New Formula E champion Sebastien Buemi has heavily criticised his title rival Lucas di Grassi for his driving at the London ePrix.
Di Grassi smashed into the back of Buemi’s Renault e.dams car at turn three of the opening lap, causing significant damage to both cars.
They both made it back to the pits for their second cars, with Buemi eventually winning the championship by getting the fastest lap.
But speaking after the race, di Grassi blamed Buemi for the incident, claiming the Swiss driver braked earlier than usual. Coming out of the steward’s office the Brazilian said, “It is clear from the data I just saw that Seb braked 50 metres too early. It was too late for me to control the car and I ran into him.”
These claims enraged Buemi though, who refuted the accusation and said that it was di Grassi who was at fault. He said, “If you look at the braking I braked very late. I couldn’t be any quicker to the corner because at some point I need to brake. And for him to say this I was amazed.”
“What he said is actually disrespectful, first of all because he is lying and second of all he has made a huge mistake and he is trying to blame someone else. I’m actually sad. First of all to win it that way and second of all to see what Lucas did because I was very respectful of his driving.”
“Here he has two options, he can go to the right or nail the back of my car and he nailed my car perfectly. Although he hit it a bit too hard because we both went out.”
What annoyed Buemi even more however was di Grassi’s driving after the crash. He felt that the Abt Schaeffler Audi driver was deliberately driving slowly in front of him to stop him from posting a faster lap time.
Buemi commented, “He went out and did the fastest lap and then he was waiting for me each time I was trying to do the fastest lap. I could not even do the fastest lap, I used 60% of my battery before I in the end managed to do a lap. I could not believe that.”
“I think what he did was unacceptable – and the fastest lap thing was the worst of the worst.“
