Lucas Di Grassi won a completely unpredictable Putrajaya ePrix which saw incidents aplenty from start to finish. There were problems for all the favourites, including both Renault drivers, both Dragon drivers and Antonio Felix da Costa which allowed Sam Bird to take second place and Robin Frijns thirds despite his own problem at the end of the race.
There were problems for Stephane Sarrazin even before the race had started, not getting away from his original grid slot and causing a delayed start. With the Venturi pushed away down the middle of the grid, the rest of the cards all moved up into their start positions.
Buemi led away from pole, while Nick Heidfeld was spun by a DS Virgin car at the first corner. The German fell to the back of the field while Jean-Eric Vergne retired from the race with a broken suspension. Jacques Villeneuve was also involved in the accident, but also continued in the Venturi.
With the Renault driver pulling away at the front, the close battle at the front was between Da Costa, Prost and Di Grassi. Sam Bird was also trying to find a way around Bruno Senna for ninth before Oliver Turvey went off on lap 5, heading straight into the barriers at turn 5 bringing out the safety car for the first time. A sticking throttle would be responsible for his hit into the wall.
The race restarted on lap 8, with Loic Duval going straight on at the first corner, which allowed the battle to continue behind, bringing Prost and Di Grassi with them. Prost overtook Di Grassi for fourth by the end of the lap.
The Fan Boost was announced on lap 9, unchanged from the start of the race, with both NEXTEV TCR drivers, which of course only one being able to be used and Nick Heidfeld’s Mahindra.
Sarrazin, who ended up starting at the back of the field started to make progress up the field, he was up to 13th on lap 12 after overtaking Nelson Piquet Jr and Simona de Silvestro. The current world champion Piquet Jr though had the most amount of energy remaining, a decent 6% more than the leaders and only rivalled by Nick Heidfeld in 11th.
At the front Buemi slowed and then stopped on the exit of the hairpin, while Prost pitted on the same lap. Buemi also headed for the pits after getting car going again, but the bet by Prost that there would be a safety car didn’t happen.
Abt pitted a lap later along with Berthon. It was a slow stop for Daniel Abt, with his second car not moving from his pit box.
The majority of the leaders, Dual, Da Costa and Di Grassi pitted a lap later again, with Villeneuve, Sarrazin following. It was a slow stop from Duval, falling behind Da Costa and Di Grassi with a stop six seconds slower.
Frijns and D’Ambrosio pitted on lap 19 with Bird, Heidfeld and Senna. The only car left to pit was Nelson Piquet Jr. There was also a change of position for a nett second place, Di Grassi overtaking Da Costa.
Nico Prost took the lead when Piquet Jr pitted on lap 21, but with less usable energy than the cars behind him. Having 10% less power, he was a second and a half slower on a single lap. Former leader Buemi was down in eighth and had set the fastest lap of the race.
Prost was holding back Di Grassi and the following train, but the Brazilian got an overlap out of the final corner and got alongside on the pit straight, outbreaking the Renault car into the first corner to take the lead. Da Costa also made his way through in the Team Aguri car, dropping Prost to third.
Immediately Da Costa had a problem, running wide at the first corner before the car ‘switched off’ on the exit. The car was able to restart, but dropped him back to seventh. The car stopped again further around the lap.
D’Ambrosio closed on Prost, taking Frijns with him. They had both overtaken the Renault driver on the same lap, Prost having now dropped back to fifth.
Further down the order, the recovering Sarrazin had made his way ahead of Abt for eight.
Duval hit the wall on lap 30, and in the process of trying to get ahead Frijns also hit the wall, running wide where the track was breaking up. The car was crabbing down the straights, although he continued. Prost also went straight on , narrowly missing the wall. Buemi then stopped on track, before restarting again.
Despite Duval’s car being in a difficult position, the safety car wasn’t deployed enabling Lucas Di Grassi to take his first win of the season. It wasn’t all over through with the other Dragon car of D’Ambrosio in the wall, promoting Bird to second place and a wounded Frinjs to finish third in the Andretti.
