Audi’s Lucas di Grassi won an epic fight to the line to win FIA Formula E Championship’s Mexico City ePrix with BMW Andretti’s Antonio Felix da Costa and Venturi’s Edoardo Mortara completing the podium.
It was a good start from pole-sitter Mahindra Racing’s Pascal Wehrlein as he led the way but di Grassi lost out to Nissan e.Dams’ Oliver Rowland as Sebastien Buemi moved to fourth ahead of BMW Andretti’s Antonio Felix da Costa.
In few laps, Jaguar’s Nelson Piquet Jr had a heavy collision with DS Techeetah’s Jean-Eric Vergne which needed medical attention, with the race being red-flagged. The Brazilian was unscathed as Vergne continued on later on in the race.
The clock was set to 40 minutes again as the race re-started after a 30-minutes stoppage with Wehrlein leading Rowland and di Grassi while Buemi held off da Costa with Venturi’s Felipe Massa dropping behind the pack but ahead of BMW Andretti’s Alexander Sims.
The order remained as the same for much of the race with Wehrlein leading but Rowland lost out to di Grassi when he ran wide while using the Attack Mode as the Brazilian chased off the German for the race win in a chaotic end.
Wehrlein held off the charge but with no energy left, he lost out at the finish line as di Grassi sneaked past him to win the Mexico City ePrix. Wehrlein ended up second for the second consecutive time but a five-second penalty dropped him to sixth overall.
A similar fate awaited the two Nissan drivers in the closing stages as both had no energy left in the end which dropped them out of the Top 5 with Rowland classified as 20th and Buemi 21st. This helped BMW Andretti’s da Costa to second.
The chaos helped Venturi’s Edoardo Mortara to end up third after the Monegasque’s early inroads with Mahindra Racing’s Jerome D’Ambrosio making up 14 places to finish fourth from DS Techeetah’s Andre Lotterer and Wehrlein.
Jaguar’s Mitch Evans finished seventh but was involved in a incident with Vergne which dropped the Frenchman to 13th – the clash was put under investigation. Venturi’s Massa finished eighth to score his first points in Formula E.
The Top 10 was completed by Envision Virgin Racing’s Sam Bird and Audi’s Daniel Abt – the two climbing from 22nd and 21st respectively to score some handy points but Bird lost his points lead to D’Ambrosio as the Belgian heads with 53 points.
Envision Virgin Racing’s Robin Frijns missed on points to be 11th with NIO’s Oliver Turvey 12th from Vergne. BMW Andretti’s Sims held on well in the early stages but dropped out to finish 14th ahead of NIO’s Tom Dillmann.
HWA Racelab’s point-less streak continues on with Gary Paffett in 16th while Stoffel Vandoorne ended up 18th after a FanBoost over-usage penalty with GEOX Dragon’s Jose Maria Lopez in 17th and his new teammate FelipeNasr in 19th.
