Sebastien Buemi has won the second race of the Berlin ePrix double-header after the Mahindras tripped over each other during their car changes.
Felix Rosenqvist, who qualified on pole, looked likely to win for the second time in as many days, and indeed the Swede headed the field from start to finish.
However, he was issued a 10s time penalty for an unsafe release from the pit box, which sent him into the path of team-mate Nick Heidfeld, allowing Buemi (Renault e.dams) to merely follow Rosenqvist to the finish in order to collect the win.
Such was the pair’s superiority, Rosenqvist only lost one position as a result of the penalty after clever race management from Buemi.
The championship leader had his nearest rival, Lucas di Grassi (ABT Schaeffler), some distance behind in third, and when news came through with 13 laps remaining Buemi decided to leave Rosenqvist unchallenged on the track in order to prevent di Grassi from also picking up a position.
“First of all, congratulations to Felix, I feel like he is the one who deserved the victory today,” said Buemi, who was disqualified a day earlier after driving from 14th on the grid to what would have been fifth position.
“We try to bring new updates and sometimes it can be quite difficult to put them into proper race condition.
“Yesterday it didn’t work so we came back to what we had in Paris and Monaco, and it worked quite well.
“It’s quite difficult to practice outside of the races and bring things that work straight away, so I’m happy that we managed to have a good pace in the race.
“I’m very happy with that result; it just tastes a little bit different than normal.”
For Rosenqvist, it was a bittersweet end after he gave Mahindra its first win in Formula E, 24 hours earlier.
“I think in a couple of hours when I look back at this weekend it will be as a very positive one, both for me and the team,” he said.
“Obviously the result is very disappointing; it would have been very cool to take another win but it’s just a fantastic weekend overall.”
Di Grassi had to fight hard for his podium having started seventh on the grid, passing Oliver Turvey (NextEV) and the two Virgins of Sam Bird and Jose Maria Lopes in his first stint, before working over Jean-Eric Vergne in his second stint to move into third.
Mitch Evans had another frustrating day, finishing back in 17th in his Jaguar.
Buemi’s championship lead is back out to 32 points ahead of Rounds 9 and 10 in New York on July 15-16.
Results: FIA Formula E Championship, Berlin Race 2
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time/Gap |
1 | Sebastien Buemi | e.dams | Renault | 56:02.155s |
2 | Felix Rosenqvist | Mahindra | Mahindra | +7.195s |
3 | Lucas di Grassi | Abt | ABT Schaeffler | +10.862s |
4 | Daniel Abt | Abt | ABT Schaeffler | +13.631s |
5 | Jose Maria Lopez | Virgin | DS-Virgin | +20.324s |
6 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Techeetah | Renault | +20.751s |
7 | Sam Bird | Virgin | DS-Virgin | +21.959s |
8 | Nico Prost | e.dams | Renault | +22.155s |
9 | Oliver Turvey | NextEV | NextEV TCR | +34.949s |
10 | Nick Heidfeld | Mahindra | Mahindra | +35.814s |
11 | Antonio Felix da Costa | Andretti | Andretti | +44.057s |
12 | Nelson Piquet Jr | NextEV | NextEV TCR | +44.439s |
13 | Jerome D’Ambrosio | Dragon | Penske | +47.336s |
14 | Stephane Sarrazin | Techeetah | Renault | +51.653s |
15 | Tom Dillmann | Venturi | Venturi | +56.977s |
16 | Adam Carroll | Jaguar | Jaguar | +1:05.426s |
17 | Mitch Evans | Jaguar | Jaguar | +1:07.018s |
18 | Robin Frijns | Andretti | Andretti | +1:12.083s |
DNF | Loic Duval | Andretti | Andretti | Retirement |
DNF | Maro Engel | Dragon | Dragon | Retirement |
Championship Standings
Pos | Driver | Pts |
1 | Sebastien Buemi | 157 |
2 | Lucas di Grassi | 125 |
3 | Felix Rosenqvist | 86 |
4 | Nico Prost | 72 |
5 | Nick Heidfeld | 63 |
6 | Jean-Eric Vergne | 52 |
7 | Jose Maria Lopez | 50 |
8 | Sam Bird | 47 |
9 | Daniel Abt | 46 |
10 | Nelson Piquet Jr | 33 |
11 | Oliver Turvey | 18 |
12 | Mitch Evans | 16 |
13 | Robin Frijns | 16 |
14 | Maro Engel | 15 |
15 | Antonio Felix da Costa | 10 |
16 | Jerome D’Ambrosio | 10 |
17 | Loic Duval | 9 |
18 | Eesteban Gutierrez | 5 |
19 | Adam Carroll | 4 |
20 | Tom Dillmann | 4 |
21 | Stephane Sarrazin | 2 |
22 | Mike Conway | 0 |
23 | Qing Ma | 0 |