Review of the Zurich ePrix: Di Grassi, King of the Swiss

During the first free practice session, a misunderstanding between Sam Bird and José Maria Lopez on the start/finish straight resulted in a spin for the Brit, damaging his rear suspension. Then, during the second session, Sébastien Buemi oversteered in the fourth corner, which led to the rear of his car hitting a wall and causing extensive damage. Finally, his teammate Nicolas Prost was hit in the rear of his car by André Lotterer, which caused a collapse of his wing.

Mitch Evans surprises everyone

It was under ideal weather conditions that this qualifying session began. In the first group, we had the top five drivers in the standings: Jean-Éric Vergne, Sam Bird, Felix Rosenqvist, Daniel Abt, and Sébastien Buemi. Ultimately, it was Sam Bird who proved to be the fastest in the group, ahead of Sébastien Buemi by less than a tenth. They were followed by Daniel Abt, Felix Rosenqvist, and finally Jean-Éric Vergne. This last position wasn’t really an issue for the Frenchman in view of a possible title conquest as early as this weekend.

Just behind, it was now the turn of the second group composed of Lucas Di Grassi, Mitch Evans, Nelson Piquet, Oliver Turvey, and André Lotterer to hit the track. Among the five present drivers, the fastest were Mitch Evans and André Lotterer, who positioned themselves ahead of Sam Bird in the provisional standings.

Next up was the third group with Edoardo Mortara, Maro Engel, Nick Heidfeld, Alex Lynn, and António Félix da Costa. This round of times did not yield conclusive results, with the best time being a ninth place for Alex Lynn.

Finally, the last group with José María López, Jérôme d’Ambrosio, Nicolas Prost, Luca Filippi, and Stéphane Sarrazin took to the track to conclude the fast laps. Surprisingly, the two Dragon cars of Jérôme d’Ambrosio and José Maria Lopez secured a place in the super pole by setting the second and third fastest provisional times, respectively.

To determine the top five positions on the grid, each of the top five drivers from the groups (Mitch Evans, Jérôme d’Ambrosio, José Maria Lopez, André Lotterer, and Sam Bird) competed in a timed lap each. After each completed their fast lap in turn, Mitch Evans retained his pole position ahead of André Lotterer, Sam Bird, Jérôme d’Ambrosio, and José Maria Lopez. Evans thus secured the first pole position for Jaguar in the discipline.

Let us recall that José Maria Lopez received a three-place grid penalty for not respecting the yellow flags during the first free practice session.

Here is the complete composition of the grid:

#ABBFormulaE Results SuperPole for the @FIAFormulaE @Zurich_ePrix ! (and provisional grid) #MsportXtra @eracing_net pic.twitter.com/3kVsTrB2CF

— #MsportXtra (@MsportExtra) 10 juin 2018

First for Di Grassi this season

It was on a very paradoxical Zurich circuit, with a very narrow first sector and two long straights to finish the lap, that this first Swiss ePrix began. At the start, Mitch Evans maintained his pole position advantage while behind him, Jérôme d’Ambrosio and Luca Di Grassi made slight contact, allowing the Belgian to take fourth position. After a few hundred meters, Nelson Piquet hit Daniel Abt from behind, causing the Brazilian to lose part of his wing and the German’s rear aerodynamic appendage to fall off. Mitch Evans, still leading at the end of the first lap, quickly increased his lead at the front.

This is what happened between @Daniel_Abt and @NelsonPiquet #ZurichEPrix pic.twitter.com/WNS1xxFuD3

— ABB Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) 10 juin 2018

At the start of the second lap, Jérôme d’Ambrosio was successively overtaken by Lucas Di Grassi and then by Sébastien Buemi. At the back of the pack, Jean-Éric Vergne had gained only one position since the start (sixteenth). Logically, on the fifth lap, race control ordered Nelson Piquet and Daniel Abt to return to the pits for repairs on their cars. A little later, André Lotterer closed to within less than a second of Mitch Evans without detaching himself, however, from Sam Bird and Lucas Di Grassi. In the eighth lap, one of the locals, Edoardo Mortara, came to a stop in a runoff area after damaging one of his rear suspensions by hitting a wall.

And this is how @edomortara‘s race came to an end… #ZurichEPrix pic.twitter.com/OtWPnr3SGc

— ABB Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) 10 juin 2018

After 10 laps, Jean-Éric Vergne had already climbed back into the points zone in tenth place, notably overtaking Alex Lynn and Nick Heidfeld in the previous laps. The Frenchman was clearly on the attack during this phase of the race. The rest of the top 10, however, remained unchanged and fixed (Evans, Lotterer, Sam Bird, Di Grassi, Buemi, d’Ambrosio, Lopez, Prost, Rosenqvist, and finally Vergne). At this point in the event, Jean-Éric Vergne’s teammate continued to keep the tricolor’s championship runner-up behind him in third position. On the thirteenth lap, Lucas Di Grassi overtook Virgin’s driver Bird to claim the last step of the provisional podium.

.@sambirdracing loses a valuable place in the fight for the championship, as @LucasdiGrassi takes third from him #ZurichEPrix pic.twitter.com/JCe8ESFm4E

— ABB Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) 10 juin 2018

The next lap, the Audi driver was pressing on Lotterer while behind, Lopez managed to overtake his Dragon teammate d’Ambrosio for sixth place. This battle for second position allowed the following three drivers to get closer. Two laps later, Lucas Di Grassi found an opening on the Techeetah driver just before the tramway section. Dramatic turns in the race, as Vergne, who continued his comeback after overtaking Nicolas Prost, sent Rosenqvist into the wall while attempting to pass him. It seemed that the Swede tried to defend at all costs. This immediately led to a yellow flag in the accident zone. On the seventeenth lap, there was a change of leader after an authoritative overtaking by Di Grassi on Evans. The South American was particularly lively at this moment of the ePrix.

.@FRosenqvist goes into the wall at turn one #ZurichEPrix pic.twitter.com/8JoJoR4ZUJ

— ABB Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) 10 juin 2018

As the 20th lap approached, home driver Sébastien Buemi took the fourth position from a struggling Sam Bird. At the same time, Vergne gained an additional position at the expense of Jérôme d’Ambrosio to climb to seventh place. Immediately after, the race was neutralized to clear Rosenqvist’s front wing that was in the middle of the track. It should be noted that Vergne had been forced to drive over the obstacle a few meters earlier without any apparent damage.

This logically prompted all the drivers to enter the pit to change their cars. This also allowed the leading drivers (Di Grassi, Evans, Lotterer, Buemi, Bird, and Lopez) to maintain their respective positions. However, Jean-Éric Vergne lost two positions in the pits due to a car struggling to restart, to the benefit of Jérôme d’Ambrosio and Nicolas Prost. He therefore emerged in ninth place. This naturally caused a feeling of frustration for the Parisian.

The race was restarted under a green flag one lap later to allow the drivers to resume their racing pace. At the restart, Lucas Di Grassi quickly gained a four-second lead over his closest pursuer Mitch Evans. At the back of the pack, Luca Filippi lost a lot of time having to turn around to get back on track. On the twenty-fourth lap, the championship leader managed to pass Prost to move up to eighth position, just three positions behind Bird. With 10 laps to go, the positions began to stabilize. Several drivers were then under investigation for speeding under neutralization, which could disrupt the standings.

One lap later, as André Lotterer took second position from pole-sitter Mitch Evans, the race control indicated that Mitch Evans, Jean-Éric Vergne, José Maria Lopez, Sébastien Buemi, and André Lotterer were required to make a pit stop to penalize excessive speed under neutralization. This condemned the five concerned drivers to fall in the standings, allowing Sam Bird to move up to second place, as well as Jérôme d’Ambrosio and Nicolas Prost to climb to an unexpected third and fourth place. This was a real setback, especially for the championship leader.

This significant upheaval might be the last of the race. A lap later, Mitch Evans and André Lotterer served the penalty while the other three stayed on track. Two other penalized drivers pit a lap later except Vergne who remained on track. Meanwhile, Nicolas Prost wasted a chance for a good result by going straight after locking his wheels. A few laps from the finish, the standings were as follows: Lucas Di Grassi, Sam Bird, Jérôme d’Ambrosio, André Lotterer, Mitch Evans, Sébastien Buemi, Nick Heidfeld, José Maria Lopez, Antonio Félix Da Costa, and finally Oliver Turvey for the drivers scoring points.

In the final laps, Jean-Éric Vergne attempted to regain a position in the points by overtaking Maro Engel, while Sébastien Buemi did the same on Mitch Evans for fifth place thanks to the use of his fan boost. Unfortunately for José Maria Lopez in eighth position, a similar lock-up to Nicolas Prost’s caused him to go straight on and thus exit the points zone. This simultaneously allowed Vergne to seize tenth place, securing a point.

Donuts for Di Grassi! #ZurichEPrix @LucasdiGrassi pic.twitter.com/DsohWUu7t7

— ABB Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) 10 juin 2018

So it was on Lucas Di Grassi’s first victory of the season that this eventful race concluded. The best operation of the day was surely creditable to Sam Bird with a fine second place, allowing him to keep championship hopes alive. The unfortunate of the day turned out to be Jean-Éric Vergne, who scored only one point due to a poor pit stop and a penalty for speeding. However, this still allowed the Techeetah driver to maintain a 23-point lead over his closest competitor.

Here is the complete ranking of the race:

#ABBFormulaE Results of the @Zurich_ePrix #MsportXtra #ZurichEPrix @FIAFormulaE @eracing_net pic.twitter.com/KOOQ756bbX

— #MsportXtra (@MsportExtra) 10 juin 2018

The result of this race allowed the gap at the top to be reduced and Lucas Di Grassi to take third place in the championship.

As for the teams, there are no changes to report in the standings:

This concludes the summary of the Zurich ePrix. Motors Inside now invites you to join us on the weekend of July 13th for the finale of this championship with the double-header in New York.