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Berlin Formula E: D'Ambrosio gets win as di Grassi disqualified

Lucas di Grassi has been stripped of his victory in the Formula E race at Berlin Tempelhof

The Brazilian's Abt squad was deemed to have modified the front wing and front wheel faring of his car, meaning he has been excluded and victory award to Dragon Racing's Jerome d'Ambrosio.

The stewards found that changes had been made in three key areas relating to the internal reinforcement of the front-wheel fairings, the sealing of holes in the front wing and modifications made to the front flap and gurney.

The changes were listed by the stewards as follows:

1) The front wheel fairing both left and right hand side have been modified with internal metal reinforcing rods.

2) Six of the eight holes in the front wing have been sealed. The remaining two holes having helicoil inserts and chamfers made.

3) Front flap and gurney LH 220 has a filler layer added and chamfer made.

It was deemed that this violated the regulations of the series, which uses a spec Spark-built chassis.

As deliberate modifications of control parts is deemed a serious offence, the decision was made to exclude di Grassi.

According to the stewards, the Abt team asserted that the changes were made to repair damage rather than for performance reasons.

"The competitor accepts that the components referred to above differ from the standard items," said the stewards' statement.

"The competitor does, however, maintain that the modifications were made as repairs and with no intention to gain a competitive advantage.

"Nonetheless, the components differ from the standard item and as such car #11 is accordingly excluded from the race."

D'Ambrosio's promotion to first place is his and Dragon Racing's first win in Formula E, with Sebastien Buemi moving up to second place and Loic Duval taking the final podium position.

The exclusion also costs di Grassi the lead of the championship, relegating him to third behind Nelson Piquet Jr and Buemi.

Di Grassi responded via his Twitter account, writing: "They are trying to make me win this championship in the hard mode. Don't worry, we will be back to kick some Piquet and Buemi ass on track".

Abt has decided not to appeal.

The other change to the result was lower down the order, with Karun Chandhok hit with a 28-second time penalty for exceeding the energy limit, relegating him to 18th in the final classification.

UPDATED RESULTS - 33 LAPS:

Pos Driver Team Gap
1 Jerome d'Ambrosio Dragon 48m26.566s
2 Sebastien Buemi e.dams 2.433s
3 Loic Duval Dragon 3.508s
4 Nelson Piquet Jr. China 3.975s
5 Nick Heidfeld Venturi 13.046s
6 Stephane Sarrazin Venturi 13.335s
7 Jean-Eric Vergne Andretti 13.678s
8 Sam Bird Virgin 14.055s
9 Vitantonio Liuzzi Trulli 15.636s
10 Nicolas Prost e.dams 16.602s
11 Antonio Felix da Costa Aguri 16.797s
12 Jaime Alguersuari Virgin 20.594s
13 Scott Speed Andretti 21.149s
14 Daniel Abt Abt 23.688s
15 Charles Pic China 25.491s
16 Salvador Duran Aguri 44.157s
17 Bruno Senna Mahindra 46.257s
18 Karun Chandhok Mahindra 52.703s
19 Jarno Trulli Trulli 2 Laps
- Lucas di Grassi Abt Disqualified

UPDATED CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS:

Pos Driver Points
1 Nelson Piquet Jr. 103
2 Sebastien Buemi 101
3 Lucas di Grassi 93
4 Nicolas Prost 78
5 Jerome d'Ambrosio 77
6 Sam Bird 68
7 Antonio Felix da Costa 45
8 Jean-Eric Vergne 40
9 Jaime Alguersuari 30
10 Bruno Senna 28
11 Loic Duval 23
12 Daniel Abt 22
13 Scott Speed 18
14 Franck Montagny 18
15 Karun Chandhok 18
16 Stephane Sarrazin 18
17 Charles Pic 16
18 Nick Heidfeld 16
19 Oriol Servia 16
20 Jarno Trulli 15
21 Vitantonio Liuzzi 2
22 Takuma Sato 2
23 Salvador Duran 1


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