At the turn of the green, Prost caught Heidfeld half asleep, mugging the German and retaking third position. With all the action it was easy to miss that Buemi was now some 24 seconds ahead of di Grassi at the head of the field. It was a cruel contrast for Nelson Piquet, who retired his NEXTEV TCR machine.
Prost was now catching di Grassi with 9 laps remaining but most impressive was both Dragon cars in 5th and 6th positions and Nathanael Berthon, who had moved into 8th for Team Aguri – strategy proving it still had a say in the second season.
Down-force was now no longer an issue for Nico Prost, with the Frenchman losing a rear pod, collapsing his rear wing. Whilst the issue wasn’t effecting his times, it did represent a safety issue.
With five laps remaining, Renault e.Dams would be hoping against hope, but as it was the right decision was made with Prost getting the ‘meatball’ flag to come in and repair the damage. With Prost’s penalty, third was now up for grabs with Loic Duval closing fast on Heidfeld. Duval however had to worry about team-mate D’Ambrosio who was nipping at his heels and nearly sliding into his team-mate.
The big surprise however was Oliver Turvey who had made his way into 5th place, speaking volumes about his capacity to drag the recalcitrant NEXTEV racer so far up the field from 15th to 5th. On the other end of the scale, DS Virgin would have a lot of homework to do with both cars falling back through the field to 7th and 12th.
Heidfeld was now in coast mode and having to defend aggressively against attack from both Dragon drivers. It was enough to hang onto the final podium position. But all eyes were on Sebastien Buemi, taking the flag in dominant fashion. Those hoping for a close season were hanging their heads in disbelief.
Images: FIA Formula E