The Abt Audi driver, who won in Mexico City but was excluded for his car being underweight, passed Virgin’s Sam Bird to take his second victory of the season.

“That was a great race, very happy after what happened in Mexico,” he said.

Points leader Sebastien Buemi suffered a dramatic crash with Robin Frijns that caused him to pit early. He had to settle for points for setting fastest lap, as he finished two laps down.

It means di Grassi has now overtaken Buemi in the points table by just one solitary point.

Story of the race

Bird made a great start from pole to lead di Grassi, Venturi’s Stephane Sarrazin, Nick Heidfeld, Robin Frijns, Daniel Abt and Sebastien Buemi.

Frijns passed Heidfeld for fourth at Turn 5 on lap three, as Heidfeld locked his rears and lost places to Abt and Buemi, and Nico Prost later too.

Di Grassi didn’t let Bird get away in the early stages, with Sarrazin also staying in touch.

Buemi set fastest lap on the seventh tour as he lined up Abt, passing him for fifth with a superb outbraking move at the hairpin at the end of lap eight.

On lap 11, Bird had to make his first serious defensive move to keep di Grassi at bay but, a lap later, di Grassi passed Bird for the lead at Turn 5.

While that was happening, Buemi drove over the back of Frijns at the hairpin, slicing the rear wing from Frijns’s car – who tumbled down the order – and damaging his own front end. Despite lacking half a front wing, Buemi continued in fifth place.

But both Buemi and Frijns then received the black flag with an orange disc, forcing them to pit while both still had 30 per cent of their usable energy left. This meant they would have no chance of making it to the end of the race at a regular racing pace.

Bird stayed on the tail of di Grassi until the car swaps on lap 21.

Status quo was maintained, as Di Grassi rejoined just ahead of Bird. But Bird locked up and went off at Turn 5 on his outlap, ending up against the tyrewall. He rejoined with only cosmetic damage, dropping to seventh. “Just cold brakes, driver error,” he explained.

Di Grassi was handed a 4s lead over Sarrazin. Abt inherited third, ahead of Prost. The Mahindras of Heidfeld and Senna went a lap longer, with Heidfeld rejoining in fifth from teammate Senna.

Bird caught Senna quickly, who was complaining of rear-locking.

Prost was handed a drive-through penalty with 13 laps remaining, as his time in the pits was below the minimum by one second, dropping him to 14^th.

That elevated Heidfeld to fourth, and the battling Senna and Bird.

Late safety car drama

Reigning champion Nelson Piquet Jr crashed out on the exit of Turn 1 after bouncing over the kerbs on lap 34. As he couldn’t move his car out of the way, the safety car was called for.

The race restarted for a three-lap sprint to the finish with di Grassi leading Sarrazin, Abt, Heidfeld, Senna and Bird.

Runner-up Sarrazin survived a lock-up at the hairpin soon after the restart under pressure from Abt, while Senna held off Bird for fifth – but there were no place changes among the top six cars.

Fourth-placed Heidfeld ended the race under investigation for overuse of energy.

Relegated from pole position to the back of the grid for a tyre-pressure infringement in qualifying, Antonio Felix da Costa surged into the top 10 by lap 15.

Da Costa passed Jean-Eric Vergne for ninth on lap 27, but he was a late retirement when placed in the points. 

Pos	Driver	Car	Time
1	Lucas di Grassi	ABT Schaeffler FE01	45:11.582
2	Stéphane Sarrazin	Venturi VM200-FE-01	+0.787
3	Daniel Abt	ABT Schaeffler FE01	+1.685
4	Nick Heidfeld	Mahindra M2ELECTRO	+2.343
5	Bruno Senna	Mahindra M2ELECTRO	+4.968
6	Sam Bird	Virgin DSV-01	+5.229
7	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Venturi VM200-FE-01	+6.735
8	Loic Duval	Venturi VM200-FE-01	+8.057
9	Simona de Silvestro	Spark SRT_01E	+10.505
10	Mike Conway	Venturi VM200-FE-01	+10.900
11	Nicolas Prost	Renault Z.E.15	+11.205
12	Oliver Turvey	NEXTEV TCR FormulaE 001	+17.417
13	Jean-Eric Vergne	Virgin DSV-01	+1 lap
14	Salvador Duran	Spark SRT_01E	+1 lap
15	Robin Frijns	Spark SRT_01E	+1 lap
16	Sébastien Buemi	Renault Z.E.15	+3 laps
R	Antonio Felix da Costa	Spark SRT_01E
R	Nelson Piquet Jr.	NEXTEV TCR FormulaE 001