Maximilian Gunther has won a tactical battle to take victory on Saturday’s Berlin E-Prix and move into second in the drivers’ championship.
The BMW driver was stalking Jean-Eric Vergne throughout the race and tried to undercut him with Attack Mode during the race. However, when Gunther took his first Attack Mode he got caught in traffic which stopped him from passing the reigning the champion.
Then when Gunther used his second Attack Mode he nearly passed Vergne but, Vergne was able to cut back and retake the lead. However, with four minutes to go, Gunther made the move on Vergne on the inside of Turn 7 to take the lead.
But it wasn’t plain sailing for Gunther, as Robin Frijns who had more useable energy than Vergne and Gunther found his way past Vergne and set his sights on Gunther.
Frijns caught Gunther on the final lap but was unable to find a way past and they finished with a time of one-tenth of a second separating them.
Vergne was able to see off championship leader Antonio Felix Da Costa to finish in third. Da Costa came home in fourth after starting the race from eighth place.
Andre Lotterer came home in fifth ahead of Oliver Rowland in sixth. Mahindra’s Jerome D’Ambrosio came home in seventh but will be disappointed that he couldn’t find a way to finish on the podium after starting in third.
Lucas Di Grassi finished the race in eighth, and Mitch Evans finished in ninth place for Jaguar. Alexander Sims got the last point paying position in tenth.
There was a safety car period during the race which saw three drivers retire from the race. It was caused by Sergio Sette Camara locked up and hit James Calado at the Turn 9 hairpin. Calado spun and had to retire due to damage and Sette Camara broke his left-front suspension in the incident and he retired from the race.
Neel Jani then tried to avoid Sette Camara, but he couldn’t and he spun out and hit the wall. Stoffel Vandoorne also retired from the race after he suffered a left-rear puncture.