A look back at the Mexico ePrix: Di Grassi’s bluff pays off!

The 2016-2017 season had its palace revolution! Until then undefeated, Sébastien Buemi fell hard in Mexico.

Beyond a chaotic ePrix finished in 14th position, the Renault e.Dams driver sees his main championship rival coming back. Lucas di Grassi himself made the right move in this round. Thanks to a risky strategy and economical driving, the Brazilian, despite starting 15th, secured one of his finest victories!

We saw what Formula E represents: you must never give up, no matter how hopeless the situation seems! admitted the Abt Schaeffler driver, overjoyed. With this victory, combined with Buemi’s meager total (leaving with the point for the fastest lap), the Paulista is now just five points behind the championship leader!

The grip reshuffles the deck during the Qualifications

The Mexican Saturday had already begun on surprising terms. The fervent Mexican spectators witnessed an unprecedented qualifying session, dominated on the track by Daniel Abt. The German driver took the best over his four fellow competitors in the super Pole. Among them, Jean-Eric Vergne once again made it into the top 5. But the Techeetah driver, struggling with grip issues, couldn’t set a benchmark time. Successively, Mario Engel, José Maria Lopez, Daniel Abt, and Oliver Turvey placed ahead of the French driver. In the order of the standings, Abt set a time of 1:02:711, enough to stay ahead of the Nextev driver, the last competitor on track.

However, the happiness of di Grassi’s teammate was short-lived: penalized for illegal tire pressure, the German was relegated to the back of the grid! The pole position therefore went to Turvey for the first time, who was celebrating his 30th birthday on the same day.

Alongside him on the front line, José Maria Lopez regained the place initially awarded to the surprising Mario Engel. However, the Venturi driver was also demoted on the grid due to a gearbox change. This setback also benefited Vergne, who moved up to third place, as well as Heidfeld and Bird, who took fourth and fifth positions, respectively. Despite being disadvantaged by being the first driver of Group 1, Sébastien Buemi still climbed to seventh place thanks to the various penalties. Unhappy with the qualifying format, the Swiss complained about the lack of grip after playing the role of opener, similar to WRC drivers.

A little further down the grid, observers were noting Esteban Gutiérrez’s ninth place in his very first qualifying session in an electric single-seater. In the second part of the standings, Nico Prost was 13th, two places ahead of Lucas di Grassi, another driver caught out by this dusty track.

The Dragon Racing drivers shared the last row, with Jérôme d’Ambrosio and Loic Duval, the latter having kissed the TecPro wall at the first turn during his flying lap.

Lucas di Grassi, winner of the impossible

Held in the French night (midnight), in the middle of the afternoon in Mexico (4 p.m. local time), this fourth event of the season was highly spectacular right from the start. A jumble in the chicane of the fourth turn was caused by Stéphane Sarrazin. The Venturi driver completely missed his braking and collided with Lucas di Grassi. Nico Prost was also an indirect actor in the misunderstanding. The three mentioned competitors went back to the pits to repair their cars and restarted from the back of the field.

In the incident, the safety car was deployed to remove debris left on the track. Oliver Turvey had maintained the lead, while Jean-Eric Vergne was overtaken by Nick Heidfeld. Sébastien Buemi gained a place by passing Rosenqvist. Meanwhile, the newcomer Esteban Gutiérrez fell to the back of the pack.

A few corners later, astonishment! The lead changed hands. The NEXTEV in front gave a nasty surprise to its driver on the 13th lap. Completely stopped on the straight, Turvey fully relinquished his hopes by pulling over at the end of the pit straight. Leadership was taken by José Maria Lopez, and the race was neutralized again to clear the Chinese single-seater.

Big surprise, Lucas di Grassi took advantage of the moment to change cars! With 27 laps remaining out of 45, the 2016 vice-champion was clearly taking a big risk. The same operation for Jérôme d’Ambrosio, who was hit by Loic Duval, his own teammate, just before the neutralization.

The Argentine led the pack on the second restart. An ideal situation for the DS driver, who escaped while his closest pursuer was struggling. Nick Heidfeld was indeed resisting Vergne, but also Bird and Buemi, in fifth place halfway through the race. The range of strategies had widened with the neutralizations. Lopez, Heidfeld, Bird, and Buemi pitted at the same time, one lap later than Jean-Eric Vergne. A good move for the Parisian, who jumped ahead of Heidfeld.

Holders of a bold strategy, di Grassi and d’Ambrosio moved to the front. But yet another stoppage on the track heightened the tension. Loic Duval’s Dragon was broken down, and the safety car once again gathered the cars. Having dropped to tenth after a failed pit stop, Buemi did not mince his words on the radio.

Well placed behind the duo, Lopez and Vergne could smell victory. As soon as the green flag waved, the Techeetah driver showed his teeth and pulled alongside his former car. A regular in door-to-door duels in the WTCC, “Pechito” put up strong resistance, not hesitating to cut the track limits. Slowed by the Dragon in front of him and pressured from behind, the Argentine cracked on the 35th lap, making a mistake in the first braking zone. A few tenths of a second later, Buemi also found himself in trouble, narrowly avoiding the DS Virgin! The image of the two cars drifting will certainly remain a highlight of this Mexican weekend. And in terms of points, it was a disaster for Buemi, who fell to 16th place, far from scoring. The championship leader lost all hope of points from this mishap.

Especially since di Grassi’s crazy gamble was paying off. By saving his battery as much as possible during deceleration phases, the former Audi Endurance driver positioned his car well in the final laps. Like last year, d’Ambrosio stood out in second place, defending his position. Too much for “JEV’s” taste, who did not hesitate to criticize the Dragon Racing driver’s attitude: « What he did is totally unacceptable, he hit me several times and forced me off the track. I even wonder if he has a brain! »

Threatened by Bird’s DS, Vergne finally managed to break the Belgian bottleneck on the 43rd lap.

But it was too late to turn back! In a remake of the fable of the tortoise and the hare, it was indeed Lucas di Grassi who reached the end of his wild endeavor! To top it all off, he was protected by a yellow flag on the very last lap, following a spectacular crash in the stadium section, initiated by a collision between Nico Prost and Nick Heidfeld.

Opportunist, di Grassi thus hit the jackpot with this victory in Mexico, his first of the season, the fifth of his career! Certainly the most unexpected of all, as evidenced by the driver’s enthusiasm during his first post-race words: « The laps after my pit stop were certainly the best of my career: I managed my energy while avoiding mistakes. My thanks go to the team, who took a risk with this daring strategy! »

Next to him on the podium, Vergne took another second place, ahead of Sam Bird, who returned to the podium after his strong performance in Marrakech. Jérôme d’Ambrosio, meanwhile, came to a stop after exhausting his battery. This misfortune notably benefited the Jaguar team and Esteban Gutiérrez, who scored his first point! A great way to thank the 40,000 fans gathered around the Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez throughout the day.

Mexico ePrix Standings

1. L. di Grassi (ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport)

2. J-E. Vergne (Techeetah): +1.966

3. S. Bird (DS Virgin Racing): +5.480

4. Mr. Evans (Panasonic Jaguar Racing): +9.370

5. N. Prost (Renault e.Dams): +9.956

6. J-M. Lopez (DS Virgin Racing): +10.631

7. D. Abt (ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport): +11.694

8. A. Carroll (Panasonic Jaguar Racing): +13.722

9. N. Piquet Jr (Nextev Nio): +14.156

10. E. Gutiérrez (Techeetah): +15.317

11. R. Frijns (Andretti): +21.459

12. N. Heidfeld (Mahindra): +27.232

13. J. d’Ambrosio (Faraday Future Dragon Racing): +32.646

14. S. Buemi (Renault e.Dams): +1:01.365 (Fastest lap)

15. S. Sarrazin (Venturi): +1 Lap

16. F. Rosenqvist (Mahindra): +2 Laps

Abandons:

17. Mr. Engel (Venturi)

18. A-F. da Costa (Andretti)

19. L. Duval (Faraday Future Dragon Racing)

20. O. Turvey (Nextev Nio)

Overall drivers’ standings

Overall Constructors’ Standings

After competing in Asia, Africa, and then America, Formula E is now returning to Europe. The event is scheduled for mid-May with two races over two weekends.

On Saturday, May 13, the fifth ePrix of the season will take place on the streets of Monaco. Following that, on Saturday, May 20, we’ll be in Paris for an exceptional race held around Les Invalides!