Formula E: Di Grassi beats Buemi to win Berlin E-Prix
25th May 2019 10:30 pm
Di Grassi enters championship contention with Berlin E-Prix win propelling him to 2nd place in the standings, six points behind Vergne.
Lucas di Grassi cruised to victory at the Berlin E-Prix, handing Audi a race win on home ground. Starting the race from 3rd place, di Grassi made quick work of Stoffel Vandoorne to move up to 2nd and then started chasing polesitter Sebastien Buemi. He managed to pull off his race-winning move just a few minutes later, passing Buemi at Turn 6 to take the race lead. From there on, di Grassi maintained a healthy gap to the rest of the field, going on to win the race by 1.8 seconds from Buemi.
Buemi was briefly demoted by 3rd place by Antonio Felix da Costa, but used his Fanboost to re-gain 2nd place with 17 minutes on the clock. Later on in the race, he started coming under pressure from Jean-Eric Vergne, who had carved through the field after starting from 8th place. Despite making a few attempts, Vergne was unable to find a way past Buemi and had to settle for 3rd place.
Da Costa took 4th place, while Vandoorne managed to fend off Daniel Abt in the closing laps to finish in 5th place. Alexander Sims had to start the race from 11th place due to a five-place grid penalty from the previous race, but managed to gain a few positions to ultimately finish 7th, followed by Oliver Rowland and Sam Bird.
Mahindra Racing endured a lacklustre race at the very venue where it earned its first Formula E victory in 2017. Pascal Wehrlein claimed a single point for the team, finishing in 10th place, while his teammate Jerome d’Ambrosio finished down in 17th place. As a result, Mahindra has now lost a place to Nissan in the teams’ championship and is now 5th in the overall standings.
Heading into the race, Andre Lotterer was just one point behind teammate and championship leader Vergne. However, a disappointing Berlin E-Prix sees him drop to 3rd in the standings, 16 points behind Vergne. The DS Techeetah driver had made good progress having started all the way down from 21st place after failing to set a time in qualifying. But he had to retire from the race after suffering a battery issue. The only other retirement was Alex Lynn, who stopped on track after reporting rear axel issues.
With just three more races to go, Di Grassi taking his second victory of the season at Berlin propels him up to 2nd place in the drivers’ standings, six points behind Vergne.
Results
|
Pos
|
Driver
|
Team
|
Car
|
Laps
|
Gap
|
|
1
|
Lucas di Grassi
|
Audi
|
Audi
|
37
|
47m02.477s
|
|
2
|
Sebastien Buemi
|
e.dams
|
Nissan
|
37
|
1.856s
|
|
3
|
Jean-Eric Vergne
|
DS Techeetah
|
DS
|
37
|
2.522s
|
|
4
|
Antonio Felix da Costa
|
BMW
|
BMW
|
37
|
5.845s
|
|
5
|
Stoffel Vandoorne
|
HWA
|
Venturi
|
37
|
6.336s
|
|
6
|
Daniel Abt
|
Audi
|
Audi
|
37
|
6.551s
|
|
7
|
Alexander Sims
|
BMW
|
BMW
|
37
|
8.235s
|
|
8
|
Oliver Rowland
|
e.dams
|
Nissan
|
37
|
10.781s
|
|
9
|
Sam Bird
|
Virgin
|
Audi
|
37
|
13.153s
|
|
10
|
Pascal Wehrlein
|
Mahindra
|
Mahindra
|
37
|
14.846s
|
|
11
|
Edoardo Mortara
|
Venturi
|
Venturi
|
37
|
15.377s
|
|
12
|
Mitch Evans
|
Jaguar
|
Jaguar
|
37
|
17.688s
|
|
13
|
Robin Frijns
|
Virgin
|
Audi
|
37
|
21.197s
|
|
14
|
Maximilian Gunther
|
Dragon
|
Penske
|
37
|
26.154s
|
|
15
|
Felipe Massa
|
Venturi
|
Venturi
|
37
|
26.684s
|
|
16
|
Gary Paffett
|
HWA
|
Venturi
|
37
|
27.718s
|
|
17
|
Jerome d'Ambrosio
|
Mahindra
|
Mahindra
|
37
|
27.729s
|
|
18
|
Oliver Turvey
|
NIO
|
NIO
|
37
|
32.117s
|
|
19
|
Tom Dillmann
|
NIO
|
NIO
|
37
|
33.706s
|
|
20
|
Jose Maria Lopez
|
Dragon
|
Penske
|
37
|
46.895s
|
|
-
|
Andre Lotterer
|
DS Techeetah
|
DS
|
28
|
Retirement
|
|
-
|
Alex Lynn
|
Jaguar
|
Jaguar
|
23
|
Retirement
|