Abt: Rough Buemi ‘dive-bombed’ me out of fifth place in Paris 

Audi Formula E driver Daniel Abt has accused Sebastian Buemi of “dive-bombing” him out of fifth place at last weekend’s Paris E-Prix. 

Abt qualified a disappointing 14th place on the grid in Paris but recovered to cross the line in seventh position thanks to a series of bold overtaking manoeuvres.

Teammate Lucas di Grassi took advantage of a dramatic final-lap collision involving Techeetah’s Andre Lotterer and third-place man Sam Bird to finish second. The incident was set to promote Abt up to fifth but he ended up dropping to seventh after his own clash with Buemi at the Turn 9 hairpin.  

“The grid positions were a little disappointing, but in the race I had good overtaking manoeuvres,” Abt said. 

“Unfortunately, I still lost a position on the last lap because my ‘best friend’ Buemi felt that he had to dive-bomb me in the chicane. Next time, we need to do better in qualifying and then there’ll be a trophy again too.”

Audi team principal Allan McNish praised Abt’s performance and revealed the German had declared his determination to prove wrong the notion that overtaking around the narrow Circuit des Invalides was impossible. 

“Daniel is my driver of the day,” McNish said. “In a pre-race meeting he said that he’s able to overtake in Paris even though everyone says that that’s impossible. He kept his word. It’s a shame that Buemi’s rough manoeuvre at the end cost him places.”