Title defender Lucas di Grassi has given Audi an historic victory in the Formula E electric racing series. In front of a record turnout, the Brazilian won the first E-Prix on Swiss soil.
Since 1954, no international circuit race has been held in Switzerland. The return of international motorsport attracted far more than 100,000 spectators to the city circuit in the financial district of the metropolis. The crowd got to see an impressive presentation of Audi’s e-tron technology: After starting the race from fifth place on the grid, it took Lucas di Grassi only 18 laps to take the lead and to subsequently clinch an uncontested victory. After 39 laps, the Audi driver had a 7.542-second advantage over runner-up Sam Bird in a DS Virgin.
For di Grassi, this marked his seventh Formula E triumph in total and the first victory in the 2017/2018 season.
With his victory di Grassi moved up to third place in the driver’s championship and still has a chance of finishing runner up with the final two races in New York (USA) on July 14 and 15. The Brazilian exuberantly celebrated his triumph in Switzerland with a jump into Lake Zurich – keeping a promise he had made to his team in case he would clinch victory.
Scoring its second victory in succession and third this season, Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler closed the gap by eleven points in the teams’ classification and lie second behind leaders Techeetah before the last two races.
An even better points-haul was prevented by Nelson Piquet. The ex-champion rear-ended Daniel Abt on lap one and broke off Abt’s rear wing in the incident. The Audi driver had to make an unscheduled pit stop and finished 13th out of the points.
