Practice report
Formula E Berlin E-prix II
Berlin E-Prix: Di Grassi leads Lotterer in practice by 0.009s
Lucas di Grassi fired his Audi to the top of the times in final Formula E practice on the reversed Berlin circuit as only 0.9s covered the top six.
Matt Kew
Published: Aug 6, 2020, 10:36 AM
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The 2017-18 champion botched his qualifying lap for the first E-Prix at the Tempelhof Airport to line up only 20th but recovered to eighth after a late crash with the DS Techeetah of Jean-Eric Vergne.
His late 250kW full power practice run aboard the E-tron FE06 propelled him to the top of the times on a 1m06.732s, which left him fractionally clear of Andre Lotterer by 0.009s.
For much of the 45-minute session, Berlin race one victor Antonio da Costa sat comfortably fastest after a higher-power 235kW run combined with fanboost.
Then quickest in all three sectors, the DS Techeetah driver posted a 1m06.821s to eclipse his group one qualifying time from the day before, which left him more than 1s ahead of next best Serge Sette Camara.
A late flurry of full power runs, however, relegated the points leader down to an eventual sixth after he spurned his final run with a Turn 6 lock up, which sent him wide for Turn 7.
Porsche driver Lotterer would remain in second, then, ahead of the BMW Andretti of Maximilian Gunther, only a further 0.008 in arrears.
A quiet session for Jaguar driver Mitch Evans - who impressed in Mexico City and Marrakesh qualifying, prior to a team error - was saved by a run to fourth.
Alexander Sims, in the second BMW iFE 20, ran in fifth ahead of da Costa in a session where five teams were covered by only 0.089s.
A strong run out for Dragon Racing’s new signing Sette Camara - who will miss his first Formula 1 grand prix of 2020 in his role as Red Bull reserve - gave him a competitive seventh.
Contesting his debut FE weekend, his Thursday morning practice run was 2s quicker than any lap he managed throughout all of Wednesday.
Vergne, who spent much of the first-half of third practice focusing on energy saving runs after his late decline in the opening E-Prix, was eighth as Oliver Rowland in his Nissan e.dams car edged Stoffel Vandoorne [Mercedes] in the battle for a top 10 spot.
Di Grassi’s new teammate Rene Rast was only 0.4s off the pace, but enough to drag him down to 14th ahead of Envision Virgin Racing duo Robin Frijns and Sam Bird.
Felipe Massa complained of a “really bad” front end that “didn’t work”, and he was a lowly 23rd.
NIO 333 stand-in Daniel Abt was last of the runners, reporting he had “no trust” in the car and so will revert to the preceding day’s set-up.
Berlin E-Prix: Practice 3 results:
Cla Driver Team Time Gap 1 Lucas di Grassi
Team Abt 1'06.732 2
Andre Lotterer
Porsche Team 1'06.741 0.009 3
Maximilian Gunther
Andretti Autosport 1'06.749 0.017 4
Mitch Evans
Jaguar Racing 1'06.772 0.040 5
Alexander Sims
Andretti Autosport 1'06.789 0.057 6
Antonio Felix da Costa
Techeetah 1'06.821 0.089 7
Sergio Sette Camara
Dragon Racing 1'06.857 0.125 8
Jean-Eric Vergne
Techeetah 1'06.861 0.129 9
Oliver Rowland
DAMS 1'06.914 0.182 10
Stoffel Vandoorne
Mercedes 1'06.969 0.237 11
Nico Müller
Dragon Racing 1'07.012 0.280 12
Jérôme d'Ambrosio
Mahindra Racing 1'07.106 0.374 13
Edoardo Mortara
Venturi 1'07.131 0.399 14
René Rast
Team Abt 1'07.149 0.417 15
Robin Frijns
Virgin Racing 1'07.197 0.465 16
Sam Bird
Virgin Racing 1'07.245 0.513 17
Nyck de Vries
Mercedes 1'07.267 0.535 18
Neel Jani
Porsche Team 1'07.298 0.566 19
James Calado
Jaguar Racing 1'07.362 0.630 20
Alex Lynn
Mahindra Racing 1'07.370 0.638 21
Oliver Turvey
NIO Formula E Team 1'07.407 0.675 22
Sébastien Buemi
DAMS 1'07.553 0.821 23
Felipe Massa
Venturi 1'07.821 1.089 24
Daniel Abt
NIO Formula E Team 1'08.199 1.467 View full results
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