Formula E Berlin E-Prix II
Berlin E-Prix: De Vries tops opening practice for Mercedes
Formula E points leader Nyck de Vries beat defending champion Antonio Felix da Costa to lead the first Sunday practice session ahead of the 2021 Berlin E-Prix title decider.
Matt Kew
Edited: Aug 15, 2021, 9:54 AM
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The Mercedes driver, who holds a three-point advantage over Edoardo Mortara, ran to the top of the times with his full power 1m06.688s benchmark on the Tempelhof Airport circuit, which had been reversed overnight to now run in a clockwise direction.
That gave de Vries, who endured a torrid Saturday when he was classified 22nd after sustaining a puncture following contact with Alex Lynn, a 0.125-second cushion to DS Techeetah driver da Costa and his 1m06.813s effort.
It was Nissan e.dams driver Oliver Rowland, contesting his final race for the team, that kept featuring at the top of the leaderboard in the opening 30-minute practice session in the German capital.
The Briton posted a 1m08.818s yardstick in the lower 200kW power mode to hold a 0.3s margin over the Envision Virgin Racing machine of rookie Nick Cassidy and another 0.065s over his 2015-16 champion teammate Sebastien Buemi.
Rowland’s first flying lap also put him a full eight tenths clear of the two Dragon Penske Autosport cars that bolted immediately for the 235kW attack mode activations.
Jaguar Racing’s Mitch Evans, who finished third on Saturday to remain as one of the 14 drivers in title contention, then ran fastest with his 1m08.688s lap after nine minutes of the half-hour run.
Mitch Evans, Jaguar Racing, Jaguar I-TYPE 5
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
But in the final efforts before the full-blown switch to attack mode, again de Vries looked imperious as he clocked a 1m08.485s to find 0.23s over his Kiwi rival Evans.
De Vries built that gap up by another four tenths with his first attack mode flier before being quickly deposed by his Silver Arrows teammate Stoffel Vandoorne.
Vandoorne, the first driver to break under the 1m08s threshold, was then again knocked aside by Rowland and his 1m07.143s attack mode lap and was initially joined by Buemi in second.
But the 235kW laps would end with Mercedes customer team Venturi Racing running to second place courtesy of Norman Nato, who headed da Costa, Evans and Saturday polesitter Jean-Eric Vergne.
That preceded a switch to full 250kW power for the final eight minutes when Vandoorne returned to the top courtesy of a 1m07.056s quick lap before de Vries set the fastest time of the session to head da Costa, Rowland, Vergne and BMW Andretti rookie Jake Dennis in fifth.
Saturday race victor Lucas di Grassi clocked sixth in the dying moments to demote Evans and Vandoorne as Mahindra Racing driver Alexander Sims and Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein completed the top 10.
Practice results:
Cla # Driver Team Time Gap 1 17 Nyck de Vries
Mercedes 1'06.688 2 13
Antonio Felix da Costa
Techeetah 1'06.813 0.125 3 22
Oliver Rowland
DAMS 1'06.854 0.166 4 25
Jean-Eric Vergne
Techeetah 1'06.890 0.202 5 27
Jake Dennis
Andretti Autosport 1'06.938 0.250 6 11
Lucas di Grassi
Team Abt 1'06.968 0.280 7 20
Mitch Evans
Jaguar Racing 1'07.041 0.353 8 5
Stoffel Vandoorne
Mercedes 1'07.056 0.368 9 29
Alexander Sims
Mahindra Racing 1'07.141 0.453 10 99
Pascal Wehrlein
Porsche Team 1'07.144 0.456 11 71
Norman Nato
Venturi 1'07.176 0.488 12 48
Edoardo Mortara
Venturi 1'07.183 0.495 13 94
Alex Lynn
Mahindra Racing 1'07.199 0.511 14 28
Maximilian Gunther
Andretti Autosport 1'07.254 0.566 15 23
Sébastien Buemi
DAMS 1'07.294 0.606 16 6
Joel Eriksson
Dragon Racing 1'07.330 0.642 17 4
Robin Frijns
Virgin Racing 1'07.362 0.674 18 10
Sam Bird
Jaguar Racing 1'07.401 0.713 19 33
René Rast
Team Abt 1'07.474 0.786 20 37
Nick Cassidy
Virgin Racing 1'07.601 0.913 21 8
Oliver Turvey
NIO Formula E Team 1'07.640 0.952 22 7
Sergio Sette Camara
Dragon Racing 1'07.645 0.957 23 36
Andre Lotterer
Porsche Team 1'07.705 1.017 24 88
Tom Blomqvist
NIO Formula E Team 1'07.717 1.029 View full results
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