Di Grassi Fights His Way Onto the Podium in Buenos Aires
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The Formula E championship was in Argentina for the third round of the 2016/2017 season and despite a difficult first half of the race, Team ABT Schaeffler Audi’s Lucas Di Grassi managed to work his way onto the first step of the podium.
Although he was quickest in qualifying, an oversteering car meant that Di Grassi couldn’t put the power down and was passed by his championship rival, Sebastien Buemi, and eventually fell down to fifth position.
“My first car felt pretty strange,” said Di Grassi after the race. “I had relatively little grip and a lot more oversteer than expected. The only thing I could do was to wait until the car change halfway through the race. The second car then was really good.”
Following the car change, Di Grassi began working his way back up the grid, passing Nico Prost with a nifty move up the inside precipitated by his use of fan boost and eventually into third.
Despite Di Grassi’s strong recovery, it’s hard to see third place as anything but a disappointment for the driver who qualified first. Three races into the season, last year’s champion-by-a-nose Sebastien Buemi is undefeated and has a healthy 29 point lead over Di Grassi, who is second place.
With three quarter of the season remaining, though, Di Grassi has plenty of time to make up the difference.
“This season, [Buemi] hasn’t made any mistakes in the first three races. Obviously, we’re going to continue trying to reduce the deficit to Renault.”
Meanwhile, Di Grassi’s teammate, Daniel Abt, had a comeback of his own, finishing in seventh after having started the race in 16th (following an impact in qualifying). With his haul of 6 points, he’s in eighth place in the championship this season.
Abt and Di Grassi will be back in action in Mexico on April 1.
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February 21, 2017 at 04:17AM