D’Ambrosio awarded Berlin FE win after Di Grassi penalty

Autosport

Lucas di Grassi has been stripped of his victory in the Formula E race at Berlin Tempelhof.

The Brazilian’s Abt squad was deemed to have modified the front wing and front wheel faring of his car, meaning he has been excluded and victory award to Dragon Racing’s Jerome d’Ambrosio.

The stewards found that changes had been made in three key areas relating to the internal reinforcement of the front-wheel fairings, the sealing of holes in the front wing and modifications made to the front flap and gurney.

The changes were listed by the stewards as follows:

1) The front wheel fairing both left and right hand side have been modified with internal metal reinforcing rods.

2) Six of the eight holes in the front wing have been sealed. The remaining two holes having helicoil inserts and chamfers made.

3) Front flap and gurney LH 220 has a filler layer added and chamfer made.

It was deemed that this violated the regulations of the series, which uses a spec Spark-built chassis.

As deliberate modifications of control parts is deemed a serious offence, the decision was made to exclude di Grassi.

According to the stewards, the Abt team asserted that the changes were made to repair damage rather than for performance reasons.

“The competitor accepts that the components referred to above differ from the standard items,” said the stewards’ statement.

“The competitor does, however, maintain that the modifications were made as repairs and with no intention to gain a competitive advantage.

“Nonetheless, the components differ from the standard item and as such car #11 is accordingly excluded from the race.”

D’Ambrosio’s promotion to first place is his and Dragon Racing’s first win in Formula E, with Sebastien Buemi moving up to second place and Loic Duval taking the final podium position.

The exclusion also costs di Grassi the lead of the championship, relegating him to third behind Nelson Piquet Jr and Buemi.

Di Grassi responded via his Twitter account, writing: “They are trying to make me win this championship in the hard mode. Don’t worry, we will be back to kick some Piquet and Buemi ass on track”.

Abt has decided not to appeal.

The other change to the result was lower down the order, with Karun Chandhok hit with a 28-second time penalty for exceeding the energy limit, relegating him to 18th in the final classification.

UPDATED RESULTS – 33 LAPS:

PosDriverTeamGap
1Jerome D’AmbrosioDragon48m26.566s
2Sebastien Buemie.dams2.433s
3Loic DuvalDragon3.508s
4Nelson Piquet Jr.China3.975s
5Nick HeidfeldVenturi13.046s
6Stephane SarrazinVenturi13.335s
7Jean-Eric VergneAndretti13.678s
8Sam BirdVirgin14.055s
9Vitantonio LiuzziTrulli15.636s
10Nicolas Proste.dams16.602s
11Antonio Felix da CostaAguri16.797s
12Jaime AlguersuariVirgin20.594s
13Scott SpeedAndretti21.149s
14Daniel AbtAbt23.688s
15Charles PicChina25.491s
16Salvador DuranAguri44.157s
17Bruno SennaMahindra46.257s
18Karun ChandhokMahindra52.703s
19Jarno TrulliTrulli2 Laps
Lucas di GrassiAbtDisqualified

UPDATED CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS:

PosDriverPoints
1Nelson Piquet Jr.103
2Sebastien Buemi101
3Lucas di Grassi93
4Nicolas Prost78
5Jerome D’Ambrosio77
6Sam Bird68
7Antonio Felix da Costa45
8Jean-Eric Vergne40
9Jaime Alguersuari30
10Bruno Senna28
11Loic Duval23
12Daniel Abt22
13Scott Speed18
14Franck Montagny18
15Karun Chandhok18
16Stephane Sarrazin18
17Charles Pic16
18Nick Heidfeld16
19Oriol Servia16
20Jarno Trulli15
21Vitantonio Liuzzi2
22Takuma Sato2
23Salvador Duran1

D’Ambrosio awarded Berlin FE win after Di Grassi penalty

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