Pole sitter Trulli set off well from pole position and held off a challenge by Di Grassi into the first corner, however the Italian made a costly error in the opening laps and Lucas di Grassi capitalised on this to take the top spot. After all, as the Brazilian said after the qualifying session: “You don't win championships with pole positions” as he proceeded to drive off with Trulli’s generous gift of first place in the race.
Trulli’s day however began to unravel with his car was consuming power rapidly and as he attempted to slow down to accommodate, he came under pressure from the trailing pack. Abt spun in opening lap into Turn 2 and was dropped to the back of the grid. He would eventually finish the race in 15th place.
By lap 9, Di Grassi held a 10-second gap to 2nd placed Buemi - Buemi having taken 2nd place from Trulli using his FanBoost and Heidfeld also passing the Pescaran at the hairpin. Shortly after D’Ambrosio overtook Trulli into Turn 3. Da Costa sythed past Bird at Turn nine. Not long afterwards, D’Ambrosio made a calculated move on Heidfeld to take 3rd place and began to reel in Buemi.
D’Ambrosio’s Dragon Racing Team was eventually able to jump Buemi during the Pit stops to claim 2nd place in the second part of the race.
“I knew Lucas would try to build a gap once he passed Jarno so I started trying to work my way up right away", said D'Ambrosio. "He had great pace and maybe we could have challenged if we'd got to the front sooner, but in the end second is fantastic."
Heidfeld and Buemi tussled for 3rd place but the Swiss held the position and finished in 3rd place. Trulli eventually retired with 2 laps to go – a far cry from the promise shown earlier in the day when he claimed pole position. On the other side of the garage, Liuzzi made a good start getting himself up to 5th place having started in 11th place. However a disastrous pit-stop dropped him back to 11th place, but he fought back to 10th place – the last point scoring position and a well-deserved 1st point in FormulaE series (this was later upgraded to P9 after Di Grassi’s exclusion)
Image:FIA Formula E