Analysis: Was the Formula E finale a thrill or a farce?

When a conversation with a newly-crowned champion includes multiple versions of "I'm sad", something is wrong.

Sebastien Buemi admitted winning the 2015/16 Formula E title last Sunday was soured by his dispute with Lucas di Grassi.

He accused di Grassi of being "willing to crash" into him in Saturday's race and was then hit by the Brazilian at the start of Sunday's showdown.

Buemi secured the crown by setting the fastest lap of the race, having engaged in a fight for the two points on offer once the crash eliminated both from contention for a top-10 finish.

Di Grassi set the fastest first and middle sector of the race late on, and looked like he'd steal fastest lap, and the title, from Buemi.

He improved, but his final sector wasn't good enough and he missed out by a tenth.

Buemi then put the matter to bed by going even quicker, but it was still dramatic.

It was undeniably tense. But I feel it also quite farcical.

Each driver spent a large amount of time in the pitlane, and Buemi was so convinced that he was being deliberately held up by di Grassi, he came in several times to try and get some space.

I can see the argument that without fastest lap points Buemi would have been robbed of a chance to win the title.

But you have to trust the rules to prevent a driver winning the title by driving their rival off the road - intentionally or otherwise.

The fastest-lap pursuit was tense, but still an anti-climax.

Of course there's an argument that had the Turn-3 crash not happened Buemi would have romped to the win and the title and the showdown would have been a completely damp squib.

But a quick driver in a quick car dominating a race - thus resulting in a dull title decider - is a better outcome than two title rivals colliding on the first lap and then spending the rest of the race barely circulating, in the pursuit of a lap devoid of traffic or safety car interruptions.

There are too many variables at play with fastest lap for it to be worthy of championship points.

I can accept the argument for pole position being rewarded, because that is a straight fight between the cars and the drivers in them.

In the race, it can be manipulated too easily.

The series will reduce the reward for fastest from two points to one next season, but it's still sticking around.

This irks me. If you think fastest lap is a worthy way for a championship to be decided, why not go the whole hog and end the season with a qualifying session?

That's said tongue-in-cheek, but only because I feel hugely short-changed from Sunday's race.

I don't know if the crash was deliberate. Di Grassi knew Turn 3 was his best chance to get ahead of Nico Prost and try and overcome Buemi.

So if his focus was on passing Prost with an aggressive, late move, he could easily be caught out if he expected Buemi to be braking later than he did.

If that's the case, it was extremely clumsy, very unlike di Grassi, but not deliberate.

The bottom line is the battle for the 2015/16 FE title deserved a better showdown.

Saturday was magnificent. Buemi was aggrieved at how di Grassi defended his position in the second half of the race but whether he was right or wrong, we still had the title protagonists going hell for leather and wheel-to-wheel.

Instead of a repeat, the title was decided in a way simply not good enough for a professional racing championship.

WHAT THE TITLE RIVALS THOUGHT

SEBASTIEN BUEMI
"It's an amazing achievement but I'm so sad the way it happened. To do something like this I'm sad for him, I'm sad for everyone.

"I knew his only option was Turn 3. I did not save energy on the left where we lift, I went as late as I could on the brakes to make sure I would put myself in a safe place.

"And he hit me so hard that even fully on the brakes we went into the barriers.

"He did the fastest lap and then he waited for me. Each time I tried to go for fastest lap he was slowing me down. I could not believe it, that was the worst of everything.

"He loves to say his car is shit. I call him Zlatan di Grassi because he just wants people to feel like he's amazing.

"He's a great driver, but I can't have respect for someone that behaves like this.

"I'm very happy - in a couple of weeks' time I will forget about that, but it's a bit sad."

LUCAS DI GRASSI
"I don't think fastest lap or pole position should count for points.

"In any case you have to play with the rules you have. In a straight fight for fastest lap we had no chance against Renault.

"I squeezed every hundredth out of my car. I couldn't do better. I go home with a feeling that, especially this weekend, I did the job.

"I knew I had to be aggressive against Prost if I had any chance to fight Seb for the next 33 laps.

"I was very aggressive with him, we ended up touching a little bit, Seb braked almost 50 metres too early compared to me and Nico and when I realised I locked my wheels and had an incident.

"That's not how the first corner should have been, but with these conditions, cold tyres and cold brakes, I had to be aggressive and that's what happened.

"If I had to lose the championship to someone it had to be Seb. He is a fantastic driver and deserved the title.

"We can only be proud and try another year."