Lucas di Grassi’s 21 race victory drought came to a dramatic end, as Pascal Wehrlein’s disqualification sealed a 1-2 victory for Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler alongside teammate Rene Rast.
ROKiT Venturi’s Edoardo Mortara rounded out the podium after being promoted to third.
The race looked to be Wehrlein’s to lose; the German pole-sitter got a strong start off the line and managed to hold off Maximilian Guenther, who had passed his teammate Jake Dennis.
Racing was soon brought to a halt when Nick Cassidy collided with the wall on the opening lap and Safety Car was deployed as marshals recovered the heavily-damaged Envision Virgin car.
Following the restart, Attack mode strategy proved to be crucial as the Porsche and BMW i Andretti’s swapped the race lead, whilst di Grassi and Rast slowly made their way through the pack.
However, the Attack Mode exit at Turn 8 caught out several drivers, with both Mahindra’s being involved in incidents at their blind spots.
Alexander Sims collided with Jean-Eric Vergne and his team-mate Alex Lynn tangled with Sam Bird later in the race. Both the DS Techeetah and Jaguar were forced to retire as a result.
The final few minutes of the race saw Di Grassi’s charge through paid off, as he and Mortara jumped both BMW i Andretti cars, who struggled as Dennis dropped back after taking his second Attack Mode.
Rast, who had started in tenth, had made his way up fourth as the race entered the last two laps.
Yet all of Wehrlein’s hard work to manage the two restarts to perfection and build a 3.6 second gap was undone once he crossed the chequered flag.
The TAG Heuer Porsche driver was disqualified for a technical infringement; failing to declare his tyres. The same penalty was also applied to his teammate Andre Lotterer.
As a result, di Grassi was promoted to the victory and led Audi’s third 1-2 finish in Formula E, as Mortara achieved ROKiT Venturi’s second podium this season.
Outside of the podium, despite being involved in contact with Vergne, Alexander Sims finished in fourth ahead of compatriot Dennis.
Reigning champion Antonio Felix da Costa brought home sixth for DS Techeetah and finished in front of fellow championship contenders Mercedes EQ’s Stoffel Vandoorne and Jaguar’s Mitch Evans.
Nyck de Vries was able to finish in ninth, despite the Mercedes EQ driver being hit by Envision Virgin’s Robin Frijns, who had locked up into Turn 11 and collided with his fellow Dutchman.
Lynn rounded out the points finishers in 10th following his incident with Bird.
Guenther, who had looked set to finish on the podium for much of the race, was forced to settle for 12th.
It was a disappointing day for championship leader Frijns, as the 10-second penalty for causing a collision demoted him to 17th. He will be hoping to bounce back tomorrow morning, as Round 9 gets underway in Puebla.
