Team DS Cheetah driver Felix da Costa has extended his championship lead by winning Round 7 of the 2019/20 Formula E Season 6 in Berlin. The Berlin e-Prix that includes six back-to-back races until August 13, 2020, kicked-off earlier this week with Round 6 and Da Costa showed incredible pace with the victory in both races so far. The driver now holds a lead of 68 points in the championship and looks certain to take the world title this year. Finishing on the podium alongside Da Costa was Nissan e.Dams driver Sebastien Buemi with Team Abt's Lucas di Grassi coming in third.
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Round 7 started with da Costa on pole position and the driver cruised his way to take the chequered flag. The driver had two late activations of his higher 235 kWh attack mode, which helped increase his gap over Buemi to 3.090s in the race. The early stages of the race saw Da Costa maintain a one-second gap over the rest of the field while he held a one per cent useable energy advantage.
undefinedSTOFFEL VANDOORNE! Sensational double overtake from the @MercedesEQFE driver #BerlinEPrix #SeasonSixFinale @svandoorne pic.twitter.com/OLyFUP9lzK
— ABB Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) August 6, 2020
Buemi had just the right pace to challenge Da Costa's dominance but his first attack mode on Lap 9 went under-utilised after the yellow flags were drawn out, following Max Guenther's crash in the BMW Andretti car. A second attempt on Lap 11 also ended behind yellow flags as Sam Bird's car crashed. The yellow flag was called out again on Lap 16 after de Vries retired on the exit of Turn 1. The incidents increased the gap between Da Costa and Buemi to 2.1s.
When the race restarted, Da Costa managed to utilise his first attack mode extending the gap further, which was followed by the second attack mode that sealed his third consecutive win of the season. Buemi finished second followed by Di Grassi in third place, 5.1s off the Nissan car. Mercedes' Stoffel Vandoorne showed an incredible run starting from P13 to take P5, behind Virgin Racing's Robin Frijns. Sam Bird recovered from the broken front wing to take P6, while Oliver Rowland in the second Nissan car finished at P7. The final points were taken by Edoardo Mortara of Venturi, Andre Lotterer of Porsche and Jean-Eric Vergne in the Techeetah.
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Despite a promising return in Round 6, both Mahindra drivers struggled with pace in Round 7 finishing outside of points
Mahindra Racing's Alex Lynn finished P11, outside of points after struggling with pace and dropping through the field, after securing Super Pole in Round 7. Meanwhile, teammate Jerome d'Ambrosio finished at P15 but was later disqualified from the race after the stewards deemed that the total energy used during the race was over the regulatory limit. It was a big disappointment for the driver, especially after a fifth-place finish in Round 6 that earned him 10 points.
undefinedHeartbreak for @nyckdevries who retires from the race after a strong start #BerlinEPrix #SeasonSixFinale pic.twitter.com/3vv0EnAnHF
— ABB Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) August 6, 2020
Jaguar's Mitch Evans finished at P12 after a disappointing run, followed by Rene Rast of Team Abt, and Nico Muller of Dragon Racing. Finishing behind d'Ambrosio were Neel Jani of Porsche, Daniel Abt in the second Abt car and Sergio Sette Camara of Dragon Racing. Oliver Turvey of Nio Formula E, Alexander Sims of BMW Andretti Autosport and James Calado of Jaguar Racing were the final drivers to cross the chequered flag. Felipe Massa in Venturi, Max Guenther and Mercedes' Nyck de Vries were the non-finishers in the race.
