Stoffel Vandoorne had no problem retaining the lead before the discreet departure of Oliver Rowland. However, the Nissan driver also managed to keep Alex Lynn behind, which transferred the ‘ballot’ to the Mahindra driver. In fact, Nyck de Vries overtook Mahindra driver on lap three, which in turn was worth leave Oliver Rowland behind once the Nissan driver activated the ‘attack mode’ for the first time. The British pilot returned the play when Nyck de Vries passed through the activation zone. With greater margin, Stoffel Vandoorne also activated the ‘attack mode’ without losing the lead.
With everything, The race was soon neutralized after René Rast’s accident with Sébastien Buemi, although he did it with the two Mercedes drivers already in the lead. The repeated touches against the Swiss’s Nissan and against the barriers of the slowest section of the circuit smashed the front end of the German’s Audi e-tron FE07, until it was stopped without a trace of the spoiler and the front wheel arches. The Safety Car made an appearance, ushering in a restart in which Mercedes’ double followed with Vandoorne and De Vries leading ahead of Rowland and Lynn.
As a consequence of your incident with René Rast, the Swiss Sébastien Buemi received a ‘Stop & Go’ that was fulfilled as soon as the ePrix restarted. However, the test was again under Safety Car after the touch between António Félix Da Costa and André Lotterer, although in between the leader Stoffel Vandoorne had time to activate his second ‘attack mode’. So did Nyck de Vries, albeit at the cost of losing second to Oliver Rowland in what had to have been a makeshift move. However, this was in the background since the rarest movement occurred during the Safety Car itself.
In fact, Lucas Di Grassi was placed as leader after going through the pits, taking advantage of the fact that the pitlane offered the possibility of going faster than the group could go after the Safety Car. A situation that generated some nervousness in the group and ended with a strong touch between Oliver Rowland and Stoffel Vandoorne. This fact together with the activation of Lucas Di Grassi’s ‘attack mode’ left Nyck de Vries as the new leader ahead of De Grassi himself and Alex Lynn. For his part, Mitch Evans placed fourth after beating Maximilian Günther, touch included.
The chaos was not reduced in the following laps between activations of the ‘attack mode’. In a blink of an eye, Lucas Di Grassi happened to be leader ahead of Alex Lynn and Nyck de Vries. For his part, Robin Frijns went from sixth to fourth, as Mitch Evans and Pascal Wehrlein passed through the activation zone. As if this wasn’t enough Lucas Di Grassi received a ‘Drive Through’ for breaching the exit protocol after passing through the pits, a sanction that Lucas Di Grassi did not comply with before Audi movements to justify a passage through the pits that even contained a stop.
While Sam Bird and Norman Nato starred in the umpteenth touch in the central part of the group, Lucas Di Grassi received the black flag for ignoring compliance with the ‘Drive Through’. In fact, the Brazilian crossed the finish line first, although victory was for Alex Lynn. For its part, Nyck de Vries took second place to storm the top of the category, while Mitch Evans found himself with an unexpected podium after the different incidents that occurred at the top and the aforementioned exclusion of Lucas Di Grassi. Off the podium, Robin Frijns was fourth and Pascal Wehrlein fifth.
Maximilian Günther took sixth place after 30 laps of pure chaos in which almost every minute there was a battle or source of open controversy. For his part, Nick Cassidy achieved the seventh position, while Lucas Di Grassi appears in eighth place provisionally, pending if the sum of the time of the ‘Drive Through’ not fulfilled remains as a corrective element or if, on the contrary, he receives the pertinent disqualification which is applied when the black flag is displayed. Waiting to know the resolution, Sérgio Sette Câmara is ninth and Jake Dennis tenth.