On the ‘dirty’ side of the
grid, di Grassi knew that keeping Buemi behind at the start would be a tough
ask, and knew he had to try to keep pace with the eventual winner as he fought
through the field. In his attempt to pass Duval he very nearly hit the wall and
instead lost a place to his Abt Schaeffler team-mate Daniel Abt. A small error
by Abt allowed di Grassi back through and he pushed hard to ensure he was as
close as possible to Bird and Duval when they all came in for their mandatory
car change.
A perfect pitstop meant he
leapfrogged into second place and closed right in on Buemi as a Full Course
Yellow was thrown after a Battery Management System error caused Bird’s car to
stop on track. Di Grassi gave everything to put Buemi under pressure, but
couldn’t get close enough to force a move or a mistake and settled for second.
Di Grassi said: “Today second
was the maximum we could achieve with Renault again showing they have the car
to beat. Also this result is thanks to my team who did a really good job in the
pitstop where I moved ahead of both Dragon cars. I managed to catch Buemi and
tried to manage the gap but he was too fast, they have been the quickest in the
first three races. He’s the man to win the championship but if he doesn’t do it
we’ll be here to do it.”
From his first-ever Formula E
pole, D’Ambrosio made a perfect start and comfortably led from Bird, who beat
Duval off the line to slot into second. A few tenths at a time, D’Ambrosio eked
out the lead, but as soon as Buemi made it into second his advantage was
decimated – Buemi lapping a full 1.5s faster than the Dragon Racing star in his
first lap in clean air.
An overly-cautious entry into
the pits gave di Grassi the chance to steal second place, and in the closing
stages D’Ambrosio was once again in a fraught battle with his team-mate Loic
Duval. D’Ambrosio held on for third, and with Duval fourth it was another
strong race for Jay Penske’s team.
D’Ambrosio said: “Getting both
Dragon cars in the top-five was a good achievement. Starting from pole you want
to win the race but realistically the other cars are faster. I just did my own
race. Loic and I had a close one here as in Beijing, I didn’t have much energy
left and was in a close fight. I was under pressure but managed to hold on.”
Just over six second covered
the top four, but there was a huge gap back to fifth place and Renault e.dams’s
Nico Prost. Sixth place went to Team Aguri’s Antonio Felix da Costa, easily the
lead season one tech runner and he felt it was genuinely the best result
possible in the circumstances.