Lucas Di Grassi wins Mexico ePrix

Lucas Di Grassi wins his first victory of the season at the Mexico City ePrix with a stunning drive

At the Mexico City ePrix yesterday, Abt driver Lucas Di Grassi claimed an extraordinary first victory of the 2016/17 Formula E season (after starting the ePrix last with an broken rear wing) ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne and Sam Bird after a chaotic race in Mexico City that had everyone glued to the screens of their televisions.

Di Grassi was last after having to pit on the third lap to fix a broken rear wing, but gambled on a safety car just before the halfway mark and claimed the win ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne and Sam Bird.

At the start of the ePrix, Poleman Oliver Turvey led the first quarter of the race under increasing pressure from Jose Maria Lopez, but he slowed down on the start-finish straight and crawled to a halt exiting Turn 1 and handed the lead over to Lopez. Lopez then built a 2.4-second advantage over Nick Heidfeld but the safety car was called so Turvey’s car could be retrieved.

At this stage of the ePrix, Di Grassi was at the rear of the field after he was forced to pit on the third lap to repair the rear wing damage after being rear-ended in the midfield at Turn 3. As a result of this, Di Grassi gambled and decided to pit under the safety car, therefore swapping cars at the end of lap 17; with 28 laps of the race still to run.

When racing resumed Lopez slowly rebuilt his advantage as Heidfeld’s attentions turned to holding off Jean-Eric Vergne, Sam Bird, championship leader Sebastien Buemi and Felix Rosenqvist.

As the cars made their mandatory pit stops, Vergne pit a lap earlier than his rivals but when Lopez stopped a lap later, he just remained just in front of the Frenchman on the track.

Mahindra driver Nick Heidfeld lost out in the stops, as did Buemi, while the Andretti duo of Antonio Felix da Costa and Robin Frijns suddenly (and illegally) joined the lead group after beating the minimum stop by three seconds.

Once the car swaps had been completed, di Grassi led Dragon Racing driver Jerome d’Ambrosio, who had also gambled on an early stop under the safety car, with the rest of the field being behind by half a lap but with considerably more energy available.

Another safety car was called when Faraday Future Dragon Racing driver Loic Duval stopped exiting Turn 3 and as Di Grassi and D'Ambrosio watched their lead evaporate it seemed a formality that Lopez would breeze back to the front.

But d’Ambrosio offered an incredibly stern rearguard action alongside Vergne launching a couple of unsuccessful attacks at Lopez into the Turn 3 chicane, allowed di Grassi to eke out a crucial advantage that he would ultimately keep.

While battling with Vergne, Lopez then lost patience bottled up behind d’Ambrosio and spun attempting a round-the-outside move at Turn 1; followed almost immediately by Buemi, who made an identical error trying to pass rookie Felix Rosenqvist.

That came just after Antonio Felix da Costa suffered a technical problem and stopped, while Robert Frijns was quickly removed from the equation by a drivethrough penalty for his short pitstop.

When the dust settled di Grassi had a multiple second advantage over d’Ambrosio, who continued to frustrate Vergne until a mistake under braking for Turn 1 allowed Vergne to sneak past with three laps to go.

In the latter stages of the race, Nico Prost hit Heidfeld at Turn 8 and Rosenqvist ploughed into his spun Mahindra team-mate, while Prost was delayed sufficiently for Mitch Evans to nip past to get himself into the points.

Vergne ran out of time to catch di Grassi, who eked his energy to the end to claim an unlikely but well-deserved victory. Di Grassi finished ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne in second place who was 1.966 seconds behind Di Grassi but finished ahead of Sam Bird in third place who was 7.480 seconds behind Di Grassi after d’Ambrosio agonisingly ran out of energy on the final lap.

Mitch Evans scored Jaguar’s and his first points in Formula E with a stunning fourth place ahead of Nico Prost in fifth place, Jose Maria Lopez in sixth place, Daniel Abt in seventh place, Adam Carroll scoring his first points in his Formula E career in eighth place, Nelson Piquet Jr in ninth place and Esteban Gutierrez scoring a point on his Formula E debut in tenth place.

Robert Frijns finished outside of the points in eleventh place ahead of Nick Heidfeld in twelfth place, Sebastien Buemi in thirteenth place, Jerome D'Ambrosio in fourteenth place, Stephane Sarrazin in fifteenth place and Felix Rosenqvist in sixteenth place.

Maro Engel, Antonio Felix Da Costa, Loic Duval and Oliver Turvey did not finish the ePrix.

Here's the classification of the 2017 Mexico City ePrix as follows:-

1. Lucas di Grassi, Abt Schaeffler Audi Sport, 56.27.535s
2. Jean-Eric Vergne, Techeetah, +1.966s
3. Sam Bird, DS Virgin Racing, +7.480s
4. Mitch Evans, Jaguar Racing, +9.770s
5. Nicolas Prost, Renault e.Dams, +9.956s
6. Jose Maria Lopez, DS Virgin Racing, +10.631s
7. Daniel Abt, ABT Shaeffler Audi Sport, +11.694s
8. Adam Carroll, Jaguar Racing, +13.722s
9. Nelson Piquet Jr, NEXTEV NIO, +14.156s
10. Esteban Gutierrez, Techeetah, +15.717s
11. Robin Frijns, Andretti, +21.459s
12. Nick Heidfeld, Mahindra Racing, +27.232s
13. Sebastien Buemi, Renault e.Dams, 1.01.365s
14. Jerome D'Ambrosio, Faraday Future Dragon Racing, +1.09.646s
15. Stephane Sarrazin, Venturi, 1 lap
16. Felix Rosenqvist, Mahindra Racing, 2 laps
17. Maro Engel, Venturi, Not Classified
18. Antonio Felix Da Costa, Andretti, Not Classified
19. Loic Duval, Faraday Future Dragon Racing, Not Classified
20. Oliver Turvey, NEXTEV NIO, Not Classified

Sebastien Buemi leads the Formula E Drivers Championship with 76 points ahead of Lucas di Grassi in second with 71 points, Nicolas Prost in third with 46 points, Jean-Eric Vergne in fourth with 40 points, Sam Bird in fifth with 33 points, Felix Rosenqvist in sixth with 20 points, Daniel Abt in seventh with 20 points, Nick Heidfeld in eighth with 17 points, Nelson Piquet Jr is ninth with 15 points, Oliver Turvey is in tenth with 15 points , Mitch Evans is eleventh with 12 points, Antonio Felix Da Costa is twelfth with 10 points, Jose Maria Lopez is in thirteenth with 10 points, Jerome D'Ambrosio is fourteenth with 10 points, Loic Duval is fifteenth with 9 points, Robert Frijns is sixteenth with 8 points, Adam Carroll in seventeenth with 4 points, Maro Engel in eighteenth place with 2 points, Stephane Sarrazin in nineteenth with 1 point and Esteban Gutierrez in twentieth with 1 point.

Renault e.dams leads the Formula E Constructors Championship with 122 points, Abt Schaffler Audi Sport are second with 91 points, DS Virgin Racing are third with 43 points, Techeetah are fourth with 41 points, Mahindra Racing are fifth with 37 points, NEXTEV NIO are sixth with 30 points, Faraday Future Dragon Racing are seventh with 19 points, Andretti are eighth with 18 points, Jaguar Racing are ninth with 16 points and Venturi are tenth with 3 points.

Driving for Pleasure will be producing reports on every session of every ePrix the 2016/2017 FIA Formula E Championship as well as covering the latest news as it breaks in the paddock.

Jones- @jonesy_laaa