Lucas di Grassi became the first ever Formula E winner after race leaders Nicolas Prost and Nick Heidfeld dramatically crashed on the final lap of the 25 lap Beijing ePrix.
At the beginning of the race, pole sitter Nicolas Prost got away cleanly from the Audi Sport ABT pairing of Lucas di Grassi and Daniel Abt with fifth place starter Nick Heidfeld overtaking the Mahindra of Karun Chandhok to take fourth place. The order at the front remained the same until the first round of pit stops where Heidfeld jumped both the Audis to take second place.
Over the next 13 laps, the German chased the e.Dams Renault of Nicolas Prost with the gap coming down to just 0.6 seconds on the final lap. On the run down to final corner, Heidfeld moved over to the left to take first place until Prost swerved, sending an airborne Heidfeld into the barriers upside down. Both drivers emerged unscatched from their cars but the incident brought a dramatic end to the very first Formula E race and ushered in a new chapter in the world of motorsport.
Di Grassi reaped the benefits of this crash to take the top step on the Formula E podium but was naturally unhappy with how things panned out in front of him: "It feels great to be the first winner. But no one wants to win this way. Glad Heidfeld is okay and the car proved safe.”
MONTAGNY HAS EVENTFUL RACE
Venturi’s Montagny provided much of the action in today’s Formula E ePrix, first putting an optimistic move over teammate Charles Pic on the very first lap of the race before gently moving his way up the grid. He gained a position over Audi of Daniel Abt during the mandatory pit stop to take fourth place which became second after the final lap collision between Prost and Heidfeld.
Virgin Racing’s Sam Bird climbed his way from an mediocre grid slot of 12th to take the final spot on the podium after Daniel Abt was penalised for over using his battery that dropped him 10th in the final standings.
Charles Pic in the second Andretti passed the Mahindra of Karun Chandhok to take fifth at the chequered flag.
The Dragon Racing cars of former F1 driver Jerome D’Ambrosio and Indycar driver Oriol Servia took sixth and seventh respectively at the chequered flag. Nelson Piquet Jr slipped to 12th place during the initial stages of the race, but climbed his way up the field to take eighth for China Racing. His teammate, Ho-Pin Tung, started from the pitlane and was the last of the classified finishers in 16th place.
Venturi’s Stephane Sarrazin collected two points with a ninth place finish while the aforementioned Daniel Abt took the final championship point with 10th place.
TROUBLE HITS FOUR DRIVERS
Four Formula E drivers failed to make it to the chequered flag, including Jarno Trulli whose eponymous car stalled at the start of the race, Bruno Senna whose day went from bad to worse after a first lap collision, the Amlin of Takuma Sato and the e.Dams driven by Sebastian Buemi.
There was some consolation for Sato who picked up two championship points for setting the fastest lap of the race. He, however, will be replaced by Antonio Felix da Costa from the second race of the season.
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