Guenther beats Frijns by a tenth

Maximilian Guenther has beaten Robin Frijns by just over a tenth of a second in Formula E Race 8 but Antonio Felix da Costa still holds a commanding championship lead.

Da Costa took the chequered flag in fourth position after 35 laps in his Techeetah around the Berlin Tempelhof circuit, meaning he is 68 points clear of Guenther at the top of the standings with a total of 90 points on offer in the three races which remain.

Jean-Eric Vergne qualified on pole in the other Techeetah and led the race until Guenther momentarily got ahead at the start of Lap 30, then made the move for good at Turn 7 on the same tour.

Frijns (Envision Virgin) got through on Vergne on what would be the penultimate lap and attacked Guenther on the last, but found no way past the leading BMW i Andretti entry.

Only 0.128s separated them at the finish, while Vergne made the podium by just 0.174s over da Costa.

Lucas di Grassi is 76 points behind da Costa in the title race having claimed eighth in his Audi.

Mitch Evans’ deficit to the championship leader is another two points after the Kiwi drove his Jaguar from 19th on the grid to ninth, with the fastest lap along the way.

Race 9 takes place on the same circuit layout tomorrow at 03:03 AEST.

Race results: Race 8, Berlin

Pos	Driver	Team	Laps	Race time
1	M. GÜNTHER	BMW i Andretti Motorsport	35	46:15.512
2	R. FRIJNS	Envision Virgin Racing	35	46:15.640
3	J. VERGNE	DS Techeetah	35	46:18.081
4	A. DA COSTA	DS Techeetah	35	46:18.255
5	A. LOTTERER	TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team	35	46:18.648
6	O. ROWLAND	Nissan e.dams	35	46:21.059
7	J. D’AMBROSIO	Mahindra Racing	35	46:23.405
8	L. DI GRASSI	Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler Formula E Team	35	46:28.184
9	M. EVANS	Panasonic Jaguar Racing	35	46:29.023
10	A. SIMS	BMW i Andretti Motorsport	35	46:34.760
11	S. BUEMI	Nissan e.dams	35	46:35.752
12	N. MÜLLER	Geox Dragon	35	46:35.998
13	S. BIRD	Envision Virgin Racing	35	46:36.245
14	E. MORTARA	Rokit Venturi Racing	35	46:36.456
15	D. ABT	NIO 333 FE Team	35	46:37.460
16	O. TURVEY	NIO 333 FE Team	35	46:38.286
17	A. LYNN	Mahindra Racing	35	46:38.693
18	N. DE VRIES	Mercedes-Benz EQ Formula E Team	35	46:48.032
19	F. MASSA	Rokit Venturi Racing	35	46:52.061
DNF	R. RAST	Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler Formula E Team	30	40:43.236
DNF	S. VANDOORNE	Mercedes-Benz EQ Formula E Team	17	25:21.594
DNF	J. CALADO	Panasonic Jaguar Racing	13	18:44.195
DNF	S. SETTE CÂMARA	Geox Dragon	10	11:55.957
DNF	N. JANI	TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team	10	11:57.678

Drivers’ championship

Pos	Driver	Pts
1	António Félix da Costa	137
2	Maximilian Guenther	69
3	Lucas di Grassi	61
4	Mitch Evans	59
5	Stoffel Vandoorne	57
6	André Lotterer	55
7	Sam Bird	52
8	Sébastien Buemi	52
9	Jean-Éric Vergne	51
10	Alexander Sims	49
11	Oliver Rowland	44
12	Robin Frijns	40
13	Edoardo Mortara	36
14	Nyck de Vries	30
15	Jérôme D’Ambrosio	19
16	Pascal Wehrlein	14
17	James Calado	10
18	Daniel Abt	8
19	Felipe Massa	2
20	Brendon Hartley	2
21	René Rast	1
22	Alex Lynn	0
23	Neel Jani	0
24	Oliver Turvey	0
25	Nico Mueller	0
26	Qinghua Ma	0
27	Sérgio Sette Câmara	0