Lucas di Grassi completed a convincing victory at the inaugural Mexico ePrix in the latest round of the Formula E world championship on Saturday.
The Brazilian driver, who races for the German-based ABT Schaeffler team, sealed his second win of the season at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit after taking the checkered flag at the Putrajaya ePrix in Malaysia last November.
Di Grassi crossed the line five seconds ahead of his nearest rival, Dragon Racing’s Jerome D’Ambrosio to snatch the overall lead in the drivers’ championship from Sebastien Buemi after the Renault e.Dams driver could only finish third.
Buemi and D’Ambrosio were engaged in a fierce battle for second place in the latter stages of the race.
At the start of lap 29 of the 43-lap race, Buemi plowed into the back of D’Ambrosio’s car, leading to both drivers exchanging heated words with their respective pit crews via team radio.
The pair were wheel-to-wheel again six laps later with Buemi managing to pass the Belgian racer, but only by illegally cutting the chicane at the end of the pit straight.
Fan Boost
Di Grassi had earlier made the most of his Fan Boost — a online poll where the most popular drivers are awarded a temporary speed boost — to overtake D’Ambrosio who had started on pole and led out of the pits after the mandatory change of cars midway through the race.
Once out in front, di Grassi didn’t let up and crossed the line for his third Formula E win overall and his 11th podium in 16 races during the past two seasons.
“It feels just awesome,” di Grassi said after taking the checkered flag. “Yeah, I’m very happy to have won the race.”
After trailing Buemi by four points heading into race, the 31-year-old will now head to round six of the 2015-16 world championship with a six point advantage over the Swiss — 101 points to 95 with Britain’s Sam Bird in third with 58 points.
The DS Virgin Racing driver couldn’t repeat the heroics of the previous round where he sealed a thrilling win in Buenos Aires. This time around he had to settle for seventh after starting in 11th place.
D’Ambrosio’s efforts sees him move up to fourth in the table, five points behind Bird.
Reigning world champion Nelson Piquet Jr. continued his lackluster title defense.
The former F1 driver who races for the China-based team NEXTEV TCR crashed during qualifying before he’d ben able to set a lap time. He was unhurt but started the race from the back of the grid and eventually finished four places higher in 14th.
Next up, the all-electric race series travels to Long Beach, California at the end of March before heading to Europe for the final five stages of the season.