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Lynn takes maiden Formula E victory as Di Grassi penalised

Alex Lynn takes his maiden Formula E victory in London after Lucas Di Grassi was disqualified from the race lead.

Di Grassi took the chequered flag first, but only after receiving the black flag for failing to serve a drive-through penalty.

The Audi driver had been running in the midfield when a safety car was brought out for an incident further back in the pack, but rather than following the train down the start-finish straight he came into the pits.

Di Grassi didn’t come to a significant stop in the pit lane and emerged at the lead of the pack, putting him at the front of the order when racing resumed.

Stoffel Vandoorne, who was then running second, could not challenge Di Grassi on the restart and the Audi driver had amassed a lead of almost 1.5s by the end of the race.

It would be for nought, however, as the Brazilian driver had been handed a drive-through penalty which would have dropped him back to roughly P8. Audi opted not to tell their driver about the penalty though, and Di Grassi was instead shown the black flag for not pitting.

The victory was then inherited by Lynn, who had climbed up to take P2 on track.

Lynn had started the race from P3 but dropped back behind de Vries early on as the Mercedes driver made a move up the inside at turn 10, in the process damaging his own steering. De Vries stuck with Oliver Rowland in second, briefly passing after the Nissan driver took Attack Mode only to drop back to third when he took Attack Mode himself.

During the second safety car period of the race – in which Di Grassi came through to take the race lead – Lynn closed onto the back of de Vries and was challenging for the position when Rowland and Vandoorne collided, taking them both out of the race.

Di Grassi took the opportunity to enter Attack Mode and briefly dropped behind de Vries, but the race one winner couldn’t keep him at bay.

Di Grassi came through to take the on-track race lead with Lynn close behind. Fanboost gave the Mahindra driver the added power to sweep past de Vries and into the de facto race lead.

By the end of the race, he was 0.6s ahead of de Vries who came home P2 to take the championship lead.

Mitch Evans completes the podium.

Two safety car periods disrupted running. The first came early on as Sebastien Buemi and Rene Rast battled for P11. The pair collided multiple times and Rast was left with a broken car at the side of the track. Buemi was handed a 10-second stop-go penalty for the incident.

Not long after racing resumed, Antonio Felix Da Costa was sent into the wall while trying to overtake Andre Lotterer. Da Costa tried to go up the inside of the Porsche driver but wasn’t given enough room. The incident earned Lotterer a penalty.

The collision between Rowland and Vandoorne was cleared without the need of a safety car, though Rowland was handed a five-second penalty and dropped even further down the order.

There was drama late on for Robin Frijns who was locked in a battle with Maximilian Guenther. Guenther had enjoyed a strong drive up through the order and was running in what would become P4, but he couldn’t hold off Frijns.

The Virgin driver came through to take P4, with Pascal Wehrlein following through not long after.

Guenther finished sixth ahead of Nick Cassidy and Sergio Sette Camara.

Jake Dennis and Joel Eriksson complete the top 10.

Bethonie Waring

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