On the road to London: Lucas di Grassi
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It has come down to two: Lucas di Grassi vs Sébastien Buemi for the second FIA Formula E Drivers’ Championship. After missing out on last season’s championship, in part due to an exclusion in Berlin after a win on track, di Grassi is looking to make amends this season.
While not always being the quickest qualifier or over a single lap, di Grassi has always been on the podium this season, an unbelievable piece of consistency that shows his true quality as a driver. Unfortunately, as with Berlin last season, he was also excluded from a race win this season, in Mexico City. However unlike last season, he has had enough time to recover from that disappointment, and comes into London leading the championship by a single point.
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In the first ever Super Pole session in Formula E, di Grassi made a few driving errors which put him 4th on the grid. Lap two of the race, however, saw him pass Nicolas Prost – in the much faster Renault e.Dams – and get into the podium positions. After some close battling, di Grassi entered the pits at the same time as the majority of front runners, coming out ahead of Nick Heidfeld and up into second place. Try as he might, di Grassi could not keep pace with Sebastien Buemi in the leading e.Dams car, so settled for a comfortable second place ahead of Heidfeld.
Coming into the Putrajaya ePrix, the signs all pointed to another Renault e.Dams victory: both Renault-powered cars qualified in the top five, with Beijing winner Buemi on pole again. But Lucas di Grassi had other ideas – taking full advantage of reliability issues and accidents suffered by other drivers, and with two impressive overtaking moves, the Brazilian was able to clinch his second victory in Formula E and take the lead in the championship. Already in qualifying, di Grassi showed his pace: purple first and second sectors were followed by a brush with the wall that kept him out of the Super Pole session, but indicated the raw pace that he had. And with passes on both Antonio Felix da Costa and Nicolas Prost during the race, coupled with technical issues for Sebastien Buemi, di Grassi was able to take a well deserved win.
The Brazilian scored a third successive podium in Punta del Este, getting the maximum out of his car to finish in P2 behind drivers’ championship leader Sebastien Buemi. This put him only one point behind the Swiss driver in the standings. He was helped by slick work in the pits, as the Kempten-based squad got him out of the pits ahead of both Dragon Racing cars of Loic Duval and Jerome d’Ambrosio, allowing him to rise from fourth to second in the crucial car swap phase.
Sebastien Buemi’s spin in qualifying left the door wide open for di Grassi to take his first pole of the season in Argentina, but the Brazilian failed to qualify inside the top five to challenge in the Super Pole round.
Still, Di Grassi put the bad session behind him. The Brazilian was able to storm through the pack and challenge for the win in his “home” race. Unfortunately for him, the ABT car didn’t have enough energy when he really needed it, though. The safety car allowed Buemi to catch up and the championship leader made to overtake ci Grassi. Di Grassi had won the FanBoost earlier in the race, but there wasn’t enough energy in the car to use it, and Buemi passed him, relegating him to the third step of the podium.
Mexico City saw di Grassi start P3, and spent the early stages chasing Nicolas Prost while also trying to conserve battery. He got past Prost on lap 22, and made things even better when he passed race leader d’Ambrosio just after the car swap phase. He went on to take a dominant win; but this was stripped from him by the stewards post-race after a technical infringement on his car. This meant he left Mexico City empty handed, and Buemi gained a big advantage in the title race.
After the disappointment of Mexico City, di Grassi bounced back perfectly in Long Beach: he started P2, with title rival Buemi not even making Super Pole, then pressured Sam Bird into a mistake which allowed him to take a lead he wouldn’t relinquish. He then went on to take a dominant win, while Buemi made an error and could only take two points for fastest lap. The championship lead swung back the Brazilian’s way.
History was made in Paris: on the first ever ePrix in the French capital, di Grassi became the first man in series history to take two wins in a row. Pivotal to his success in Paris was his qualifying, where he split the DS Virgin Racing cars and put his car in P2. This was his second consecutive front row start and allowed him to leapfrog Sam Bird into the lead off the start. From there he drove a classic di Grassi race – consistent and smart. A strong pit stop by his team (only d’Ambrosio and team-mate Abt had quicker stops) enabled him to maintain the lead right until the end.
Qualifying in Berlin was disappointing for di Grassi, only managing P10 while Buemi was 2nd on the grid. However he got fortunate with a few grid penalties ahead, allowing him to start 8th. What followed was a classy drive, including a stunning and smart pass on Nicolas Prost, that saw di Grassi took 3rd. He spent the closing stages behind team-mate Daniel Abt and, despite the ABT squad urging di Grassi’s team-mate to let the Brazilian by, di Grassi did not make the move and stayed third. This cut his title lead to just one point, as Buemi took victory.
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It really is unbelievable consistency that has enabled di Grassi to hold the championship lead: the Schaeffler powertrain has a speed disadvantage to the Renault that Buemi drives, although this has become less pronounced during the season, while di Grassi himself is not the quickest driver over a single lap. He has never taken a pole in Formula E, and generally relies on making up positions in the race as opposed to qualifying at the front.
The races in London last year showed that overtaking is difficult on such a narrow circuit, so qualifying really will be more crucial than ever. Can di Grassi qualify well enough to score two more podium results and, more importantly, finish ahead of Buemi in at least one of the races? It promises to be a classic encounter, as the fast qualifier Buemi goes up against Mr Consistency himself, Lucas di Grassi. Only one can prevail. Time will tell who that is.
Laurence Thorn | e-racing.net
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Images courtesy of Rajan Jangda
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