At the time of writing, Lucas Di Grassi had been excluded from the FIA Formula E Mexico ePrix, after the ABT Schaeffler FE01 used in the first half of the race, was found to be .1.8kg underweight.
This handed the race victory to Jerome D'Ambrosio and promoted Sebastian Buemi and Loic Duval into second and third respectively. Di Grassi loses the championship lead he had accrued, and with Sebastian Buemi promoted to second, the Renault e.dams leader is now
22 points clear of Di Grassi in the championship race.
Penalties notwithstanding, Di Grassi duly earned his nickname of 'The Professor', after a race of smart energy management saw him take victory, and the lead in the driver’s championship, in Mexico City's inaugural ePrix. Starting from third, the Brazilian waited until the pack were beginning to pit, to speed past Nico Prost into second place. After switching to his second car, Di Grassi made a move on pole-sitter Jerome D'Ambrosio, combing Fanboost with a brave late-braking lunge, to make the overtake stick, ultimately finishing the race five seconds clear of D'Ambrosio and Sebastian Buemi.
As the lights turned green in Mexico, pole-sitter D'Ambrosio maintained the lead. The first corner chaos that many predicted, did not emerge, ironically, as the chicane was opened by the removal of the TECPRO, after Piquet's crash in qualifying.
In the lower half of the grid, cars ran
three wide, with minor contact between Conway, Da Costa, and Senna, but strong driving from all kept proceedings from an early yellow flag. Di Grassi looked racy from the outset, pushing hard and missing a chicane twice in his attempt to put pressure on second place Nico Prost.
Behind the fighting ABT Schaeffler and Renault e.dams duo, first blood went to Sebastian Buemi, who capitalised on a lock up from Daniel Abt in the last chicane, to pass him into fourth place on the start-finish straight. After Buemi's overtake, the first stint saw the top five drivers concertina, running within two seconds of one another with little change to the order, the Mexico track proving itself as a tricky place to execute a pass.
A cunning use of energy management saw the pivotal moment for Di Grassi's winning strategy. The Mahindra team of Heidfeld and Senna introduced the pit stops, attempting an undercut by pitting a lap earlier than the rest of the pack, while NEXTEV ran their well-tested strategy, leaving Piquet and Turvey out for an extra lap as the rest of the cars began to file in. Diving down the inside of Prost just moments before the pack pitted, saw Di Grassi move into P2. While the Renault e.dams teammates switched positions, promoting Buemi into third, Di Grassi retained his second place, lining himself up to attack race leader D'Ambrosio. Using the Fanboost granted to him in the second car, Di Grassi pounced immediately, speeding down the straight and passing D'Ambrosio in a nail-biting move into T1.
By Laura Prior