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Di Grassi crosses the line first but D’Ambrosio wins

Practice Session. Buenos Aires ePrix. Buenos Aires, Argentina, South America Saturday 6 February 2016 Photo: Adam Warner /LAT/FE ref: Digital Image _L5R0130

Jérôme d’Ambrosio has been declared winner of the Mexico e-prix after Lucas Di Grassi’s disqualification of the race.


The Mexico e-prix started with Jérôme d’Ambrosio in pole position, followed by Nicolas Prost and Lucas Di Grassi on the grid. Championship leader Sebastien Buemi started from fifth position on the grid. The race started with no incident at the first lap. The first incident to note is Jean-Eric Vergne who, after starting sixth on the grid, dropped back in the rankings after being blocked by Loic Duval. The Frenchman continued in 16th position.

Antonio Felix Da Costa is the unluckiest driver of the race. After facing problems in both free practice session, his good qualifying lap has not been rewarded as he got a ten place penalty for a gear box change. At the beginning of the race, Da Costa received a ten second penalty for updating the car in the parc fermé.

Ahead, Buemi overtakes Abt for 4th and hunts on Di Grassi. The Brazilian can count on the support on fanboost as well as Vergne and Duran. Da Costa is summoned to go through the pits to repair his damaged front wing, the nightmare keeps going on.

Just before the pit-stop window, Di Grassi surprises D’Ambrosio and overtake him. At the 23rd lap, all the drivers pit and only Prost loses a position to Buemi. The fight between D’Ambrosio and Buemi starts as Vergne loses one minute in the pits, ruining his race.

Buemi puts a lot of pressure on D’Ambrosio until they touch and Buemi pass D’Ambrosio by cutting the chicane and is not able to give the position straight away as Prost and Abt try to pass him. The will keep fighting until the chequered flag.

Meanwhile Prost gets a drive through penalty for unsafe release, Abt loses control of his car and hits the Techpro barriers in the last lap. He is able to continue while Da Costa is the only driver who did not finish the race.

At the end of the race, Lucas Di Grassi is the winner ahead of Jérôme d’Ambrosio who did the fastest lap of the race and Sébastien Buemi. However, it is not considering post-race penalties.

Lucas Di Grassi has been disqualified for an under weighted car – the first one of the race- and Abt Schaeffler said they will not appeal the decision. Jerome D’Ambrosio takes the win but loses his fastest lap as it was made by cutting the chicane. The fastest lap of the race then goes to Nico Prost who climbs on the podium. Loic Duval also gets a 15 second penalty for ignoring black and white flag after cutting the chicane. His penalty does not make him lose any position tough.

At the championship, Sebastien Buemi leads now by 22 points ahead of Di Grassi and Bird. The next race will be at Long Beach on April 2nd.