Lucas di Grassi has described his victory in the Putrajaya ePrix as ‘an extremely tough race’ with the result moving the Abt Schaeffler Audi Sport driver into the lead of the championship.
Di Grassi started sixth on the grid and fought his way up to second by the time he came in to make his mandatory pitstop.
When he returned to the track in his second car, di Grassi caught and passed Renault e.dams’ Nico Prost to take the lead of the race with a bold move at Turn 1.
Speaking after the race, di Grassi explained that the key to his victory was managing the temperature of his battery unit.
He said: “It was an extremely tough race, mainly determined by battery temperature, which is the same problem that we had last year. But gladly we managed it better than the others [and] we did a fantastic job.
“The team in the background did a perfect job with the strategy and we managed to claim the victory and I’m now the leader in the championship.”
Di Grassi felt that his move on Prost was the most important moment of the race but he was worried about managing his battery pack for the rest of the ePrix.
He said: “To be completely honest, the most intense moment was when I overtook Prost and the team told me that my battery temperature was already critical and I had to do anything I could to keep the battery temperature low.
“That’s not what you want to hear when you’re in P1. [But I] just managed to do the right job and just nail it right.”
Di Grassi now leads the championship by eight points over Renault e.dams driver and Beijing race winner Sebastien Buemi.