Formula E crowns a new champion as season six ends in Berlin

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  Andre Lotterer (DEU), Tag Heuer Porsche, Porsche 99x Electric [credit: Formula E ]

Squeezing six races out an old airport in Berlin over the course of nine days wasn't how anyone expected Formula E's season to end. The electric racing series made it work, though. The series pressed pause on its world tour after round five, which was held in Morocco in February. When that pause happened, the championship was fairly close, with Antonio Felix da Costa leading the way after getting his first win for the DS Techeetah team.

First run it backwards

As the teams emerged from their pre-race quarantine, da Costa had lost nothing in terms of form. He was unbeatable in races 6 and 7, which were held on a reversed version of the 1.5-mile (2.35km) course that Formula E has used for all its previous visits to the Tempelhof airport. Meanwhile, none of his rivals were able to finish consistently enough to stay within shouting distance.

Now run it run forward

For races 8 and 9, Formula E kept all ten turns in the same place, but the series returned to its normal racing direction around Tempelhof's prewar concrete. BMW i Andretti's Maxi Guenther narrowly beat Envision Virgin's Robert Frjins to win race 8, with da Costa in fourth place behind his teammate and double-champion Jean-Eric Vergne. However, this fourth place was enough to make da Costa's championship lead unassailable. The following day, Guenther went from hero to zero in race 9 when he crashed out on lap 1. This race saw a pretty close fight between both DS Techeetah cars and the pair of Nissans with Vergne beating da Costa and Nissan's Sebastian Buemi for the win.

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