Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler's Lucas di Grassi secured his first win of the 2018/19 season, claiming a hard-fought and closely contested victory in what was a thrilling Mexico City E-Prix.
Experiencing a difficult race weekend at the Santiago E-Prix last month, di Grassi lined up in second on the grid in the Mexican capital after getting pipped to pole position by Mahindra Racing's Pascal Wehrlein.
Getting a strong start from the front row, di Grassi attempted to overtake Wehrlein into Turn 1, only to be blocked by the German racer. This allowed Oliver Rowland, who started in fourth, to launch an attack up the inside, locking his front tyres to skate into second place, dropping the Brazilian to third.
With Rowland up into second by performing an ambitious overtake, Wehrlein was able to open up a small advantage at the front of the field early on although this was removed within minutes, with a large accident between Nelson Piquet Jr and Jean-Eric Vergne causing proceedings to be halted.
Running closely behind Vergne on the approach to Turn 13, Piquet mounted the rear end of the reigning champion, flying over the top of Vergne's DS Techeetah car before wiping out Sims in the looming right-hander, swiftly slapping his Jaguar I-TYPE 3 car into the outside barrier.
A yellow flag turned into a Full Course Yellow and the Full Course Yellow ultimately turned into a red flag, with the race being halted due to the size of the accident, with pieces of Jaguar, BMW and DS Techeetah littering the racing surface.
After a long pause in racing, the E-Prix was once again resumed under the safety car with 40 minutes + 1 lap of racing remaining, with damaged cars being repaired in the pit lane.
With the majority of drivers arming and deploying their first use of Attack Mode to get a 25kW power boost for four minutes, racing resumed with 37 minutes left on the timing screens, with the top three continuing to lap in formation.
The E-Prix was a game of toing and froing, with split times between the top five drivers fluctuating on a lap by lap basis.
In an attempt to close in on Rowland who remained in second place, di Grassi deployed his final use of Attack Mode with just under nine minutes of racing remaining, narrowing the gap between himself and the British rookie.
To defend from di Grassi, Rowland copied the third-placed driver minutes later, darting to the inside of the short straight between Turns 8 and 9, arming Attack Mode only to lock his rear tyres in the next corner, allowing di Grassi through.
With di Grassi's final use of Attack Mode slowly dwindling away, Wehrlein activated the power boost device with knowledge that di Grassi would see a drop in power once the period expired.
Unable to find a route around Wehrlein, the German driver continued to lead, with the race timer continuing to tick down. Despite this, the Season Three champion was able to stay glued to the rear end of the leading Mahindra, with Wehrlein having to manage his battery life extensively.
Behind, it was disaster for the Nissan e.dams pair of Rowland and Sebastien Buemi who were running in third and fourth, with a miscalculation on the team's part meaning that the pair did not have enough usable energy to run to the chequered flag.
With one lap remaining, Wehrlein's battery life was critical which caused the driver to lift and coast at a more intense rate, allowing di Grassi to close in.
Leading out of the final corner, it appeared that Wehrlein would see the chequered flag to secure his maiden Formula E victory, only for his battery to hit 0%, allowing di Grassi to power past and steal the lead away from Mahindra.
Cutting the chicane and failing to come to a halt while defending from di Grassi, Wehrlein was handed a five-second time penalty shortly after the chequered flag waved, with this promoting Antonio Felix da Costa to second place while Edoardo Mortara was third for Venturi.
After starting in 18th place after a difficult qualifying session, Jerome d'Ambrosio displayed an impressive driving performance to take fourth allowing the Belgian racer to retake the lead in the Drivers' Championship.
DS Techeetah's Andre Lotterer completed the top five while Wehrlein dropped to sixth.
Mitch Evans maintained his 100% points finishing record in Season Five by taking seventh for Panasonic Jaguar Racing while Felipe Massa was eighth, dropping from third on the grid to take the first points of his Formula E career.
Envision Virgin Racing's Sam Bird fought from last place to finish in ninth while Daniel Abt completed the top 10 in the second works Audi.
Robin Frijns missed out on a points finish and was followed by Vergne, who was spun by Evans half-way through the race, Sims and Tom Dillmann who completed the top 15.
Gary Paffett was 16th as the lead HWA Racelab car while Jose Maria Lopez was 17th after receiving one drive-through penalty, one 10-second time penalty and another five-second demotion for numerous offences.
Stoffel Vandoorne finished in 18th and was followed by debutant Felipe Nasr, with Rowland and Buemi finishing at the rear of the field after running out of energy.
The ABB FIA Formula E Championship's fifth season of competition will continue on March 10 with the Hong Kong E-Prix following the series' final in-season test session on February 17 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
