Lucas di Grassi won today’s Mexico City ePrix on the road for the Abt Schaeffler team, but has been disqualified from the race in a late-breaking development for the first of two FIA Formula E Championship races on North American soil.
The series released a post just before 10 p.m. ET that di Grassi’s car was found to be underweight, and thus the Brazilian has been excluded from the race.
NEWS: @LucasdiGrassi excluded from the #MexicoePrix after his Abt Schaeffler car is found to be underweight. More details to follow..
— ABB FIA Formula E World Championship (@FIAFormulaE) March 13, 2016
A fuller report from FIA Formula E concludes di Grassi’s car just missed the target with his first of two cars, but also confirms that Abt has decided not to appeal - as they had the option to.
“Di Grassi’s Abt Schaeffler car that he used for the first part of the race, was found to weigh 886.2kg, 1.8kg under the 888kg minimum. Abt has decided not to appeal the decision.”
The disqualification promotes Dragon Racing’s Jerome d’Ambrosio to the win.
Incidentally, this doesn’t mark di Grassi’s first disqualification in the series. He sustained a controversial DQ from the Berlin ePrix in season one, in an astute point raised by veteran reporter Sam Smith (see below tweet).
Abt has an hour to appeal the decision of stewards. It's a spooky replica of Berlin last year as @thereal_JDA takes second FE win #FormulaE
— sniffermedia (@sniffermedia) March 13, 2016
Sebastien Buemi and Nico Prost now complete the podium.