Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler's Lucas di Grassi has hailed his victory at the Zurich E-Prix as "the cherry on the cake" having endured a difficult Season Four campaign and title defence.
In Zurich, di Grassi missed out on a spot in the Super Pole shootout after getting relegated from the top five in qualifying courtesy of a strong performance for Dragon Racing's Jerome d'Ambrosio and Jose Maria Lopez while Mitch Evans claimed pole position for Jaguar Racing.
Lining up in sixth place on the grid, di Grassi had a strong opening stint, clearing Lopez, d'Ambrosio, DS Virgin Racing's Sam Bird, Techeetah's Andre Lotterer and polesitter Evans to take the lead.
While many at the front of the pack made mistakes, speeding during a full course yellow on lap 19, di Grassi didn't put a foot wrong all weekend, taking the win on lap 39 with a 7.542s gap to Bird who finished in second place while d'Ambrosio was third.
“The weekend was amazing and the event here was fantastic," said di Grassi, who won the first closed-circuit race in Switzerland for 64 years."You could hear the huge number of people cheering all over the track.
"I tried to save a bit more energy in the first half of the first stint, and then managed to overtake the next three cars – I was a little bit lucky to overtake Mitch [Evans] just before the Full Course Yellow.
"We did the car swap and came back out in the lead and then they all got a drive-through. Then it was pretty much about managing the gap to Sam [Bird].
"We’ve been very unlucky in the first half of this season and now the luck has turned – five consecutive podiums, which I think is a record.
"To win in Zurich is the cherry on the cake,” added the Season Three champion.
By winning in Zurich, di Grassi bolstered his position in the Drivers' Championship although it is mathematically impossible for the Brazilian to retain his title in Season Four, now 62 points adrift of Jean-Eric Vergne in third place with 58 points still available at the double-header season finale in New York.
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