Lucas di Grassi’s has scored 13 EPrix wins and 41 podiums in his epic Formula E career. But what are his most memorable races? FEN choses five of them as the 2016-17 announces his retirement from racing after the London EPrix finale this August.
2016 Paris EPrix
Di Grassi took his second Formula E win at Paris in April 2016, the first race at undoubtedly one of Formula E’s most impressive locations.
While the circuit was a bit rubbish, the atmosphere and grandiose setting made Paris very special. Where else do you get to work in media centre next door to Napolean’s tomb?
The race itself wasn’t that memorable and it was an atypically chilly spring day in Paris. But it was Paris, and after an early season domination by Sebastien Buemi and Renault, Audi took great delight in putting one over their rivals on its home patch.
2017 Mexico City EPrix
12 months before his 2017 success in 2017, di Grassi was seething after being disqualified for being underweight after taking the chequered flag first. It was something that his then engineer at Audi ABT, Franco Chiocchetti remembers all too well.
“I took that hard because it cost him [di Grassi] the title,”Chiocchetti told me in 2021.
“We didn’t speak for a few weeks, so you can say that there was more than an element of revenge in what happened in 2017.”
That referred to when di Grassi eventually won the title after a red in tooth and claw fight with rival Buemi.
But an incredible race, in which di Grassi survived getting his rear wing re-arranged and then took advantage of. asafety car but still had to make the most of his off-set stratgey, was astonishing.
Indeed, after the 2017 Mexican race that di Grassi won, Chiocchetti had a rare quiet moment with his charge and some healing took place.
“I whispered to Lucas, and I said: ‘My head is clear now, we have the revenge and we have ticked this bloody box in Mexico. He gave me a big smile. It was a very nice moment’.”
2018 Punta del Este EPrix
A fight for the ages as Jean-Eric Vergne somehow managed to fend off di Grassi for the majority of the race as the Audi driver mounted wave after wave of mighty attacks.
Vergne somehow survived contact with di Grassi at the final corner with three laps to go, and then a further clash at T1 on the next lap. Defending his lead until the finish, Vergne took the flag by a scant 0.447 seconds in an absolute thriller by the beach.
2019 Mexico City EPrix
Formula E’s most dramatic finale?
While Beijing 2014 was memorable for extraordinary reasons, and the most recent race at Jarama thrilled all who witnessed it, Mexico City in 2019 standout for sheer box office pizazz.
An energy poor Pascal Wehrlein was forced to defend outrageously but adeptly in the final few laps as di Grassi’ Audi swarmed all over him. Powering out of the final corner he derated and within metres of the line, di Grassi booted the throttle and broadsided through, beating the Mahindra by the width of a taco.
In the Audi pit Allan McNish was tearing around like a Scottish stag in the Highlands. He had his own flashback, straight to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s astonishing last second winner for Manchester United in the 1999 Champions League final.
“I’ve never seen a race like that, I really haven’t,” was his incredulous reaction right after the race.
“My headset flew off , the radio hit the back of the pit because everyone jumped up, and the back of the pit facia was basically destroyed. It was like when Manchester United came back in the Champions League (final) in 1999.”
Looking back now McNish chooses it as his highlight which just pips the 1-2 at Berlin Tempelhof in 2018.
“Berlin was great but just the way that win by Lucas happened in Mexico will live with me for a long-time.
2021 London EPrix
“The cheeky bastards!”
That was this writer’s reaction to Di Grassi’s outrageous tactic at the London EPrix in 2021 when he by-passed the racetrack through the pits, stopped and then re-joined in the lead. What on earth?
It was very cute and it was entirely legal. But fatally di Grassi didn’t entirely stop his car on his pit marks and the FIA took great pleasure and relief in penalising him.
It all thus deflected what would have been the cheekiest race win in motorsport history but it at least did give us the impressive sight of Allan McNish perfecting his Chariots of Fire impression by sprinting to the stewards in full view of a chasing TV cameraman.
