di Grassi disqualified in Berlin after flawless performance

Although Germany was excluded from the F1 calendar this season, it hosted its first ever Formula E race in the Tempelhof airport, with exciting controversy to give us something to write about.

Lucas di Grassi, who arrived at Berlin as the points leader, and Sebastien Buemi topped the practice sessions but the pole position would fall to the most experienced GP driver in the race, Jarno Trulli, followed by di Grassi and Buemi on the grid.

However, di Grassi very quickly slipped past Trulli in the opening lap, at Turn 3, and gained a near two-second lead by the end of it; by the end of the second lap, he was over four seconds ahead of the field.

Trulli depleted his batteries trying to regain the lead, and kept falling further down the grid after Buemi used his FanBoost to take over second position. Jerome D’Ambrosio, who was in third before the pit stop, emerged ahead of Buemi and narrowed the gap with di Grassi, but was never really close enough to be a threat.

Di Grassi's car started acting up towards the end, but it held on until the finish line. The victory lap was taken, with the aid of a tow rope, to a cheering home crowd for his team, Audi Sport Abt.

Ah, but it doesn’t end there. di Grassi would have been able to extend his lead with this win, but officials discovered the “illegally modified” front wing of his car post-race. The team said that the so-called modifications were repairs and did not provide a competitive advantage, but officials disqualified di Grassi anyway. So, d’Ambrosio was given the race win instead, Buemi raised to second and Lovic Duval, who must have been pleasantly surprised, was brought into third. 

As a result, di Grassi fell to third place in the drivers standings with 93 points, while Nelson Piquet, Jr (who finished fourth) is now in the lead with 103 points and Buemi comes after with 101 points.