ABT CLAIMS HOME WIN AS AUDI DOMINATES
Formula E championship leader JeanEric Vergne reckoned the Audi squad was “in a different league” at the Berlin Tempelhof Airport track, and it’s hard to argue against that assessment.
Daniel Abt swept to his second FE pole – aided by the abrasive nature of the circuit’s airport apron concrete-andasphalt surface meaning his rival’s tyres were still hot going into the superpole session, while his had cooled enough to retain life for the whole of his flying lap.
He led away from pole and kept the lead for each of the race’s 45 laps, easily beating his fellow front-row starter Oliver Turvey off the line. In the pack behind, Jerome D’ambrosio (who ultimately tumbled to 19th with energy management issues and a second car regeneration problem) seized third with a bold move around the outside of the near circular Turns 1-2 complex, while Felix Rosenqvist had an even wilder move go wrong when he slid off on tyre marbles and only just avoided spinning into the barriers.
Abt built a healthy gap, while his teammate Lucas di Grassi easily moved his way up to second place from fifth on the grid. The pitstops caused Abt’s only problem as he was momentarily held by Sebastien Buemi entering the adjacent pits, which therefore wiped out his lead.
But Abt easily saw off his team-mate’s challenge, which faded due to a vibration problem that Audi is yet to fully diagnose, to win by 6.758-seconds. Vergne completed the podium after a scrap with Buemi, who ended up fourth ahead of Turvey, the NIO driver falling away in the race’s second half.
Mitch Evans took sixth for Jaguar ahead of Sam Bird, with the Virgin Racing driver’s points gap to Vergne now up to 40. Rosenqvist recovered to 11th by the flag, but his title challenge is now all but over.