Lucas di Grassi took the race win at the Long Beach ePrix on Saturday, much like he had three weeks ago in Mexico City before he was disqualified for having an underweight car.
That exclusion had cost him big in the points with relation to title rival Sebastien Buemi but, this weekend, the roles were reversed as Buemi suffered from a horrid race.
DS Virgin Racing’s Sam Bird led the field away at the start while Di Grassi started second. They had qualified in second and third respectively, but provisional pole sitter Antonio Felix da Costa had been sent to the back of the grid after his left rear tire was found to be 0.05 psi under pressure. Da Costa was unable to make it to the finish of the race.
Bird led the field around in the early stages with Di Grassi running behind him in second. However, championship leader Sebastien Buemi was making up for the lack of action up front by passing cars after qualifying back in seventh position. Buemi’s charge to the front soon came to an end, however, when he ran into the back of Robin Frijns. Both drivers’ cars were heavily damaged and they were forced to come into the pits.
Di Grassi took the lead from Bird ahead of the round of pit stops then, when the field reemerged on the track, Bird lost more spots by locking up on cold tires and running straight on at one of the turns. He found himself behind the Mahindra Racing machines, who had stayed out an extra lap as opposed to the opposition and so were able to hold on in the second half of the race and both finish in the top 5.
They were also aided by the fact that Nico Prost, who had been running fourth, had to serve a drive-trough penalty for not respecting the minimum pit time during his pit stop, which led to him finishing in 11th.
There was a late Safety Car in the race triggered when Nelson Piquet Jr. overshot the first chicane and crashed into the wall. It set up for a 3-lap shootout to finish the show but there were no major changes in position up front.
What all the chaos did mean, however, was that Simona de Silvestro was able to break her way into the points and finish a respectable ninth place - the first ever points for a female driver in Formula E.
Lucas di Grassi now holds a one-point lead over Sebastien Buemi heading into Paris in three weeks time.
Unofficial race results:
