10 years today: Lucas di Grassi wins 1st Formula E race in Beijing, Nick Heidfeld survives horror crash

It is exactly ten years since Lucas di Grassi became the first race winner of the FIA Formula E Championship on 13 September 2014. The Brazilian in the service of Audi Sport ABT won an ultimately dramatic race in Beijing ahead of Franck Montagny (Andretti) and Sam Bird (Virgin Racing). The first E-Prix was not a success for the two German drivers Nick Heidfeld and Daniel Abt: Heidfeld retired after a spectacular crash on the last lap, Abt lost a podium due to a subsequent penalty.

Nicolas Prost from the e.dams Renault team secured the first pole position in Formula E history in qualifying. The Frenchman was around a tenth of a second faster than Lucas di Grassi from the German ABT team. Behind him was di Grassi's team-mate Daniel Abt, the youngest driver in the field, ahead of Karun Chandhok (Mahindra Racing) and Nick Heidfeld (Venturi).

Several grid penalties meant that some drivers had to move to the back of the field. Sebastien Buemi, Michela Cerruti, Ho-Pin Tung, Stephane Sarrazin and Jarno Trulli all had their gearboxes changed, which meant they were moved back ten positions. Franck Montagny lost his fifth place as he had crossed the solid line at the pit exit in both free practice and qualifying and therefore had to drop three places.

After a long formation lap, which the drivers completed at what felt like walking pace to save energy, the lights went red. A few seconds later, the first Formula E race in history started. Prost retained the lead ahead of the ABT duo, with Heidfeld pushing past Chandhok on the outside. The race was already over for Trulli: The Italian - driver and team principal in one - didn't even get away from last place at the start.

Senna out of the race after just half a lap

The first Formula E collision occurred in turn 2: Montagny pushed past his Andretti team-mate Charles Pic on the inside with a hard manoeuvre, touching the TecPro barrier at the exit of the corner. Behind him, Bruno Senna drove hard over the kerbs on the inside of the corner, causing the left front suspension of his Mahindra to break. The Brazilian was out of the race early. As Senna had to park the Mahindra at the side of the track, race control sent the safety car onto the track. Prost led ahead of di Grassi, Abt, Heidfeld, Chandhok, Jaime Alguersuari, Montagny, Bird, Pic and Nelson Piquet jr.

The race was restarted at the end of the fourth lap. Montagny put Alguersuari under pressure, but the Spaniard defended hard. The Frenchman in the Andretti used a crowbar to get past shortly afterwards, while Alguersuari's team-mate Bird also slipped through at the same time. There was a tough three-way battle for 10th place between Piquet, Oriol Servia and Takuma Sato, with Servia coming out on top.

Buemi lost the rear wheel cover in a chicane after driving hard over the kerbs. As the rear wing of the car was attached to it, it was hanging askew as a result. Buemi pulled into the pits shortly afterwards and changed into his second car. Meanwhile, his team-mate Prost extended his lead to more than a second, but after five laps he had already used four per cent more energy than his immediate rivals.

Montagny on the advance

Montagny continued to catch up and attacked Chandhok. The Indian did not defend himself against the manoeuvre, meaning that Montagny was now fifth. Sato had to park his car at the side of the track shortly afterwards. At the front, the gaps were closing again and the two ABT drivers reduced the gap to Prost. However, the energy display revealed that di Grassi and Abt had seven per cent more in the battery than the Frenchman, which indicated a different pit stop strategy.

Alguersuari was the first driver to come into the pits at the end of lap 12 to change cars, which was still the norm at the time. One lap later came the big surprise: in addition to Prost, di Grassi, Abt and Heidfeld also pitted - despite the clear energy advantage. Montagny, who initially wanted to continue in car 1, also decided to pit, but crossed the white line at the entrance to the pit lane. Bird and Pic decided to drive another lap with their first car and consequently took the lead.

Precision at e.dams increases Prost's lead

The precision of e.dams was evident at the pit stop: Prost adhered exactly to the minimum time of 107 seconds for the stop. The two ABT drivers were the big losers of the car changes: di Grassi was five seconds longer than Prost and came out of the pit lane just behind Heidfeld. Abt was even behind Montagny with an even longer standing time of two seconds and had thus lost two places. After his pit stop one lap later, Bird once again lined up behind Abt, with Pic returning to the track in eighth place just ahead of Piquet.

The slow pit stops at ABT meant that Prost now led by around four seconds, with Heidfeld directly behind di Grassi and Montagny. Abt was a further three seconds behind, around 1.5 seconds ahead of Bird and Chandhok. It became clear in the following laps that Prost could not maintain the same pace in his second car as before the car change: Heidfeld was between 0.4 and 0.8 seconds faster per lap and had reduced the gap to less than a second on the 20th of 25 laps. Buemi, meanwhile, retired from the race in the pits after setting the fastest race lap to date in his second car.

In the battle for the podium spots, di Grassi was able to pull away from Montagny, with Chandhok increasing the pressure on Bird behind him. The Briton in the Virgin car made a driving error, allowing Chandhok to take over sixth place at the end of lap 20. The drivers at the front moved closer together: After 21 laps, Bird was only 8.7 seconds behind Prost in seventh place. Immediately after the car change, the gap had been more than eleven seconds.

Prost now stepped up the pace and was able to stay ahead of Heidfeld. Chandhok and Bird were unable to match the pace of the front runners, and Abt's gap also increased significantly. Piquet lost ground in midfield and had to let Servia, Sarrazin and Jerome d'Ambrosio pass in quick succession.

Prost defence against Heidfeld goes wrong

With two laps to go, di Grassi and Montagny had also lost touch with the leading duo. It all came down to a duel between Prost and Heidfeld, who were competing together for Rebellion Racing in the LMP1 class of the endurance world championship back then. Six tenths of a second separated the two as they entered the final lap. Heidfeld stayed in the slipstream of the e.dams car for the entire lap, pulled onto the inside lane on the approach to the final corner and finally attacked.

Then the unbelievable happened: Prost moved to the inside just before the braking zone, causing the front tyres of the cars to touch. Heidfeld's wheel suspension tore off. The Venturi skidded and hit Prost's right front wheel with the rear wheel, which also buckled. Heidfeld slid over the kerbs of the last corner, where he lifted off and was catapulted about a metre into the air. The Venturi hit the TecPro barrier on the outside of the corner and subsequently rolled over several times. Prost also skidded straight into the run-off zone and was unable to continue. There was great relief when Heidfeld crawled out of his overturned car unharmed.

So there was a sensational winner: Di Grassi benefited and crossed the finish line first, followed by Montagny, Abt, Bird and Pic. The Brazilian, previously one of the first Formula E employees as a test driver, was thus able to enter his name in the history books as the first Formula E race winner. There was still one setback for his team and teammate Abt: as he had used too much energy in the second car, the young German was subsequently handed a drive-through penalty, which dropped him back to 10th place. Bird thus completed the podium. Pic, Chandhok, d'Ambrosio, Servia, Piquet and Sarrazin also scored points on their debut. The two points for the fastest race lap went to Takuma Sato in the Amlin Aguri.