Championship leader di Grassi unhappy with Vergne’s driving

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A tense race in Battersea Park on Saturday saw Lucas di Grassi finish fourth and extend his championship lead to three points going into tomorrow’s finale. However, the Brazilian was unhappy with the driving of Jean-Éric Vergne ahead.

ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport’s di Grassi and DS Virgin Racing’s Vergne came together when battling over P4 on lap 26, with di Grassi feeling his rival unnecessarily closed the door on him whilst he tried to make the pass. While Vergne – who went on to finish third – was nonplussed about the incident, di Grassi saw it very differently.

[pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”A smart racer, a good racer, knows how to overtake and how to get overtaken. Like Seb (Buemi) did with Bird. He might have fought him, but when Bird had the better position, even if it cost Seb a better position in the championship, he let him go.”[/pullquote]

“That just proves what an idiot he is. He is not fighting for the championship, he left a gap. In many other cases he closed the door, which was totally fair. At one point he left the door open, he just turned on me, there was nothing I could do as there was a wall on the inside and him on the outside. […] I would never do that to an opponent. He has nothing to lose. […] It almost happened that we lost ten points because of this situation.”

The incident saw di Grassi lose part of his front wing, however luckily for him the damaged piece fell off soon afterwards, preventing a black and orange flag as we saw multiple drivers receive in Berlin. Despite the damage, he was able to stay ahead of championship rival Sébastien Buemi and extend his championship lead from one to three points. The Brazilian revealed after the race that the wing damage wasn’t as bad as it looked.

“The wing was not missing. What was missing was a pylon and a flap. The biggest downforce generator is the main base, and the main base was there, it was rigid. […] The car had a slight loss of performance, but not massive.”

He also praised his rival Buemi’s driving standards after the race, in direct contrast to his strong views on Vergne’s driving.

“A smart racer, a good racer, knows how to overtake and how to get overtaken. Like Seb (Buemi) did with Bird. He might have fought him, but when Bird had the better position, even if it cost Seb a better position in the championship, he let him go.”

Looking ahead to tomorrow, di Grassi made clear that he and the team would keep doing what they have been doing so far this season, maximising performance and scoring as many points as possible.

“What we have to do, again, is very simple: we optimise the car, get the maximum out of the car, and try to get the most points as possible tomorrow. If Buemi’s behind, we fight very hard; if he’s 20 seconds in front, that’s it.

“What we had to show from my team, from my driving, this season, was already shown. […] We’re going to fight hard, we’re going to fight fair, we’re going to try to get this championship but either way, what happens tomorrow, should respect Seb and respect all the work we did.”

Laurence Thorn | e-racing.net
Interview by Topher Smith

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Images courtesy of Rajan Jangda

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