Formula E

Da Costa champion as DS Techeetah wrap up teams’ championship

2 Mins read
Credit: Formula E

Antonio Felix da Costa secured his first Formula E drivers’ title as he and team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne achieved a 1-2 in the ninth round of the championship in Berlin.

The result also meant that DS Techeetah secured their second teams’ championship in as many years, as they pulled away to an insurmountable 115 point lead over Nissan e.dams behind them.

For Da Costa it marks a brilliant first year in the team after he made the switch from BMW i Andretti Motorsport, and he added a sixth podium to his tally this season which has included three wins.

The race itself was typical of DS Techeetah’s performance since the championship came to Berlin last week.

They led the race from start to finish, and choreographed two position swaps between Vergne and Da Costa as they controlled the pace.

A few spots of rain threatened to throw some uncertainty into the race but it was never heavy enough to affect the track surface, and although they were under some pressure towards the end from the Nissan e.dams of Sebastien Buemi and Oliver Rowland, they never really looked under threat.

Buemi ended up taking the final podium position after Rowland was asked to move over by his team as he had less energy in the closing stages.

That deficit in energy also meant that Nyck de Vries managed to squeeze by on the second last corner to take fourth ahead of the Brit, and they both finished well ahead of Lucas di Grassi who completed a great drive through the field from twelfth.

Mitch Evans also put in an improved performance for Panasonic Jaguar Racing to get his best finish in Berlin so far this week, and Andre Lotterer made great progress in the final stages of the race to grab eighth for TAG Heuer Porsche.

Alex Lynn and Felipe Massa finished out the points scoring positions, but both will be unhappy with their race pace as they fell back as the race progressed.

In what ended up being a surprisingly clean race for Formula E there were only two retirements, with Maximilian Gunther slamming into the back of Oliver Turvey on the opening lap and wrecking his suspension and front wing in the process.

And Robin Frijns never even made the grid as a battery issue with his Envision Virgin Racing car meant he couldn’t take the start.

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Formula E writer for TCF since 2015-16 and fascinated by all things electric.
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