The result reduced Sébastien Buemi's lead over di Grassi in the Drivers' Championship from 29 to five after finishing 14th, but earned one point for setting the race's fastest lap.

Audi Sport ABT drew to within 31 points of e.Dams-Renault in the Teams' Championship, while Virgin moved from sixth to third with eight races left in the season.

The Mexico City ePrix was confirmed as part of Formula E's 2016–17 schedule in September 2016 by the FIA World Motor Sport Council.

[4] It was the fourth of twelve scheduled single-seater electric car races of the 2016–17 Championship, the second Mexico City ePrix, and was held on 1 April 2017 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.

[11] After retiring from the preceding Buenos Aires ePrix, Sam Bird said he would go into the Mexico City race with a positive attitude and felt there was a possibility of getting onto the podium if his team did well in qualifying.

Having been in one of the Techeetah cars since the opening round of the season in Hong Kong, Ma Qinghua was replaced by the former Haas driver Esteban Gutiérrez.

[14] Buemi, Stéphane Sarrazin (Venturi) and José María López (Virgin) missed the shakedown session because they attended the launch of the 2017 Toyota TS050 Hybrid at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza.

[18] Vergne and his teammate Gutiérrez incurred three-place suspended grid penalties for exceeding their electrical power allowance under full course yellow conditions in shakedown.

Duval's Dragon teammate Jérôme d'Ambrosio, Vergne, Robin Frijns, Bird, Sarrazin, di Grassi, Daniel Abt and Evans rounded out the session's top ten drivers.

Nick Heidfeld, Abt, Piquet, Engel, António Félix da Costa, Turvey and Duval occupied positions four to ten.

[1] Drivers complained of a lack of grip early in qualifying but lap times lowered when cars cleaned the circuit by driving on it.

[26] In the third group, after the previous four drivers went onto the track, Duval was on his maximum power lap when he spun into the first corner and struck the barrier,[26] causing the session to be stopped to allow his car to be removed from the circuit.

[25] After penalties, the rest of the field lined up as Bird, Félix da Costa, Buemi, Rosenqvist, Gutiérrez, Carroll, Evans, Engel, Prost, Frijns, di Grassi, Piquet, Sarrazin, Abt, d'Ambrosio and Duval.

[17] For the Mexico City race, Abt, di Grassi and Buemi were handed the extra power and the results of the vote were announced on the sixth lap.

[5] When the race started at 16:00 Central Daylight Time (UTC–05:00) before 36,000 attendees,[7][31] Turvey made a clean getaway to maintain the lead into the first corner with López close behind in second place.

[33] A concertina effect occurred between turns three and five,[32] which saw Sarrazin hit the back of di Grassi's car, damaging the latter's rear wing.

At the end of the first lap, Turvey led from López, who in turn, was followed by Heidfeld, Vergne, Bird, Félix da Costa, Rosenqvist, Buemi, Carroll and Evans.

Jaguar teammates Evans and Carroll began battling for eighth while Gutiérrez lost tenth to both Andretti cars of Félix da Costa and Frijns.

[35] Turvey's team asked him to reset his vehicle and a yellow flag was shown to warn drivers about his stranded car.

Although the switch would allow di Grassi and d'Ambrosio to gain positions when other drivers made their stops, it required them to conserve electrical energy later on.

[32][33] The race restarted when the safety car entered the pit lane on the following lap with López remaining in first place, followed by Heidfeld, Vergne, Bird and Buemi.

[33] López built a small lead over the rest of the field and attention switched to Heidfeld who came under pressure from Vergne, Bird, Buemi and Rosenqvist.

Félix da Costa and his teammate Frijns joined the leading group of drivers after being under the minimum pit stop time by three seconds.

[30][35][38] Two laps later, López pushed hard and steered onto the outside line in an attempt to pass d'Ambrosio but slid onto turn one's run-off area braking for the first corner.

[32][33] Buemi activated FanBoost and lined up an overtake on Rosenqvist (who locked his front tyres) but spun braking for turn one,[39] and narrowly avoided striking López's stranded car.

[32] Prost attacked Heidfeld but collided with the rear of his car at turn eight, sending him spinning into the path of his teammate Rosenqvist, who was unable to swerve to avoid him, and ploughed into his vehicle.

[43] He stated that the race demonstrated that Formula E could switch to "Heaven to Hell in one go",[44] and said he felt if the third safety car period had not intervened, he could have managed his advantage over Vergne.

He argued if the sport's governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, felt he was overly aggressive, he would be notified and issued a warning.

D'Ambrosio said that from his point of view, he steered into the corner early and argued he did not change his line: "Sure, I didn't give much space but this is racing.

"[46] He felt he could have achieved a maximum finishing position of fifth but the energy targets displayed on his steering wheel dashboard did not match those provided to him by Dragon, which caused him to push hard until his team realised they were mistaken.