Berlin turned into a fire-breathing fairy tale for Dragon Racing driver Jerome d’Ambrosio, who claimed his first win of the season on German concrete.

“It’s great,” D’Ambrosio told Current E’s Naomi Panter. “It was an important step to make for me and for the team to be able to convert that pace into a result. The car was fantastic. I really had great pace in the first car.”

The Belgian driver finished in second position in Berlin, his highest position to date. That was turned into a win following the disqualification of Lucas di Grassi, who was deemed to have a front wing that breached regulations.

The American team endured a rather torrid time throughout testing last summer at Donington Park, which seemed to be compounded when the team parted ways with their star signing, the IndyCar street specialist and WEC racer Mike Conway, just days before the season opener in Beijing.

But d’Ambrosio has been consistently pacey throughout the first season, picking up points in every race apart from Buenos Aires and building a reputation for fast, fair overtaking moves on track. In Malaysia, the second round of the new series, he qualified in pole position (before being excluded from the results for a power infringement, which has happened to more than a few teams getting used to the new systems).

The performance and the win puts d’Ambrosio into fifth place in the drivers’ standings, just one point behind Nico Prost (whose team, e.dams-Renault, is running away with the teams’ championship) and within 26 points of championship leader Nelson Piquet. In Formula E, a pole position and a win would deliver 28 points so, with three races to run, the Belgian is suddenly looking like a contender.

Berlin brings not only the first podium for d’Ambrosio but also for his team mate Loic Duval, another WEC driver, who was brought in just before the Miami race. Their combined points total has moved the team owned by Jay Penske into second place in the race for the teams’ championship, a point ahead of Audi Sport ABT.

The achievement should help secure a future in the sport for both team and driver. “Next year is a little bit different with manufacturers and so on but the idea was always a long term commitment with the team and Jay,” d’Ambrosio says. “No confirmation yet but I think this could be heading in the right direction.”

Dragon is one of only two teams not to have confirmed a manufacturing partnership for the second season. That means the team will need to purchase a powertrain from one of the eight new manufacturers, look for an upgraded package from McLaren or stick with this year’s tech.

There are question marks over how much of a performance advantage there is to be gained with next season’s introduction of motor development, with constructors confident of big gains and external technical experts doubtful.

Still, with the team clearly finding performance from this year’s platform and d’Ambrosio now one of Formula E’s elite club of seven race winners, it looks like a very strong partnership heading to Moscow – and beyond.