Audi's Abt and di Grassi jubilant after home one-two

40

Daniel Abt and Lucas di Grassi were leading the Audi team celebrations on Saturday night after claiming a famous 1-2 victory in the ABB FIA Formula E Berlin ePrix.

“That was probably the most important win of my career so far and an incredible day from beginning to end," said Abt.

"Maximum points with pole position, victory and the fastest lap and then on top of this a one-two for Audi."

Abt had been allowed to keep his pole despite inadvertently activating the 200kW power mode before his flying lap. The stewards decided he gained no advantage from it, but he was handed a reprimand for the incident.

Abt certainly had the crowd behind him, with huge cheers going up around the street circuit every time the local hero came past.

"My thanks go to everybody who supported us," he said. "Today there will be a party like never before!”

Defending champion di Grassi seems well and truly over the early season glitches that cost him crucial points in the opening races.

A slight mistake on his superpole lap meant he started this weekend's race from fifth place. However, he forced his way through to second by the chequered flag.

"A dream came true with this one-two for Audi," di Grassi said after his fourth consecutive podium result. After the year started so badly for us we are now second in the teams’ championship."

"First of all congratulations to Daniel who really deserved to win today,” he continued. "Our Audi was super fast today and superior to the competition, so we only actually had to fight between ourselves for the victory."

Dominant Abt destroys opposition in Berlin ePrix home race

Although team boss Allan McNish insisted there were no team orders, that battle failed to materialise with di Grassi holding station behind Abt - albeit not willingly.

"After the pit stop I was right behind Daniel, but I had a problem with my second car that we have to analyse," he revealed.

“These results don’t happen often," added McNish. "Especially in a home race. But the performance has been a long time coming, so it was a special performance,”

Current championship leader Jean-Éric Vergne was third ahead of Techeetah ahead of Sebastien Buemi in the works Renault e.Dams car.

"Today we weren’t in the same ballpark as the first two," admitted Buemi. "And I didn’t have enough pace to catch Jean-Eric, especially at the end of the race.

"After finishing sixth in Rome and fifth in Paris we’ve moved up another place, but I’m not satisfied after having won so much in this championship.

"It’s difficult to accept, but scoring 12 points is not to be sneezed at! We just have to be more focused than ever in the closing rounds of the season."

The next race takes place in Zurich on June 10, and then it's the double-header weekend in New York on 14/15 July to decide who will take home the driver and team championships for Formula E's fourth season.

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.