – but a lock up stopped him starting any higher than fifth, behind both Abt drivers, his team mate, and D’Ambrosio.
The Race Begins
There were worries ahead of the race that the tight first chicane might cause trouble, but everyone managed to get through the first lap relatively unharmed.
D’Ambrosio managed to keep Prost behind him at the start of the race, and pressure from Di Grassi let the Dragon Racing driver pull away from the chasing pack a little.
Disaster struck for Da Costa. After already having to serve a penalty for a gear box change, the Aguri driver was given a ten second pit stop penalty after his team continued to work on the car in Parc Ferme.
That wasn’t the end of Da Costa’s troubles. After being show the meatball flag for a wobbly front wing, the Aguri driver pitted and fell even further back. To add insult to injury, he was then handed a drive through penalty for not respecting the track limits.
On the bright side, Da Costa does win the award for the most penalties of the race.
Vergne also had problems, dropping down from where he’d started the race in sixth to sixteenth. Though he was able to improve a little during the first stint, the Frenchman lost a lot of time in the pits, and could only finish seventeenth, even with the FanBoost.
Pit Stop!
The midrace car swaps always shake things up a little, but this time it was before the cars even entered the pits that things started to heat up. Di Grassi was given the call that he had one lap to go before pitting, and used that one lap to make a move on Prost, taking second place from the Frenchman. The Abt driver kept the place after the car swap and, with Prost falling behind his team mate, the fight was on for the finish.
Di Grassi Takes the Lead and the Battle for Second
D’Ambrosio left the pits in first, but was almost immediately passed by Di Grassi, who was using the FanBoost. Di Grassi took the lead and left Buemi to battle with D’Ambrosio.
Once again, we were treated to unhappy French on the radio when D’Ambrosio shut the door on Buemi as he tried to make a move, a little too late in Buemi’s eyes. The e.dams driver managed to get even with D’Ambrosio by crashing into the back of the Dragon Racing driver. Not too much damage done though, so the battle continued…
As if e.dams didn’t have enough to worry about with one of their drivers trying desperately to keep the lead of the championship, Nico Prost was under investigation for an unsafe release, after he came out of the pits very close to Buemi.
Before the issue could be resolved, Buemi had managed to get past D’Ambrosio. Unfortunately for e.dams, he did it by cutting the chicane, and had to give the place back. When he tried to, though, D’Ambrosio didn’t have the pace to get past and was slowed down by Buemi, giving Prost the chance to try to slip past and making a mess of it all.
One way or another, D’Ambrosio regained second place, and Prost was taken out of the mix by a drive through for the unsafe release.
Chequered Flag
Di Grassi took the win of the race without any more trouble. On the podium, D’Ambrosio had his phone out, ready for the usual podium selfie and, though a few not-so-polite words had been shared about one another through the race, Buemi got into the photo with him and Di Grassi. All’s well that ends well!
Di Grassi now takes the lead of the championship, six points ahead of Buemi and forty three points ahead of Sam Bird, who could only finish seventh after a difficult race for Virgin.
Results
1 – Lucas Di Grassi – Abt Schaeffler Audi; 2 – Jerome D’Ambrosio – Dragon Racing; 3 – Sebastien Buemi – Renault e.dams; 4 – Loic Duval – Dragon Racing; 5 – Nico Prost – Renault e.dams; 6 – Robin Frijns – Amlin Andretti; 7 – Sam Bird – DS Virgin; 8 – Daniel Abt – Abt Schaeffler Audi; 9 – Nick Heidfeld – Mahindra Racing; 10 – Stephane Sarrazin – Venturi GP; 11 – Bruno Senna – Mahindra Racing; 12 – Oliver Turvey NEXT-EV TCR; 13 – Mike Conway – Venturi GP; 14 – Nelson Piquet – NEXT-EV TCR; 15 – Simona De Silvestro – Amlin Andretti; 16 – Salvador Duran – Team Aguri; 17 – Jean-Eric Vergne – DS Virgin; 18 – Antonio Felix Da Costa – Team Aguri.
Feature Image Credit: FIA Formula E Media
