Lucas di Grassi has been disqualified from the Berlin race results following a stewards’ inquiry.

The Brazilian’s car was found to have modifications to the front wing and fairings. The Audi Sport ABT team are reported to have claimed these were legitimate repairs; the stewards disagree.

The team had a short window in which to appeal – before 21.08 local time – but chose not to. Di Grassi sent out a short message via Twitter saying: “They are trying to make me win this championship in the hard mode. Don’t worry, we will be back to kick some Piquet and Buemi ass ON TRACK.”

He followed this up with: “We’ve been disqualified for something minor and not related to performance.”

The decision means that Dragon Racing driver Jerome d’Ambrosio has inherited his first win and his team mate, Loic Duval, his first podium.

The shock decision also promotes Nelson Piquet to first place in the driver standings. Piquet finished in fifth place but also won fastest lap, which is worth two points. His promotion to fourth position brings his points haul from this race to 14, giving him a total of 103 points in the drivers’ championship and first position. Buemi is now second with 101 points.

An explanation at the series website reads:

The race-winning car failed post-race scrutineering where it was discovered that the front wing fairings had been modified to include internal metal reinforcing rods. In addition the stewards found that six of the eight holes in the front wing had been sealed. The remaining two holes were found to have had helicoil inserts and chamfers made and that the front flap and gurney LH 220 has a filler layer added and chamfer made.

The team argued that these changes were made as a result of repairs and that they offered no competitive advantage, however, they were deemed to be in breach of Article 3.1 of 2014/2015 FIA Formula E Technical Regulations and the exclusion was made.