Drying conditions favoured the brave as those that gambled with the setup on their cars were able to slice through the field to the podium, and none profited more than the ultra-experienced Brazilian who had started the race in 18th position.
Joel Eriksson (Envision Racing) had led the pack away from a late caution with Jean-Eric Vergne (Citroen Racing) and di Grassi in close company - the trio all up 16 spots from the start at this stage. Crucially, that Full Course Yellow had neutralised Eriksson and Vergne's ATTACK MODE activations, with di Grassi's still in-hand.
RESULTS: The 2026 Shanghai E-Prix Round 13
The 2016/17 champion duly used his remaining 50kW, all-wheel drive boost once the FCY ended to make up ground on the pair ahead, passing Eriksson at the hairpin on the penultimate lap as Vergne fought through to the lead - before dispatching the Citroen driver half a lap later at Turn 1, on the final lap, for the win.
That was a first trip to the top step of the podium since 2022 for di Grassi, who also won the very first Formula E race, also here in China back in 2014. He remains Formula E's oldest race winner at now 41 years 328 days old and he sets a new record as the series' oldest podium finisher.
Vergne came home second in the end with Eriksson following for his best finish yet, and a maiden podium. Porsche's Pascal Wehrlein had led early on but could managed only fourth at the flag - plenty for the standings lead, though, as prior Drivers' World Championship pacesetter Mitch Evans (Jaguar TCS Racing) failing to make the race start due to a technical issue with his car.
Sebastien Buemi rounded fifth for Envision Racing with polesitter Felipe Drugovich (Andretti) winding up sixth.
All that saw Wehrlein leave China atop the standings, overturning Evans' pre-weekend 19-point lead to head the Kiwi by nine. Jaguar TCS Racing head Porsche in the Teams 243 points to 237. Porsche lead Jaguar in the Manufacturers' - 384 plays 334.
Formula E returns for the TDK Tokyo E-Prix Rounds 14 & 15, a double-header night-race on 25 & 26 July.
As it happened...
Before the race had started, Mitch Evans' race was run. A technical issue saw his team working away to the last on his Jaguar but they weren't able to rectify the problem to get him out on the grid for lights out. Disastrous for the standings leader.
The conditions meant a couple of laps behind the Safety Car before the static start, with polesitter Drugovich leading the field through the sweeping right-hand Turn 1.
Taylor Barnard, Pepe Marti, Edoardo Mortara and Nyck de Vries immediately jumped for the first of their two mandatory ATTACK MODE 50kW, all-wheel drive boosts to make use of that extra power and grip while the pack was bunched. Much of the top 10 jumped a lap later.
Barnard had hit the front on what was Lap 5, with Drugovich, Wehrlein, Marti, Mortara, Rowland, de Vries, Mueller, Dennis and Maloney following as the field ran two and three wide through Sector 1.
Wehrlein's overlap in ATTACK saw him cycle to P1 come Lap 7, heading teammate Mueller by a couple of seconds - though Nico did have a couple more minutes overlap in ATTACK to make use of himself.
The Porsches then worked together to stretch a gap to Drugovich in third, pulling out three seconds as the race passed Lap 10.
Da Costa went later with ATTACK and made up good ground to third on Lap 16 by the time his first 50kW, all-wheel drive jolt had run its course - behind the lead Porsche pair. He'd clipped Rowland's Nissan earlier through Turn 1 and damaged his front wing but looked to have avoided any further action.
Buemi sat fourth with three percent of usable energy in-hand on Lap 18 - well placed to pounce as he took ATTACK MODE number two. He immediately made it by da Costa at the hairpin, setting about Mueller and leader Wehrlein a couple of seconds up the road.
Mueller responded to the charging Envision pair, taking ATTACK a lap later. However, Eriksson was able to sweep around the outside of Mueller and Buemi at the start of Lap 21 at Turn 1 - the Swede second ahead of Buemi as they navigated Mueller's Porsche and it was now Eriksson with the energy in-hand.
A tour later and Eriksson swept by Wehrlein on the run to Turn 1 - a 16-place gain on his starting berth. He still had an ATTACK MODE to use, too.
The drivers that had set up for drying conditions were flying - Eriksson 4.4 seconds out-front, Vergne flying through the field to P2 on Lap 23 while di Grassi joined the party in P3 leaving Wehrlein outside of the podium positions. All three had made up 16 spots on their grid slot.
A Full Course Yellow was required on Lap 24 with Maloney's Lola in the wars and needing recovery. This left his teammate di Grassi in the ideal position; P3 but with ATTACK MODE still to use as those around him saw theirs ebb away under caution.
On the restart, Eriksson had it all to do to keep two champions at bay. Vergne was right on the rear of the Envision, with di Grassi in ATTACK with the pair of them.
Vergne made a move at the hairpin stick as di Grassi lunged - the pair past Eriksson and now scrapping over the provisional win.
Through Turn 1 on the final lap, di Grassi swept right around the outside of Vergne to pinch P1. He held on in ATTACK to take the team's first Formula E win, heading Vergne and Eriksson home on-track.
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