With the 34th podium finish of his Formula E career, Audi driver Lucas di Grassi rejoined the title fight in New York on Saturday: the Brazilian is now only 18 points behind the leader of the standings with five races to go. In the teams’ standings, di Grassi and his teammate René Rast made a jump forward to third place possible thanks to a strong performance from the team in front of the Manhattan skyline.
Party time in front of the Statue of Liberty and the impressive backdrop of Manhattan: Starting from seventh place on the grid, Lucas di Grassi once again kept his cool in the New York heat and clinched third place with strong overtaking maneuvers and the perfectly timed use of attack mode. It was di Grassi’s third podium finish in New York City and already the 34th in his Formula E career to date.
“Today was a fantastic day in New York and, after the victory in Mexico, it’s already another trophy,” said Lucas di Grassi, who is now ninth in the championship and just 18 points behind the leader. “Now, I’m also back in the title fight. I’m sure everything will remain open until the very last race.” In qualifying at midday, di Grassi missed out on getting into Super Pole by just 0.013 seconds and started the race from seventh on the grid.
Teammate René Rast had to start the race from 22nd on the grid through no fault of his own: He was blocked by another driver in qualifying and was therefore unable to set a fast lap. “Bad luck just doesn’t seem to want to leave us in qualifying,” said René Rast, who once again showed a great recovery in the race, which took him up to tenth place and into the points. “That was the absolute maximum today, but at least it’s nice that the effort and fighting on track paid off.” Rast is in fourth place in the drivers’ standings with a gap of eleven points to the leader.
In the teams’ standings, Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler made a leap into third place and is thus also in the thick of the title fight, which is turning into a real thriller this season. “That was a strong performance by the car, the drivers and the entire team today,” says Team Principal Allan McNish. “We’re in the mix in both the drivers’ and teams’ standings. Now, we have to keep our focus and prepare with full concentration for the race day tomorrow.” The eleventh race of the season starts at 1:30 p.m. local time (19:30 CEST) on Sunday.
The strong performance of the Audi e-tron FE07 in New York City was rounded off by the Envision Virgin Racing customer team: Nick Cassidy started from pole and led the race for a long time and finished fourth in front of his teammate Robin Frijns. As a result, all four of the e-tron FE07 cars finished in the points
