How Formula E's open title fight was defused in two races

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.

Each outfit used the five-month break to pick out software developments, and all were confident of some performance gains. But with the black and gold squad also rigorously analysing every data trace, it managed to match or even supersede any of its rivals' inroads.

Although there's still four races to play, all the in-form da Costa needs is an entirely achievable quadruplet of third-place finishes to secure the top prize in electric racing - which would be his first championship since a 2009 charge to the Formula Renault 2.0 NEC spoils.

Any notion that DS Techeetah had slipped back in the pecking order after its Marrakech supremacy - a commanding 11.4s win for da Costa and a sublime recovery for (non-COVID) virus-stricken Jean-Eric Vergne to third - was dispelled come the first qualifying session in the German capital. The team-mates locked out the front row of the grid.

When Andre Lotterer fended off Sebastien Buemi into Turn 1 of the opening race, da Costa and Vergne escaped to a 2s lead. As Lotterer then missed one of three sensors and failed to activate the first of his 35kWh attack mode boosts, there was clear breathing space.

Rather than maintain the cushion, however, da Costa upped the pace to pull 5s clear of the Porsche driver and Vergne was forced to match the speed, much to his chagrin.

"OK guys, there is no more rules now," he said over team radio. "I mean [da Costa] is clearly over-consuming and not following the beep. It's a joke. I will remember this."

In contrast to Vergne, da Costa was operating at the height of his powers. Again supreme in qualifying, he smashed his group one championship rivals by 0.44s

The defending champion was under the impression that da Costa would follow a pre-agreed team protocol to manage the lead. He would adhere to the "beep", instructing him when to brake, when to lift and coast, in an effort to preserve useable energy. It would also nurture the rear tyres on the abrasive concrete surface and pay dividends in the final few laps.

Da Costa ignoring this and disappearing up the road had compromised the plan, in Vergne's eyes.

But da Costa wasn't having any of it, telling Autosport: "We looked at a certain amount of scenarios to see how the race would pan out. But in the end, I got told on the radio that none of those scenarios would come into play and we were free to race and so I did.

"I don't know if [Vergne] expected something else. But that's not really my problem."

Indeed, da Costa did cut it fine, crossing the line marginal on energy, but he had made it to a clear 5.4s triumph. Added to his bonus points for topping group qualifying and superpole, he was 41 points to the good in the championship table.

Vergne, on the other hand, slipped back as he chewed through the rubber. Desperately slow in the closing laps, he dropped like a stone behind Lotterer, Sam Bird, then the Mercedes duo of heavy-handed Nyck de Vries and Stoffel Vandoorne plus Jerome D'Ambrosio's Mahindra. After a spin with Lucas di Grassi's Audi, he would park in the pits to classify a paltry 20th - his bid to defend the title ailing fast.

The former Toro Rosso driver received his fair share of flack upon joining the FE ranks, focused on a fragile temperament that came with his break-up from Formula 1. To his toughest critics, he was seen as a 'sulker'.

In recent seasons, though, Vergne looked to have put that accusation to bed - spearheaded by his New York recovery last season after a turgid Saturday performance to win a second FE title the next day.

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But Vergne appeared to have slipped back into an old habit. As he was interviewed on the grid ahead of race two in Berlin, rather than focusing on the job in hand, he was still lamenting the previous day. "Well [da Costa] clearly didn't listen to anything yesterday," he told presenter Nicki Shields. The fog was still enveloping.

By contrast, da Costa was operating at the height of his powers. Again supreme in qualifying, he smashed his group one championship rivals by 0.4s. The track evolution was expected to mitigate much of the group one deficit for the first six runners out on a 'green' track, but he was the only one to progress to superpole. There he cleared Buemi by another 0.4s to land his third pole position on the trot.

For the duration of race two, he was without an obvious challenge. Buemi was valiant in his bid to bring the gap under 0.8s, but he activated his four-minute attack mode boost just as a full-course yellow was called to retrieve debris from Maximilian Guenther's BMW Andretti. A brief return to racing was again stunted by another FCY for more bodywork strewn on the main straight by Bird, all the while as Buemi's boost ticked away unused.

That meant da Costa could activate both of his higher power modes to good effect, the addition of fanboost all but confirming his win by 3s over the Nissan e.dams driver.

With another 28-point haul, he moves 68 clear of his closest chaser and aided by the collapse of nearest rival Mitch Evans.

While Vergne fell from eighth to 10th in race two to score a solitary point, there was a degree of expectation that Evans could climb the order. After an error from his Jaguar team meant he started the preceding Marrakech race in last place, a mesmeric rise took him to sixth.

Worryingly though, for a driver who entered Berlin second in the points, Jaguar doesn't appear to have built on its pace. Worse, it looks to have regressed.

"When it comes to a track and one of the drivers seems to suit it, as Antonio does, then really he's just doing what Vergne did last year to win" Mark Preston, DS Techeetah principal

A subdued eighth in first qualifying should have been retrievable, but instead he slid to 13th at the flag. After bringing up the rear of group one - 0.7s behind da Costa - in second qualifying, he lined up only 16th for race two. Afforded positions by D'Ambrosio's disqualification for exceeding energy limits, de Vries' technical failure and Guenther's late retirement, Evans was a fortunate but ultimately point-less 12th.

When a software issue cost him victory in Santiago, the team went away, isolated the fault and found a fix. That meant he returned in Mexico City to score a consummate victory. But with only one day's gap before the next brace of races, there isn't a luxury of time of rediscover the lost form. More worryingly, Jaguar had yet to diagnose the problem.

When Autosport asked what had happened to the team's strong race pace, Evans said: "I would love to know, we're all a bit confused. We're not too sure right now. We're all a bit lost. At the moment it's not looking good."

Evans crestfallen, Guenther in the wars, Alexander Sims struggling - these were two days when da Costa was given an inch by his main championship rivals. He took a mile.

Da Costa might have tipped his cap to Vergne after race one, saying: "To be honest, [Vergne] has helped me a lot to get up to speed with this car and he still masters the car a bit better than I do. He's more aware of what's going on." But it shows that he's clearly learning from the blueprint of a double champion.

As DS Techeetah team principal Mark Preston tells Autosport, that can be what underlies da Costa's now seemingly inevitable title win.

"I'm really impressed by the fact that da Costa got out of group one qualifying into superpole twice," he said. "It was the same with [Vergne] when he won the championship. He defined the championship on the days that he got out of the group and then led the race.

"When it comes to a track and one of the drivers seems to suit it, as Antonio does, then really he's just doing what Vergne did last year to win."

Di Grassi - heading up an improved Audi fight - and Mercedes' leading light Vandoorne now run a joint second in the standings. But at the mercy of da Costa botching his qualifying laps, crashing or sustaining a technical failure, Buemi's quip that his second place in race two meant he won "Formula E 1.5" in deference to da Costa's command rings true.

Little wonder he reckoned the title fight "is more or less done", with Vandoorne adding "I don't think anyone is thinking about Antonio".