Lucas di Grassi satisfied with Audi pace in New York: “Could have fought for second place with JEV”

With a strong start to the second half of the season, Lucas di Grassi reported back in the championship battle of Formula E: A victory in Puebla was followed by third place in New York City behind Maximilian Günther (BMW) and Jean-Eric Vergne (DS Techeetah). Another failed qualifying cost his Audi team-mate Rene Rast – albeit not his own fault – the chance of a good starting position. In the race, however, the German showed a strong comeback and even scored points.

“That was a good day today,” says Lucas di Grassi after the race. “The car was very good, but not quite perfect. Third place is a good result when you think about where we started.”

Di Grassi started the race from position 7 and initially fought for a position in the top 6 with Oliver Rowland, Sebastien Buemi (both Nissan) and Alex Lynn (Mahindra). During the course of the race he was able to catch up with the leading group and was in the final phase in 4th place – directly behind the eventual winner Maximilian Günther.

“I knew that Nick (Cassidy, Virgin) had less energy than JEV and so it was clear that the attack had to come at some point,” said the Brazilian about ten minutes before the end of the race. “That’s why I tried to keep up with Max. When the time came, I drove past Nick and almost passed JEV. But he pushed me into the wall and I had to back off.”

Energy management also played a decisive role in the battle for the podium in New York. “I think I had the pace today to fight for second place with JEV,” said di Grassi. “In the end, I used too much energy at the beginning of the race against Lynn, Rowland and Buemi, which then became critical at the end of the race. It was too risky to fight for second place.”

Saturday in New York City.

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Rene Rast’s race to catch up: “That was the absolute maximum”

After a mixed first half of the season, this time di Grassi was able to take advantage of a later qualifying group. He missed the super pole by just 0.013 seconds. His team-mate Rene Rast, who is still in fourth place in the overall standings, had to compete in the first starting group.

“The bad luck in qualifying just doesn’t seem to want to leave us,” says the 34-year-old. He couldn’t get past Edoardo Mortara on the warm-up lap, who then had a technical problem. Apparently the Venturi driver could not switch from the 200 to the 250 kW mode of his electric motor, which is why he stopped for a break on his qualifying lap. The reigning DTM champion lost so much time that he was only able to qualify in 23rd place.

In the race he was able to work his way up to position 10, but also benefited from six retirements. “That was the absolute maximum today – but at least it was nice that the effort and the fight were worth it.”

“That was a strong performance from the car, the drivers and the whole team today,” says team principal Allan McNish. “We are in both the driver and the team standings. Now we mustn’t let up, we will prepare with full concentration for tomorrow’s race day.”

Thanks to the points of each driver, Audi moved up to third in the team standings and is only 13 points behind DS Techeetah, who have taken the overall lead. Both drivers have another chance to gain points in the Sunday race from 19:34 German time.

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