Formula E Berlin: Felix Rosenqvist wins comfortably for Mahindra

The Mahindra driver passed poleman Lucas di Grassi just before the mid-race car swaps and eased clear of the Brazilian in the latter half of the event to win by a comfortable margin.

Second place for di Grassi means he cuts into Sebastien Buemi's championship lead, but the Swiss driver's advantage is still a healthy 32 points after a superb recovery drive to fifth from 14th on the grid.

At the start, Rosenqvist jumped into second immediately as di Grassi's fellow front-row starter Jose Maria Lopez made a poor getaway.

Di Grassi built a gap at first and held a lead of 2.3 seconds at one stage, but Rosenqvist gradually chipped away until he was on the Abt Audi Sport driver's tail starting their final lap before swapping cars.

Rosenqvist took advantage of di Grassi lifting and coasting early on the run to Turn 1, passing him on the outside for a lead he would hold until the end.

Di Grassi tried to apply pressure at the start of the second stint but Rosenqvist was never threatened and, even after easing off on the final lap, came home to claim his maiden victory by 2.2s.

By the end of the race, the second Mahindra driver Nick Heidfeld had caught di Grassi, who was struggling with his battery's temperature, but the German racer had to settle for his third-consecutive third-place finish.

Behind the podium finishers Lopez was a distant fourth, having eased clear of Jean-Eric Vergne over the second stint.

Vergne finished fifth on the road but picked up a five-second penalty for an unsafe release, which made the damage limitation job by Buemi - who was right behind the Techeetah driver - even more effective.

The Renault e.dams driver started down the field after struggling with the handling of his car in qualifying, but made steady progress in the opening stint and had risen to ninth by the car swaps.

He was superb in the second stint, catching the group in front and picking off Daniel Abt, Sam Bird and team-mate Nico Prost, then briefly attacked Vergne - whom he had trailed by seven seconds shortly before the pitstops - before backing off after the Frenchman's penalty was confirmed.

Vergne's infraction ultimately dropped him to ninth, with Maro Engel scoring the final point for Venturi.

There were concerns about tyre degradation on the Tempelhof circuit's airfield surface, but the race passed with no incidents of note and only one non-finisher - Mitch Evans.

The Jaguar driver suffered a problem with his first car so pitted and went for the fastest lap in his second car, which he achieved to bag a point for the fourth race in a row, but did not complete enough laps to be classified.

RESULTS - 44 LAPS