Lucas di Grassi believes Sebastien Buemi braked 50 metres too early on the first lap of the second London ePrix, causing the two to collide.
Buemi led the field down to Turn 3 but di Grassi locked up and ran into the back of him. Both made it back to the bits and changed cars to go for the fastest lap.
The two drivers were level on points, so the two points for fastest lap ultimately decided the championship, with Buemi setting the quickest time and taking the title.
After the race di Grassi said Buemi braked far too early for Turn 3, which caused him to lock up his brakes and crash into him.
“I have seen the data and it is very clear,” he said. “I had a very good start and I knew I had to be aggressive against [Nicolas] Prost, because I knew I had to overtake Prost at the beginning if I had any chance to fight Seb for the next 33 laps.
“Here it is very easy to block, so I knew if I was behind Prost it would be a struggle because he was extremely fast, and at the same time I would have no chance of fighting Buemi.
“So I was very aggressive with him, we ended up touching a little bit. Seb braked almost 50 metres too early compared to me and Nico. When I realised, I locked my wheels and had the incident.
“Seb braked early, I was very aggressive, that was not how the first corner should have been. We should have fought for the next 32 laps.
“But with these conditions, the car, cold tyres, cold brakes, I had to be aggressive. That was what happened.”
Buemi said he was “sad” the title had been decided by fastest laps and now has “zero respect” for di Grassi.
“I think he should be proud that he won the title,” the Brazilian added. “After he cools his head he will have a different approach.
“Seb is a tough fighter on the track and is a good driver, he won the title so he should be celebrating. We fought very hard and sometimes fighting hard, accidents happen.
“I think in his position he would have been exactly as aggressive as I was. I really hope next season all the cars are closer together, if everybody is closer we will see not only a two-way fight but maybe a five, six-way fight in the last race.”
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