Santiago Formula E: Rowland fastest in disrupted practice sessions
Nissan e.dams driver Oliver Rowland topped a red flag-interrupted Formula E practice ahead of the Santiago E-Prix as only the top three in the second session managed a full-power lap
The final 30-minute session ended prematurely following a crash for Ma Qing Hua, which left Rowland at the top of the times with a 1m04.799s effort.
Reigning Formula 2 champion Nyck de Vries posted the early benchmark with a 1m05.586s ahead of his Mercedes team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne and points leader Alexander Sims.
After five minutes, Porsche's Andre Lotterer found a 0.3-second advantage to move clear as his team-mate Neel Jani was lucky to escape without damage after clattering the tyre wall on the exit of Turn 9.
Mitch Evans posted a then session best of 1m05.046s, but was lucky to do so as the first of two red flags was waved just after he crossed the timing line.
With 16 minutes to go, ex-Toro Rosso Formula 1 driver Brendon Hartley paused the session when a cooling fan had been left on his Dragon Racing car.
The assembly dropped off the car as he rounded Turn 1, causing the stoppage while it was retrieved. The team was fined €5000.
Contact between Antonio Felix da Costa and Rowland at Turn 1 will also be assessed, after the DS Techeetah driver appeared to turn in on the Nissan.
But Rowland responded by posting his 1m04.799s run with the maximum 250kW of power to head the session, beating Felipe Massa (Venturi) by 0.131s.
Before anyone could retaliate, NIO 333 driver Ma shunted heavily at Turn 5 to cause a second stoppage, which brought second practice to an early end.
He lost the rear of the car under braking and, as he tried to recover, ran wide and ploughed into the wall.
That meant Evans's 235kW lap was still sufficient for third ahead of BMW Andretti driver Maximilian Guenther and Lotterer, with da Costa in sixth.
Hartley's difficult run continued as he was then flagged to the stewards for undertaking under the second red flag, having ran 10th quickest.
De Vries slipped to 11th ahead of Pascal Wehrlein and new Jaguar recruit James Colado, as the top 13 all lapped within a second.
Reigning champion Jean-Eric Vergne was just 15th, with Lucas di Grassi beating Sims to 17th.
Sam Bird could only manage 22nd ahead of Jani and Ma, though the Envision Virgin Racing driver did top the cooler first practice session courtesy of a 1m04.914 ahead of da Costa and Edoardo Mortara.
FP1 times
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Sam Bird | Virgin | Audi | 1m04.914s | - | 26 |
2 | Antonio Felix da Costa | DS Techeetah | DS | 1m05.064s | 0.150s | 29 |
3 | Edoardo Mortara | Venturi | Mercedes | 1m05.096s | 0.182s | 27 |
4 | Lucas di Grassi | Audi | Audi | 1m05.203s | 0.289s | 23 |
5 | Nico Muller | Dragon | Penske | 1m05.252s | 0.338s | 27 |
6 | Jerome d'Ambrosio | Mahindra | Mahindra | 1m05.314s | 0.400s | 27 |
7 | Alexander Sims | BMW | BMW | 1m05.388s | 0.474s | 27 |
8 | Sebastien Buemi | Nissan e.dams | Nissan | 1m05.397s | 0.483s | 27 |
9 | Pascal Wehrlein | Mahindra | Mahindra | 1m05.429s | 0.515s | 27 |
10 | Andre Lotterer | Porsche | Porsche | 1m05.452s | 0.538s | 28 |
11 | James Calado | Jaguar | Jaguar | 1m05.472s | 0.558s | 30 |
12 | Stoffel Vandoorne | Mercedes | Mercedes | 1m05.506s | 0.592s | 28 |
13 | Mitch Evans | Jaguar | Jaguar | 1m05.513s | 0.599s | 26 |
14 | Oliver Rowland | Nissan e.dams | Nissan | 1m05.569s | 0.655s | 29 |
15 | Daniel Abt | Audi | Audi | 1m05.632s | 0.718s | 26 |
16 | Jean-Eric Vergne | DS Techeetah | DS | 1m05.659s | 0.745s | 28 |
17 | Maximilian Guenther | BMW | BMW | 1m05.706s | 0.792s | 24 |
18 | Nyck de Vries | Mercedes | Mercedes | 1m05.783s | 0.869s | 30 |
19 | Oliver Turvey | NIO | NIO | 1m06.076s | 1.162s | 31 |
20 | Robin Frijns | Virgin | Audi | 1m06.121s | 1.207s | 23 |
21 | Felipe Massa | Venturi | Mercedes | 1m06.193s | 1.279s | 29 |
22 | Brendon Hartley | Dragon | Penske | 1m06.508s | 1.594s | 27 |
23 | Neel Jani | Porsche | Porsche | 1m06.608s | 1.694s | 30 |
24 | Ma Qinghua | NIO | NIO | 1m07.037s | 2.123s | 31 |
FP2 times
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Oliver Rowland | Nissan e.dams | Nissan | 1m04.799s | - | 15 |
2 | Felipe Massa | Venturi | Mercedes | 1m04.930s | 0.131s | 12 |
3 | Mitch Evans | Jaguar | Jaguar | 1m05.046s | 0.247s | 8 |
4 | Maximilian Guenther | BMW | BMW | 1m05.120s | 0.321s | 11 |
5 | Andre Lotterer | Porsche | Porsche | 1m05.257s | 0.458s | 11 |
6 | Antonio Felix da Costa | DS Techeetah | DS | 1m05.280s | 0.481s | 12 |
7 | Edoardo Mortara | Venturi | Mercedes | 1m05.327s | 0.528s | 12 |
8 | Oliver Turvey | NIO | NIO | 1m05.398s | 0.599s | 12 |
9 | Daniel Abt | Audi | Audi | 1m05.469s | 0.670s | 12 |
10 | Brendon Hartley | Dragon | Penske | 1m05.540s | 0.741s | 9 |
11 | Nyck de Vries | Mercedes | Mercedes | 1m05.586s | 0.787s | 14 |
12 | Pascal Wehrlein | Mahindra | Mahindra | 1m05.598s | 0.799s | 13 |
13 | James Calado | Jaguar | Jaguar | 1m05.634s | 0.835s | 10 |
14 | Stoffel Vandoorne | Mercedes | Mercedes | 1m05.899s | 1.100s | 11 |
15 | Jean-Eric Vergne | DS Techeetah | DS | 1m06.258s | 1.459s | 10 |
16 | Lucas di Grassi | Audi | Audi | 1m06.283s | 1.484s | 8 |
17 | Alexander Sims | BMW | BMW | 1m06.349s | 1.550s | 11 |
18 | Jerome d'Ambrosio | Mahindra | Mahindra | 1m06.368s | 1.569s | 11 |
19 | Nico Muller | Dragon | Penske | 1m06.660s | 1.861s | 9 |
20 | Robin Frijns | Virgin | Audi | 1m06.857s | 2.058s | 6 |
21 | Sebastien Buemi | Nissan e.dams | Nissan | 1m06.904s | 2.105s | 13 |
22 | Sam Bird | Virgin | Audi | 1m07.007s | 2.208s | 9 |
23 | Neel Jani | Porsche | Porsche | 1m07.056s | 2.257s | 11 |
24 | Ma Qinghua | NIO | NIO | 1m08.364s | 3.565s | 10 |
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