If the weekend’s first-ever FIA Formula E race in Beijing taught us anything in absolute certainty, it’s that the new Dallara-built chassis is extremely tough.

Nick Heidfeld found that out first-hand after getting walloped by Nicolas Prost as he tried to overtake the Frenchman for the lead on the final corner of the final lap.

The contact pitched Heidfeld into a spin, and a temporary corner kerb acted as a ramp that launched his Venturi-entered car into the air. The German flipped upside down and smashed into the flimsy looking barrier that was in front of the decidedly less flimsy catch-fencing.

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It was a scary accident. Heidfeld wriggled out of what was left of his car and jogged in the direction of Prost, who was wandering away from the scene of his crime with as much French nonchalance as he could muster in the circumstances.

Heidfeld looked ready to apply a solid right-hook to his aggressor, and no-one would have blamed him, but he showed his class in his restraint.

Prost initially denied responsibility, which was unsurprisingly not a view shared by the race stewards who handed him a grid penalty for the next race. Prost and Heidfeld, who are team-mates in the same endurance racing team, later used the healing medium of Twitter to make up.

Although it was far from the ideal start for either Heidfeld or Prost – one of whom was about to make history as the first Formula E winner, an honour which instead went to Lucas di Grassi – it ensured the new electric racing formula was plastered all over the papers and television news.

It was a shame the fight for victory ended that way, though, because it was shaping up for a tense end, the kind of climax the series organisers would have hoped for to prove the worth of their brave new concept.

With all the drivers having a limited amount of power to use, Heidfeld appeared to have eked out his car’s energy more effectively than Prost, who opened up a lead of more than three seconds at one stage of the race.