By alley - Apr 23, 2016, 12:01 PM ET

FE: Di Grassi dominates Paris ePrix

Lucas di Grassi made it back-to-back Formula E victories with a dominant performance in the inaugural Paris ePrix.

The Abt Audi Sport driver beat poleman Sam Bird into Turn 1 and raced into a commanding lead early on. It looked as though di Grassi might have to survive a fight to the finish when Ma Qing Hua crashed heavily five laps from the end of the race and brought out the safety car. But the recovery of the stricken Team Aguri entry was too protracted for racing to resume, meaning di Grassi scored his third win of the season – his fourth counting a post-race DQ – under caution.

The Brazilian extends his championship lead to 11 points over Sebastien Buemi, who finished third, behind Jean-Eric Vergne.

Buemi inherited the final podium position after a mistake from Bird, shortly before Ma crashed, sent the British driver down the escape road at Turn 1. Bird had ran third for the entirety of the race up until that point, after also losing out to DS Virgin Racing teammate Vergne at the start.

The two touched wheels at Turn 2 and came to blows again before the car swaps, Vergne hanging on each time, but the delays allowed Buemi and the other Renault e.dams car of Nico Prost to make it a four-car fight for second.

They held position through the pit stops, after which Vergne and Bird pulled away from Buemi while the Swiss driver struggled to get his tires up to temperature, a problem that had caused him to qualify down in seventh.

Buemi soon had enough heat in his tires to reel the DSV-01s back in, setting a couple of new fastest laps to draw onto the tail of Bird's car. A couple of half-hearted looks were rebuffed and Bird appeared to have his rival covered, but he locked up defending into Turn 1 on lap 40 of 45 and went straight on. He performed a swift U-turn down the escape road, but tumbled to sixth behind Buemi, Prost and Venturi's Stephane Sarrazin.

Buemi didn't have time to do anything about second-placed Vergne before Ma's crash, which meant Vergne claimed his first podium – and only his second points finish – of the season on home soil.

Behind Bird, Robin Frijns and Antonio Felix da Costa scored points again in season-one machinery with seventh and eighth for Andretti Autosport and Team Aguri.

Bruno Senna and Daniel Abt completed the points finishers, although both will feel aggrieved at the safety car finish that robbed them of a late charge after they had saved considerably more energy than their rivals to attack in the closing laps.