Formula E fans can look forward to an exciting finale: with fourth and fifth places in the two races in New York, challenger Lucas di Grassi from ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport has reduced the gap to championship leader Sébastien Buemi to only ten points. Daniel Abt set the fastest race lap in the heart of Brooklyn.
As in its first two seasons, the Formula E title race will yet again be decided on the final race weekend: ten points separate Lucas di Grassi and Sébastien Buemi, a total of 58 points are still up for grabs in the two races in Montreal, Canada (29 and 30 July). Two strong comeback drives during the premiere of the electric series in New York have given the Brazilian a difficult but solid position from which to attack.
On Saturday, di Grassi drove from tenth place on the grid to fourth place, a day later the current championship runner-up fought his way up from ninth to fifth place. In the process, he inspired the spectators in the shadow of the impressive Manhattan skyline with innumerable overtaking maneuvers, but cleverly kept his distance from all the scuffles. Buemi did not start in New York due to a clash of dates.
“Firstly a compliment to Formula E in bringing the series to New York. We are only in the third year of the championship and the premiere for a car race in the heart of this metropolis is another fantastic milestone,” said di Grassi. “We didn’t have the speed this weekend to win races. But we made the best of our opportunities and brought ourselves into a better position in the title battle. No the entire focus is on season’s last two race days, during which we will leave no stone unturned in our quest for the title.”
Team mate Daniel Abt emerged as one of the tragic heroes in the ‘Big Apple’. On Saturday the German started the race from the front row, staged spectacular wheel-to-wheel battles and had the podium in sight up to the last lap. Then an error in the battery management system stopped his race. A similar fate struck the youngster again on Sunday when he started from eighth position and was forced to park his ABT Schaeffler FE02 through no fault of his own on the opening lap. Small consolation: after swapping to the second car, Abt set the day’s fastest race lap and in doing so scored an extra point.
“Obviously that is absolutely not what I had expected for the days in New York,” said Daniel Abt. “It’s hard to stomach, especially when you are robbed twice of the reward for the hard work. The single point for the fastest lap is definitely the hardest fought one so far in my Formula E career.” Nevertheless, Abt now looks ahead: “I now have a weekend off to draw breath and to forget everything and then we’ll tackle Montreal with all our energy.”
The ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport squad has almost two weeks time to regain strength for the showdown in the title race. “We’ll make the most out of the time available to analyze the data exactly, to exclude aby possible sources of error and to pull together for the decisive races,” said ABT Sport Director Thomas Biermaier. “Our stated goal before the season was to be in the title fight all the way to the finale – we have achieved this. And we know exactly just how crazy Formula E can be. In such an open battle anything can happen in the final two races.”