Lucas di Grassi ends the race in dramatic fashion

Probably the most interesting tracks on the Formula E calendar, a surprise pole and a dramatic end fit the bill. By Jerrica Leong

This round the ePrix makes its way to Berlin to race in the iconic Templehof Airport and what a beautiful back drop it was for the race. While there were critics who complained that the Monaco track had been too narrow to see much overtaking accident for the wide Formula E cars, Templehof had given them pause. Not only did we see some awesome action but good use of the fanboost.

It was surprises all the way down the grid for qualifying, pole position went to Jarno Trulli with Lucas di Grassi following close behind in p2. Di Grassi’s biggest contenders for the title, Nelson Piquet Jr and Sebastian Buemi, both qualified further down the grid than expected.

When the lights went out and the field started racing, Jarno Trulli made a mistake at turn three allowing di Grassi to take advantage of his mistake. While Trulli had managed to keep Buemi in the e.dams Renault car behind him, di Grassi had started extending his lead to a good ten seconds ahead.

The master of energy saving Nelson Piquet Jr. and di Grassi’s biggest rival remained out on track one lap more than the rest of the field allowing him to return to the track higher than he had qualified earlier in the day. The Brazilian was later engaged in a battle with seven place man Antonio Felix da Costa in the Amlin Aguri, but da Costa was given a drive through penalty that promoted Piquet Jr. up a place.

The driver that made up the most places was second place man Jerome d’Ambrosio in the Venturi car. The Belgian found brilliant pace from his car, he first muscled his way pass team mate Nick Heldfeld who had a brilliant start and later breezed pass a slow moving Trulli that Buemi had found hard to overtake earlier in the race.

After the pitstops d’Ambrosio challenged Buemi for second and ultimately reduced the distance between him and race leader di Grassi to 7.5 seconds. But there was no hope catching up with di Grassi so the d’Ambrosio settled into second.

Sebastian Buemi could not find the same pace he had during the Monaco ePrix having first finding it hard to overtake the slow moving Trulli and then allowing d’Ambrosio to confiscate second place away from him. The Swiss driver was even finding it hard to keep his third place with Duval and Piquet Jr. gaining in on him.

Di Grassi ended the race in thorough fashion. Not only was he seven seconds clear of second place man but his car went into error milliseconds after he took the chequered flag. This was the second time that di Grassi stood on the top step of the podium but all went south when the FIA deemed di Grassi’s car has front wing fairings that were modified to include internal metal reinforcing rods. In addition the stewards found that six of the eight holes in the front wing had been sealed. The remaining two holes were found to have had helicoil inserts and chamfers made and that the front flap and gurney LH 220 has a filler layer added and chamfer made.

While the team argued that the changes were made due to repairs and they offered no competitive advantage they were deemed to have breach of the Formula E Technical Regulations. As a result, di Grassi was excluded from the final results and the first place trophy was handed to second place man Jerome d’Ambrosio.

While Sebastian Buemi remains the only driver who has won two races in Formula E history, Jerome d'Ambrosio takes home his maiden win. With no points scored at Berlin di Grassi is demoted to second in the championship with Nelson Piquet Jr taking the lead by ten points.