Audi has admitted it is unable to explain how reigning Formula E champion Lucas di Grassi failed to finish once again, after dropping out of the Santiago ePrix.
After the team changed the inverters again on di Grassi's cars, after first doing so at the last race in Marrakesh, the Brazilian was handed a 10-place grid penalty for the change, and started in 13th place, having initially qualified in third.
Whilst exiting the pits after swapping to his second car, the 33-year old was unable to pick up speed and subsequently pulled to the side of the track.
After struggling in Hong Kong, and having been beset by reliability problems in Marrakesh, di Grassi has yet to score a single point in the 2017-2018 campaign, leaving him 20th in the standings.
Team-mate Daniel Abt also failed to finish the race after being hit by the Mahindra of Nick Heidfeld on lap one; Abt did manage to make it back to the pits and switch cars but soon retired due to the lack of sufficient energy to finish the race.
Team principal Allan McNish said after the race: "I’ve been in racing for many years: Sometimes it goes with you and sometimes everything goes against you – the latter is certainly the case with us at the moment."
"Two retirements for different reasons is extremely disappointing. But we know that’s how it goes in racing sometimes.
"Daniel was unfortunately hit on lap one. Lucas drove a strong race and suddenly had no power anymore after the pit stop. We don’t know the reason yet."
Audi has slipped to eighth in the Teams' standings as a result of its double retirement, ahead of only Dragon and NIO.
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