di Grassi stuns in Shanghai to give Lola its first Formula E win

Lucas di Grassi and Lola Yamaha Abt provided a spectacular upset to take an unlikely maiden victory for the revived British brand in the second race of the Shanghai E-Prix.

di Grassi started the race from 19th on the 20 car grid, but along with saving energy in the pack early on, had gambled on a dry setup for the race which started under safety car in the rain, but ended in the dry.

Having languished towards the back, he and Citroen's Jean-Eric Vergne – who started one spot ahead in 18th – used their Attack Modes to progress. Vergne took his first use of two minutes on lap 19 and a second of six minutes on lap 21, the same time di Grassi opted for a first use of four minutes.

When a Full Course Yellow was deployed on lap 24 for the stranded car of di Grassi's teammate Zane Maloney, who'd suffered rear right suspension failure in the final corner, the pair had found their way into the top three, with Vergne ahead of di Grassi, and Envision Racing's Joel Eriksson in the lead having deployed a similar dry-minded strategy from 17th on the grid.

Eriksson had just entered Attack Mode for the second and final time when the FCY was deployed, neutralizing its benefit and leaving him vulnerable, while Vergne was still in the process of using his six minute second deployment, so he too couldn’t enjoy the full benefit.

di Grassi was fine though, his first use since expired and still with four minutes left to use when the race resumed. It did so at the end of lap 25.

Upon resumption, di Grassi's gap to the leader Eriksson was six seconds. He went for his final use of Attack Mode at the start of lap 26 and a lap later Eriksson, Vergne, and di Grassi all entered Turn 1 together. di Grassi looked up the inside of Vergne for second at Turn 6, but Vergne went for a switchback to not only maintain position ahead of di Grassi, but snatch the lead from Eriksson.

But di Grassi, with the extra 50kW of power and four-wheel-drive on tap was ready to strike.

He moved by Eriksson up the inside of Turn 7 for second, then heading onto the 28th and final lap – the race distance extended by a lap because of the FCY period – Vergne covered the inside of Turn 1 but could do nothing to prevent di Grassi from powering round the outside to take the lead.

Vergne held on to finish second, his first podium for Citroen, while Eriksson took his maiden Formula E podium in third.

Pascal Wehrlein finished fourth for Porsche after a period of controlling the field from the front. He would prove to be no match for the low starting podium finishers in the latter stages after their early energy conservation.

Sebastien Buemi finished fifth to cap off a strong day for Envision, with polesitter Felipe Drugovich ending up sixth for Andretti. Nico Mueller was seventh in the second Porsche, with Nissan’s Oliver Rowland taking a fine eighth having pitted during the FCY to change tires to ones with pressures suited to dry conditions. It proved to be an inspired decision as he came from way back to claim a points finish and the fastest lap.

DS Penske’s Taylor Barnard and Cupra Kiro’s Dan Ticktum completed the scorers in ninth and 10th respectively.

In a huge blow to his championship hopes, Jaguar TCS Racing’s Mitch Evans – who came into the weekend with a 19 point lead, which was cut down to just three after Saturday's race – failed to start after an inverter failure. The DC/DC component which failed is a championship-supplied component used by all teams.

The victory was a 14th in Formula E for di Grassi, who is retiring at the end of the season, but his first since the second London race of 2022 when he was driving for Venturi. And while it was a first win in Formula E for Lola, it was a 15th for service provider Abt, which previously operated the Audi works team (which di Grassi raced for and took the 2017-19 title) and a Cupra-branded Mahindra customer effort.

With four races remaining – double headers in Tokyo and London – Wehrlein's Saturday win and points finish on Sunday, along with Evans' failure to start the second race of the weekend moves the German into the championship lead by nine points. Reigning champion Rowland has made up further ground, moving from fifth to third in the points, with Antonio Felix da Costa slipping from third to fourth, and Jake Dennis going from fourth to fifth.

Jaguar TCS Racing still holds the teams' championship lead, albeit just by six points over Porsche, while Envision's strong performance has allowed Jaguar to ever so slightly chip away at Porsche's lead in the manufacturers' standing, which now sits at 50 points, five less than after Saturday's race.

The penultimate race weekend of the 2025-26 Formula E season takes place in three week's time with a pair of night races on the streets of Tokyo.

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