Exciting evening race in Berlin

The ABB FIA Formula E Championship held the 9th round of the 2017/18 at the unusual starting time 18.04.

So there were slightly different light conditions compared to the usual start time of 16.04.

Daniel Abt had taken Pole Position at his home track in Berlin, while Oliver Turvey started second ahead of Championship leader Jean-Eric Vergne. Jerome D’Ambrosio managed to sneak in ahead of Lucas Di Grassi and Felix Rosenqvist. Number two in the Championship, Sam Bird, was all the way back in P10, even two places behind his teammate Alex Lynn. Vergne already had a 31 points lead, so he could be quite relaxed about the race start.

It was unlikely for Andre Lotterer to be a factor in the race. He qualified in P18 and with his 10 grid penalty from Paris, it was converted to a 10-second penalty during his car change.

Edoardo Mortara was replaced by Tom Dillmann in the Venturi car due to his DTM commitment (which he by the way, won the Saturday race), while Luca Filippi surprisingly was back in the NIO car, after Ma Qing Hua failed to do well at Paris last time out.

Photo: ABB FIA Formula E Championship

Daniel Abt won the start ahead of Oliver Turvey, while Jerome D’Ambrosio made it in front of Jean-Eric Vergne. Felix Rosenqvist tried to make an overtaking around the outside, but he went too wide and slid off the track, dropping all the way back to 15th.

Jean-Eric Vergne made it back to third on the second lap. One lap later we saw Lucas Di Grassi passing D’Ambrosio too.

The downfall continued for D’Ambrosio, who also lost a spot to Sebastien Buemi.

Nick Heidfeld slowly made his way up the field, while Alex Lynn was dropping the other way. Lynn had some sort of technical issue with the car, when he dropped all the way to the back of the field.

FanBoost was handed out to Felix Rosenqvist, Daniel Abt and Sebastien Buemi.

Di Grassi had slowly made his way up to second place, so it was an Audi 1-2.

Maro Engel
Photo: ABB FIA Formula E Championship

Jean-Eric Vergne was using hard methods to get past Sebastien Buemi, but he did made it past with a bit of rubbin’.

Andre Lotterer had good speed in his car, and had made it into P14 – but that didn’t help much, since he had that 10-second penalty next to his name.

Turvey, D’Ambrosio, Lopez, Heidfeld, Rosenqvist and Sarrazin were the first drivers to do their car swap.

One lap later, the rest of the field pitted.

Abt, Di Grassi and Turvey were still the leading three cars, while Buemi sneaked past Vergne thanks to a faster stop.

Two thirds into the race, Sam Bird had made it into 7th position, but had a gap of 8 seconds for the next car.

Turvey was getting slower and slower, which made it possible for Buemi and Vergne to overtake him in one go. One lap later, Vergne managed to sneak past Buemi.

Daniel Abt
Photo: ABB FIA Formula E Championship

Nick Heidfeld lost two positions in Turn 1, when the door was open for Jose Maria Lopez and Tom Dillmann right after him.

Tom Dillmann lost two positions in the same turn to Jose Maria Lopez and Nelson Piquet Jr, and continued the fall when Nick Heidfeld and Felix Rosenqvist got him only one corner later.

Nelson Piquet Jr tried to overtake Jose Maria Lopez, but both drivers ended up outbraking each other, and losing several positions.

Daniel Abt won the race ahead of Lucas Di Grassi and Jean-Eric Vergne.

Jean-Eric Vergne still leads the Drivers Championship ahead of Sam Bird, while Felix Rosenqvist barely keeps the third position ahead of Daniel Abt, Sebastien Buemi and Lucas Di Grassi, who all are within a few points of each other.

Techeetah still leads the Teams Championship, while Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler has jumped ahead of DS Virgin Racing, with Mahindra Racing still in fourth.

The next round of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship will be run in Zürich in Switzerland on 10 June.

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