Lucas di Grassi commits to Abt for third year of Formula E
Formula E championship leader Lucas di Grassi will remain with Abt Audi Sport for a third campaign
The Brazilian has committed to the 2016/17 season of the electric single-seater series with the German Abt team, of which di Grassi's LMP1 employer Audi is a partner.
He told Autosport he viewed Abt as the best option to take the fight to Renault e.dams and the incoming Jaguar entry, which has a Williams Advanced Engineering tie-up, next season.
"Although I had the call from, let's say, more than half of the grid asking what was my position for next year, I thought the best solution was Abt," he said.
"They are improving a lot as a team and we are becoming more professional, the level is going up and there are more manufacturers wanting to be involved.
"The complexity goes up, the development goes up and after discussing for a long time with the team we came to the conclusion it was the best decision to stay together for season two."
Ex-Formula 1 driver di Grassi finished third in the inaugural FE season after a costly exclusion following victory in the Berlin ePrix in the Tempelhof airport.
He holds an 11-point lead over Sebastien Buemi in the race for the 2015/16 drivers' title heading into the penultimate event of the current season in Berlin this weekend.
Di Grassi has won four of the season's seven races on the road, though he lost one victory through disqualification in Mexico, and finished on the podium in the other three.
His title challenge has come despite the Abt Schaeffler FE01's performance deficit to the Renault Z.E.15.
"It's been a dream championship far and I'm glad to have such a professional team behind me," he said after his victory in Long Beach last month.
"The team has done a fantastic job, from the point of view of equipment, pace, reliability, pitstops."
Daniel Abt will stay on as di Grassi's team-mate for a third year.
DI GRASSI'S FORMULA E STATS
FE rank Wins 4 2nd Podiums 12 1st Points 259 1st Races in points 15 3rd Poles 0 n/a Front-row starts 5 =2nd Races led 6 =3rd Laps led 139 2nd
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