The 2018 Berlin ePrix (formally the 2018 BMW i Berlin E-Prix) was a Formula E electric car race held at the Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit at Tempelhof Airport in the outskirts of Berlin on 19 May 2018. It was the ninth round of the 2017–18 Formula E Championship and the fourth edition of the event as part of the championship. The 45-lap race was won by Audi driver Daniel Abt after starting from the pole position. Defending champion Lucas di Grassi finished second in the other Audi, thus recording the second one-two finish in Formula E history. Jean-Éric Vergne, the championship leader going into Berlin, took third for Techeetah.
Daniel Abt won the pole position by recording the fastest lap in qualifying and he maintained his start line advantage for virtually the entire race, with teammate di Grassi in second at Audi's home ePrix despite Abt having a slow mandatory mid-event pit stop to switch into a second car as he had to let e.Dams-Renault's Sébastien Buemi enter his pitbox. Abt also set the fastest lap of the race, meaning he left Berlin with the full complement of 29 points from a single ePrix, and he achieved the first Grand Chelem in the history of Formula E.
The consequence of the final positions increased Vergne's Drivers' Championship lead to 40 points over Virgin's Sam Bird, who came seventh. In the Teams' Championship, Audi scored a maximum 47 points because of their one-two finish and with Abt scoring pole and fastest lap. They advanced to second in the points standings behind the dominant Techeetah squad, with 45 points separating the two teams with three races left in the season.
Background The 2018 Berlin ePrix was confirmed as part of Formula E's 2017–18 series schedule in September 2017 by the FIA World Motor Sport Council. It was the ninth of twelve scheduled single-seater electric car races of the 2017–18 Championship, and the fourth Berlin ePrix. The ePrix was held at the clockwise ten-turn Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit at Berlin Tempelhof Airport on 19 May 2018. The track was described as "very technical" and it was anticipated by the press that most of the overtaking manoeuvres during the race would occur at the braking areas for turns one, six and the turn nine hairpin. Three changes were made to the Tempelhof circuit from the year before: the first involved the re-positioning pit lane entry from turn ten to after the final corner. The second was that the 180 degree turn six right-hander was moved away from the center of a braking zone slightly to allow for a straighter approach to the turn nine hairpin and to provide more overtaking opportunities. The last change saw the length of the straight increase by . These alterations increased the track's overall length by .
Entering the race, Techeetah driver Jean-Éric Vergne was leading the Drivers' Championship with 147 points. His nearest rival Sam Bird of Virgin was thirty-one points behind in second place and third-placed Felix Rosenqvist for Mahindra was another thirty points adrift. e.Dams-Renault's Sébastien Buemi was fourth with 70 points and Lucas di Grassi of Audi completed the top five with 58 points. In the Teams' Championship, Techeetah led the standings with 186 points accrued throughout the season; Virgin were 42 points behind in second and Audi were a further 21 points in arrears in third place. Mahindra placed fourth with 107 points and Jaguar stood in fifth position with 88 points.
After winning the Paris ePrix three weeks ago, Vergne focused on trying to finish ahead of Bird in the battle for the Drivers' Championship in the closing four races of the season but entered the Berlin race with a poor record from the previous year and Techeetah had limited testing opportunities because of its status as a customer team, "At this stage in the season, it's all about keeping it clean and scoring points." Vergne received support from his teammate André Lotterer, one of four German drivers competing in Berlin, who declared he would help Vergne win the championship and pledged not to crash into anybody, "If I can help, I'll help. JEV has been a great team-mate to help me get up to speed anyhow – we play this card for the team [and] everything in a reasonable [way]." Daniel Abt of Audi meanwhile came second in the 2016 race and was confident about his chances, "A victory in Berlin would be the highlight of my Formula E career. I had a second place in the penultimate season and even that was very emotional for me."
A total of 20 drivers representing ten teams of two participants each raced in the event. There were three driver changes entering the race. Having been in one of the Venturi cars since the season-opening Hong Kong race, Edoardo Mortara was replaced by the team's reserve and test driver Tom Dillmann, who had previously competed in the final seven races of the previous season. The change was necessitated because Mortara was mandated to prioritise the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) round at the Lausitzring over the Berlin Formula E race by Mercedes-Benz per the requirements of his DTM contract. Tom Blomqvist was released from his contract by Andretti after his poor performance in comparison to teammate António Félix da Costa since he debuted in Marrakesh and was set to focus on BMW's GT programme. Blomqvist was replaced by series veteran and SMP Racing driver Stéphane Sarrazin for the rest of the season. After being stood down for NIO reserve driver Ma Qinghua in Paris to exercise a contractual arrangement and for promotional reasons, Luca Filippi returned to partner Oliver Turvey at the team.
Practice Two practice sessions—both on Saturday morning—were held before the late afternoon race. The first session ran for 45 minutes and the second lasted half an hour. A half an hour untimed shakedown session was held on Friday afternoon to enable teams to check the reliability of their cars and their electronic systems. A post-shakedown fine of €1000 was issued to Filippi because he was observed speeding in the pit lane. Nick Heidfeld (Mahindra) was fastest in the first practice session with a lap of one minute and 9.667 seconds at the close of the session. His closest challenger was Buemi who was 0.474 seconds off Heidfeld's pace in second with Vergne in third and Rosenqvist fourth. Turvey, Alex Lynn (Virgin), Félix da Costa, di Grassi, Mitch Evans (Jaguar), Nico Prost (e.Dams-Renault) and Abt placed fifth through tenth. Sarrazin caused the session to be stopped for fifteen minutes when he understeered straight into the turn one barrier due to his throttle being partially engaged under braking. This necessitated officials to extract his damaged car from the track via a crane and one of the TecPro barriers needed repairing. Competitors lost valuable practice time and the session restarted with fifteen minutes remaining. Drivers familiarised themselves with their car-setups in second practice and got into a rhythm during their laps despite encountering slower traffic and discarded tyre rubber at the side of the circuit was problematic for all. Vergne set the fastest lap of the weekend so far with a time of one minute and 9.438 seconds despite narrowly avoiding grazing the turn seven wall. Rosenqvist was second and Lotterer was the fastest of the German drivers in third. Di Grassi and Abt were fourth and sixth and the Audis were separated by Buemi in fifth. Jérôme d'Ambrosio (Dragon) was seventh-quickest, Lynn eighth, Evans ninth and Bird completed the top ten ahead of qualifying.
Qualifying Saturday's afternoon qualifying session ran for an hour and was divided into four groups of five cars. Each group was determined by a lottery system and was permitted six minutes of on-track activity. All drivers were limited to two timed laps with one at maximum power. The fastest five overall competitors in the four groups participated in a "Super Pole" session with one driver on the track at any time going out in reverse order from fifth to first. Each of the five drivers was limited to one timed lap and the starting order was determined by the competitor's fastest times (Super Pole from first to fifth, and group qualifying from sixth to twentieth). The driver and team who recorded the fastest time were awarded three points towards their respective championships.
Traditionally the first qualifying group would have competitors struggle to reach super pole but the Templehof Airport Street Circuit has been known to produce unexpected results since its concrete surface absorbs heat generated by a car's tyres and this posed a risk those who had little to no grip in their vehicles. Abt paced the first group, followed by Turvey and the Jaguar duo of Evans (who made a driving error) and Nelson Piquet Jr. Super pole favourite Lotterer was one of the first drivers to venture onto the circuit and attempt a maximum power lap. He slid luridly through the sixth turn, and then glanced the outside barrier leaving the high-speed turn seven left-hander on his timed lap, sustaining possible car damage given he was eight-tenths of a second slower than Abt. In the second group, Lynn set the fastest first sector time of anyone at the time to go third overall and was fastest despite losing time through car correction in the second sector. José María López (Dragon) eliminated Piquet and Lotterer from super pole with the second quickest group time. Maro Engel (Venturi) placed third and Heidfeld managed fourth after glancing the wall. Félix da Costa locked his brakes and was slowest in the second group. D'Ambrosio set the fastest group three lap to go second overall, which was deemed "a major improvement" considering his poor performance earlier in the season. Dillmann was second-quickest, Sarrazin out-qualified teammate Félix da Costa on his Formula E return in third, and Filippi took fourth. Prost had an untidy exit coming out of turn five and was the slowest overall driver in group qualifying.
Di Grassi was fastest overall in the fourth group with a 1-minute and 9.620 seconds lap, which was one-tenth of a second slower than Engel's 2017 fastest race lap despite the track's increased length. Vergne was one-tenth of a second slower than di Grassi in second and Rosenqvist could not reach super pole with a lap that was one hundredths of a second outside the limit and it placed him third in the group. Buemi was the first driver to record a lap time in the group and briefly moved into the top five before di Grassi and Vergne demoted him. Bird was the fourth group's slowest competitor. At the end of group qualifying, di Grassi, Vergne, Turvey, d'Ambrosio and Abt's lap times advanced them to super pole. Abt was fastest in all three sectors by making no errors and secured his and Audi's first pole position of his season and the second of his career since the 2015 Long Beach ePrix with a time of one minute and 9.472 seconds. He was joined on the grid's front row by Turvey (the first to drive onto the track) who recorded a lap 0.263 seconds slower and had the pole until Abt's lap despite locking his brakes on the approach to turn six. Vergne could not match Abt's pace as he went close to hitting the wall exiting the turn nine hairpin and took third. D'Ambrosio picked up some oversteer going through the first corner and slowed for fourth. Fifth-placed di Grassi ran close to the turn three exit barrier and carried too much speed entering the turn nine hairpin, understeered, and corrected a slide which lost him eight-tenths of a second.
Post-qualifying