Five penalties decide Homestead Formula E result

Formula E's Homestead Miami race ended with penalties for five drivers including the ones who crossed the line first and third, following a late red flag that meant several had no chance to legally use all their attack mode.

In a typical energy-conserving 'peloton' race on the modified infield road course at the NASCAR oval, many were saving at least one attack mode deployment for the closing stages.

Then the race was red flagged for a chicane-blocking midfield pile-up involving Jake Hughes, Maximilian Guenther and Mitch Evans.

Porsche's Antonio Felix da Costa was leading at the time and had conserved energy well - but had used all his attack modes already so knew he would be swamped during the truncated four-lap dash to the flag.

But those who still had six minutes of attack mode left wouldn't actually have enough race time left to use it by the time they'd reached the attack mode activation loop on the first lap of the restart, so knew they'd get post-race penalties for not using it in full.

Da Costa's team-mate Pascal Wehrlein could fit his remaining four minutes of attack mode in and used it to take the lead.

He was caught and passed by polesitter Norman Nato as the Nissan continued to use attack mode on the run to the finish line, but Nato, third on the road Robin Frijns, championship leader Oliver Rowland and McLaren duo Sam Bird and Taylor Barnard all received 10-second penalties for what was officially termed attack mode misuse.

That ensured victory for Wehrlein and a shock second place for Lucas di Grassi and the new Abt Lola Yamaha combination - who'd been sixth over the line but gained from Nato, Frijns, Rowland and Bird's penalties.

Da Costa was elevated from seventh on the road to a still gutted third.

Nato ended up classified sixth behind Nico Mueller and Edoardo Mortara, while Rowland - who'd only qualified 16th - fell outside the points to 11th but still leads the championship.