Di Grassi flies at Tempelhof to land another Audi victory in Berlin

Lucas di Grassi flew around Tempelhof Airport to secure a second successive win on home soil for Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler in Berlin.

Di Grassi drove to victory from third on the grid, making progress up the order in the early stages and holding on to record his 10th career victory in the ABB FIA Formula E Championship.

The Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler driver made a clean getaway and stuck behind Stoffel Vandoorne in the opening laps, before making his move up the inside of the Turn 6 hairpin at the end of the long back straight.

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He mirrored the same manoeuvre only a handful of laps later to take the lead from Sebastien Buemi. Di Grassi managed his energy and maintained the gap to Buemi – eventually crossing the line to pick-up 25 points and an additional point for setting fastest lap.

Buemi bolted out of the blocks from Julius Baer pole position but didn’t have the speed to keep di Grassi behind. Despite still not being able to convert pole into victory, second place marks Buemi’s first podium finish for Nissan e.dams this season.

Reigning champion Jean-Eric Vergne continued his recent upturn in form to complete the podium positions. Vergne advanced through the field from eighth, pulling off a number of audacious lunges with late-braking into the popular overtaking spot at Turn 6.

The DS TECHEETAH driver remains at the top of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship standings and now leads the voestalpine European races with only one event remaining in Bern.

Antonio Felix da Costa, Vandoorne and Daniel Abt exchanged paint and positions on track in a hard-fought race for fourth – with Da Costa narrowly missing out on another podium place for BMW i Andretti Motorsport.

The British trio of Alexander Sims, Oliver Rowland and Sam Bird came home in seventh, eighth and ninth respectively ahead of Pascal Wehrlein in the final points-paying position.

Next stop on the calendar sees Formula E return to Switzerland for the Julius Baer Swiss E-Prix in Bern – round 11 of the 2018/19 ABB FIA Formula E Championship and the climax of the voestalpine European races on June 22.

Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler
Lucas di Grassi
“An amazing race for Audi. It was a very strategic race with a lot of energy saving and our cars seemed very efficient today, so I’m super happy. Before coming into this weekend, I thought that with practice being on a different day on a track which isn’t normally very used – so it’s dusty – that it would’ve been pretty much impossible to qualify here and be in this position. It just shows that you have to work hard and do the best we can. Surprises can come and this is a very nice surprise to me.”Nissan e.dams
Sebastien Buemi
“It feels good. I can’t believe it’s only my first podium after all the races we’ve had this season. I know everyone can say that they deserve to get more points, but I think from our side it’s been really frustrating because we’ve been leading so many races and in the end not scored points. So, it’s good to finally see that we score points for the team and we’re coming back. There are another three races and I hope I can score more, but today I was not as quick as Lucas. I feel like we aren’t as efficient – we are good in qualifying – but we aren’t strong enough in the race. We need to try and work hard and see what we can do better.”DS TECHEETAH
Jean-Eric Vergne
“It was really fun. It was a fantastic recovery and I have to thank my team because yesterday I was more than one second off and I had a massive issue on the car which we couldn’t find during the day, but they found it overnight. This morning in qualifying, I got into a brand-new car basically with new brakes and a new feeling. I’m very pleased with today’s result and I always like to leave the track knowing I’ve done the best and better wasn’t possible.”

2019 BMW i Berlin E-Prix presented by CBMM Niobium (Rd 10)

1	Lucas di Grassi	Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler	47:02.477s	(26)
2	Sebastien Buemi	Nissan e.dams	+1.856s	(21)
3	Jean-Eric Vergne	DS TECHEETAH	+2.522s	(15)
4	Antonio Felix da Costa	BMW i Andretti Motorsport	+5.845s	(12)
5	Stoffel Vandoorne	HWA RACELAB	+6.336s	(10)
6	Daniel Abt	Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler	+6.551s	(8)
7	Alexander Sims	BMW i Andretti Motorsport	+8.235s	(6)
8	Oliver Rowland	Nissan e.dams	+10.781s	(4)
9	Sam Bird	Envision Virgin Racing	+13.153s	(2)
10	Pascal Wehrlein	MAHINDRA RACING	+14.846s	(1)
11	Edoardo Mortara	VENTURI Formula E Team	+15.377s
12	Mitch Evans	Panasonic Jaguar Racing	+17.688s
13	Robin Frijns	Envision Virgin Racing	+21.197s
14	Maximilian Gunther	GEOX DRAGON	+26.154s
15	Felipe Massa	VENTURI Formula E Team	+26.684s
16	Gary Paffett	HWA RACELAB	+27.718s
17	Jerome D’Ambrosio	MAHINDRA RACING	+27.729s
18	Oliver Turvey	NIO Formula E Team	+32.117s
19	Tom Dillmann	NIO Formula E Team	+33.706s
20	Jose Maria Lopez	GEOX DRAGON	+46.895s
DNF	Andre Lotterer	DS TECHEETAH	28 Laps
DNF	Alex Lynn	Panasonic Jaguar Racing	23 Laps

Jean-Eric Vergne	DS TECHEETAH	102
Lucas di Grassi	Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler	96
Andre Lotterer	DS TECHEETAH	86
Antonio Felix da Costa	BMW i Andretti Motorsport	82
Robin Frijns	Envision Virgin Racing	81
Mitch Evans	Panasonic Jaguar Racing	69
Daniel Abt	Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler	67
Jerome D’Ambrosio	MAHINDRA RACING	65
Oliver Rowland	Nissan e.dams	63
Sebastien Buemi	Nissan e.dams	61
Sam Bird	Envision Virgin Racing	56
Edoardo Mortara	VENTURI Formula E Team	52
Pascal Wehrlein	MAHINDRA RACING	52
Felipe Massa	VENTURI Formula E Team	32
Stoffel Vandoorne	HWA RACELAB	30
Alexander Sims	BMW i Andretti Motorsport	24
Maximilian Gunther	GEOX DRAGON	10
Gary Paffett	HWA RACELAB	8
Oliver Turvey	NIO Formula E Team	6
Alex Lynn	Panasonic Jaguar Racing	4
Jose Maria Lopez	GEOX DRAGON	3
Nelson Piquet Jr.	Panasonic Jaguar Racing	1
Tom Dillmann	NIO Formula E Team	0
Felipe Nasr	GEOX DRAGON	0
Felix Rosenqvist	MAHINDRA RACING	0

DS TECHEETAH	188
Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler	163
Envision Virgin Racing	137
Nissan e.dams	124
MAHINDRA RACING	117
BMW i Andretti Motorsport	106
VENTURI Formula E Team	84
Panasonic Jaguar Racing	74
HWA RACELAB	38
GEOX DRAGON	13
NIO Formula E Team	6

The ABB FIA Formula E Championship is the closest, most intense and progressive category in motorsport, bringing electrifying racing to the streets against the backdrop of landmarks, skyscrapers and skylines in some of the world’s most famous and recognisable cities – such as Hong Kong, Rome, Paris and New York.

Formula E enters a new and exciting era in season five with the competitive debut of the next generation car. The striking new model boasts a distinctive futuristic design and demonstrates a clear step-up in performance with almost double the energy storage capacity – allowing teams and drivers to complete a full race distance at higher speeds without needing to swap cars. The Gen2 car is a testament to the ongoing advancements in battery and electric vehicle technology in the space of only four years.

The fifth edition of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship will see 11 teams and 22 drivers tackle a variety of challenging circuits in 12 cities – across five continents – in a bid to be crowned champion. Formula E made its debut in the Middle East on December 15 for the season-opener in Ad Diriyah, with the championship once again coming to a close in New York City over the course of two days on July 13 & 14.

The concept of Formula E is to act as a platform to test and develop road-relevant technologies, helping refine the design and functionality of components and infrastructure – actively speeding-up the transition and uptake of electric vehicles on a global scale.

Formula E is continuing to attract some of the leading names and renowned brands in motorsport and the automotive industry. For this season, Formula E has nine manufacturers on its roster – including Nissan – taking over the existing entry from Renault – and BMW linking-up with Andretti. This number is set to rise further still, with the highly-anticipated inclusion of Mercedes-Benz and Porsche in season six.

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