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FE - Buemi and di Grassi expect championship battle to go down to the wire

  • gb
20.05.16
Lucas di Grassi and Sebastien Buemi – the only two drivers to have topped the points table this season – expect the fight for the 2015/16 FIA Formula E Championship to go down to the wire.
formula e, Buemi, Di Grassi

After becoming the first driver to record back-to-back wins in Formula E history last time out in Paris, di Grassi holds an 11-point lead. But with 90 points still to play for, he is focussing on just maximising his yield in Berlin this weekend, rather than thinking about the title.

“It’s a very important weekend for the team as it’s our home race,” said the Abt Schaeffler driver. “My approach has been roughly the same; the title is completely open and I don’t try to do the calculations. I just try to optimise the weekend. Of course I will also be trying to win and to make the most out of the race but we have very tough contenders.  It’s a short day and one small mistake or problem can lead to a bad weekend. With 90 points still on the table everything is still to play for.” 

Buemi hasn’t won a race since round three in Punta del Este, and he knows he needs a strong weekend to keep himself in the hunt, especially as the cancellation of the Moscow race on June 4 means that there are only three more races.

“Whether you have one more race or one less doesn’t really matter,” he said. “With London, anything can happen as you don’t know what the weather will do. Here we want to do the maximum, as Lucas said. You want to focus on all the small details but ensure that the race pace is better than theirs but it’s all open.” 

Buemi also believed that the tyre warm-up issues that plagued the team in Paris wouldn’t reoccur during this Saturday’s race. He said: “I think we should be better. It looks like there will have to be a lot of energy saving in the race which I believe will be good for us. Paris was difficult because overtaking was tricky so if you weren’t started from the front it made it more difficult. Here it will be more open.”