Fiesta Mexicana: matador di Grassi wrestles everybody down

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Fiesta mexicana: For the first time ever, Formula E took on the streets of Mexico City. Following an eventful and dramatic race on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Lucas di Grassi came out on top of the field therefore taking the championship lead.

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After an eventful practice session, Jerome d’Ambrosio who went into the superpole shoot-out as the clear underdog took the pole-position in Mexico City. Renault e.Dams driver Nicolas Prost completely the first row on the starting grid while the Abt Schaeffler Audi Sport duo Lucas di Grassi and Daniel Abt secured positions three and four. Championship leader Sebastien Buemi qualified fifth following a mistake on his all-deciding lap in qualifying. Unlike expected, all 18 drivers went through the start without any major contact. D’Ambrosio stayed ahead of Prost while di Grassi was under pressure from team mate Abt and the two team mates made slight contact going into the first chicane.

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Behind the leading quintet, Mike Conway (Venturi), Antonio Felix da Costa (Team Agui) – who finished qualifying as seventh but received a ten place grid penalty due to a gearbox change – and Bruno Senna (Mahindra Racing) got a taste of the extremely tight nature of the Herman Rodríguez track in Mexico City as they piled up and made contact with each other in the process. Fortunately, all drivers could continue as their cars were only slightly damaged. In the lead, d’Ambrosio could catch a breath as di Grassi was right up the rear of Prost’s car therefore forcing the Frenchman to abandon his chase for the lead for the moment.

Behind the battling duo, Abt suffered from a big lock-up going into the last chicane. While the German stayed ahead of Buemi at first, the championship leader was able to pass the Abt Schaeffler Audi driver on the start-finish straight. Further down the field, Jean-Eric Vergne (DS Virgin Racing) dropped from P6 to 16th due to technical issues. The DS Virgin Racing was not the only driver with problems as da Costa run into even more trouble, first receiving a ten second pit stop penalty and later on being shown the black flag with orange disc as he needed to repair his front wing.

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The race for the lead got more intense by the second, as di Grassi was putting a lot of pressure on Prost which forced him into a mistake when trying to pass the French driver. Behind the Brazilian, Buemi was also giving it his all but just like his biggest rival in the championship the Swiss driver wanted too much. Just like Abt earlier, Buemi lost his car going into the last chicane but his mistake cost him valuable time.

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On lap 22, di Grassi went for another bold move against Prost and this time the Brazilian managed to squeeze past the French Renault e.Dams driver thus securing P2. Nick Heidfeld, following a solid performance in the first half of the ePrix, introduced the pit stops to the race on the same lap. Apart from the two NEXTEV drivers Oliver Turvey and Nelson Piquet Jr all the other drivers followed Heidfeld one lap later. Di Grassi managed to keep his second place leaving the pits and he put himself into a fruitful position to attack race leader d’Ambrosio which he did only mere seconds later. With another brave move, di Grassi passed the Belgian and took over the lead.

Right beind the two, Buemi wanted to get passed d’Ambrosio as well and the battle between the two gave di Grassi the possibility to pull away, gaining an important advantage. Meanwhile the battle between d’Ambrosio and Buemi heated up as Buemi once again wanted too much and crashed into the right rear of the Dragon Racing car damaging his own front wing.

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Buemi was not the only driver being a bit too hot-headed as Sam Bird (DS Virgin Racing) also run into trouble trying to overtake Heidfeld. The Buenos Aires ePrix winner went passed the German but went into the corner with too much speed, therefore losing the position again. All eyes were on d’Ambrosio and Buemi nevertheless, as the two of them continued their war-like battle for P2. Things soon got ugly when Buemi overtook the Belgium cutting the chicane.

Following that incident, Prost also tried to overtake the Dragon Racing driver but couldn’t quite get passed him. Buemi – scared to get a penalty later on – tried to give d’Ambrosio his position back due to some miscommunication, the entire field piled up behind Prost as d’Ambrosio didn’t have the pace to catch the Frenchman again. Eventually d’Ambrosio took his position back while Buemi took back P3. His team mate Prost meanwhile received a drive through penalty due to an unsafe release.

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The final three laps of the race were relatively quiet as most drivers stayed in their respective positions. Yet Abt got amorous with the wall in the second chicane, their dropping from P4 to P8 and losing some valuable points for the championship. Lucas di Grassi crossed the finish line with a huge lead on d’Ambrosio and Buemi. The top ten was completed by Loic Duval (Dragon Racing), Prost, Robin Frinjs (Amlin Andretti), Bird, Abt, Heidfeld and Stephane Sarrazin (Venturi).

With this eventful and dramatic race, the Formula E fans surely embosomed Mexico City as a hosting city right away. The undoubtedly most exiting racing series will be back on April 2, 2016 when the drivers will take on the streets of Long Beach in the United States.

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Jerome d’Ambrosio was in the lead for the first half of the race, until Lucas di Grassi took the lead on lap 24. Oliver Turvey went into the pits a lap after all of the other drivers, therefore leading lap 23.

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Lucas di Grassi received 25 points for the victory. Jerome d’Ambrosio collected 18 points for P2 and the additional five points for both the pole-position and the fastest lap of the race. 15 points were given to Sebastien Buemi for securing P3.

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After not scoring any points during the Buenos Aires ePrix and only scoring two points for setting the fastest lap, d’Ambrosio gained 21 points in comparison. From third in Buenos Aires to first in Mexico City means Lucas di Grassi comes in second in this statistic, as he gained ten points in comparison. Loic Duval, Robin Frijns and Daniel Abt all scored four points more in Mexico City compared to Buenos Aires, therefore sharing P3 here.

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Amlin Andretti rookie Robin Frijns won seven positions during the race – the most seen today. Bruno Senna went from P17 to P11, therefore gaining six positions. Four drivers won four positions during the Mexico City ePrix: Loic Duval, Sam Bird, Oliver Turvey and Nelson Piquet Jr.

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Following technical issues, Jean-Eric Vergne lost 11 positions during the race. Daniel Abt first kept his strong forth position but later on lost a place against Sebastien Buemi and lost additional time when crashing into the wall in the second chicane just a few laps before the race finish. Both Simona de Silvestro and Nicolas Prost lost three places.

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The fastest lap was set by Jerome d’Ambrosio with an impressive 1.04.532.

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Based on their free practice 1 performance and their quickest qualifying lap, Simona de Silvestro, Jerome d’Ambrosio and Jean-Eric Vergne showed the biggest performance improvement throughout the day. De Silvestro gained 1.695 seconds in comparison, while d’Ambrosio was 1.552 seconds quicker in qualifying. Vergne improved his performance by 1.413 seconds.

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Image courtesy of FIA Formula E Media

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