Motorsport TechnologyStoffel Vandoorne pipped Sebastien Buemi to second in the ABB Formula E championship standings after the Belgian lead home Mercedes EQ teammate Nyck De Vries, the Nissan of Buemi completing the podium.
It meant that the six races in Berlin, raced anti-clockwise, on the normal configuration and the final revised layout saw five different winners in what an entertaining end to a season disrupted by the global coronavirus pandemic.
“We were second? Well that’s a bonus,” said Vandoorne after securing his first victory in the series. “Jesus hell, well, it was kind a safe race, Seb was close behind but we had him covered and to finish the season 1-2 for Mercedes I don’t think we could have hoped for any better and second in the championship I guess was a bonus. We knew we had a good race pace we were able to show that over the past couple of races but to actually do that from the front and from the lead is still quite different and I’m super happy we managed to pull that off.”
Rene Rast continued his strong form after joining the Audi team, finishing ahead of Sam Bird, who had started 14th, the second Audi of Lucas Di Grassi and Jean-Eric Vergne as Alex Lynn, champion Antonio Felix Da Costa and Edoardo Mortara rounded off the points scoring finishers.
A @MercedesEQFE 1-2 in their home race in Berlin plus the provisional top 12 from the final race of the season #BerlinEPrix #SeasonSixFinale pic.twitter.com/0yF4OVzBVF
— ABB Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) August 13, 2020
There was the usual end of term kind of feeling to the final day, and it was also a goodbye from Felipe Massa, who has decided to part company with his ROKiT Venturi Racing team.
“Leaving a team is never an easy decision to make.,” said Massa in a team statement. “We’ve made some good memories together and it’s given me the opportunity to learn something completely different from what I’m used to, so first of all I want to thank [Venturi President] Gildo [Pastor] and [Team Principal] Susie [Wolff] for their faith in me.
“It’s been an honour to be part of the only motorsport team from the Principality, and representing them on the podium at the Monaco E-Prix was a definite highlight for me. The past two seasons have been a big learning curve for us all and unfortunately, for various reasons, we haven’t quite achieved what we hoped. Despite that, it’s been a lot of fun and I wish the team nothing but the very best of luck for the future. I look forward to announcing my future plans in due course.”
Fraser Masefield