The optimism of 11 Formula E teams as they served a 36-hour quarantine in individual Berlin hotel rooms didn't account for one all-important factor: Antonio Felix da Costa.
After a 158-day coronavirus hiatus, he arrived atop the standings but by an entirely surmountable 11-point margin. Yet to be a repeat winner this season and with 180 points on the table, this was a championship battle on course to go down to the wire.
But the two races on the reversed Tempelhof Airport circuit soon became a story of one driver, whose dominant double spelled a critical hammer blow as he propelled himself and DS Techeetah within realistic touching distance of the drivers' and teams' title spoils.