Practice report

Formula E Berlin ePrix

Berlin ePrix: Points leader Vergne tops practice

Formula E points championship leader Jean-Eric Vergne set the fastest lap across the two Berlin ePrix practice sessions to head the times ahead of Mahindra's Felix Rosenqvist.

Alex Kalinauckas

Edited: May 19, 2018, 11:52 AM

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Jean-Eric Vergne, Techeetah

Audi driver Lucas di Grassi held the top spot for much of the 30-minute FP2 session – where all drivers except Nick Heidfeld improved their best times from Saturday’s earlier 45-minute FP1 running.

As FP2 entered the closing stages, most drivers went for a second full-power lap on 200kW, with Rosenqvist deposing di Grassi at the top of times.

But Vergne, who had flirted with the barrier at the exit of the high-speed Turn 7 left-hander earlier in the session, swept around the Tempelhof Airport track to set a best time of 1m09.438s.

The put him 0.095s clear of Rosenqvist, who is third in the title standings 61 adrift of Vergne.

Vergne’s Techeetah teammate Andre Lotterer leapt up the order to grab third place in the overall practice times with a late improvement.

Reigning champion di Grassi ended up fourth, 0.146s behind Vergne, with 2015/16 title winner Sebastien Buemi sixth for Renault e.dams.

Audi’s home driver Daniel Abt was sixth, with Jerome d’Ambrosio seventh for Dragon.

Heidfeld topped the times in FP1 with his lap of 1m09.697s, which put him eighth in the combined order after FP2, where he was 12th fastest.

DS Virgin's Alex Lynn and Jaguar’s Mitch Evans rounded out the top 10 ahead of Vergne's nearest title rival Sam Bird in the second DS Virgin car.

Tom Dillmann was 19th quickest in the combined practice times for Venturi as he replaces Edoardo Mortara, who is racing for Mercedes in DTM at the Lausitzring this weekend.

Stephane Sarrazin – replacing Tom Blomqvist at Andretti for the rest of the FE season – ended up 20th and last in the combined practice standings.

The veteran Frenchman caused a lengthy red flag in FP1 when he went into the barriers at the long, circular Turn 1 left-hander, a result of his throttle still being partially engaged when he hit the brakes for the corner.

Second practice results:

Pos.#DriverTeamTimeGap 1 25 france Jean-Eric Vergne china Techeetah 1'09.438 2 19 sweden Felix Rosenqvist india Mahindra Racing 1'09.533 0.095 3 18 germany Andre Lotterer china Techeetah 1'09.568 0.130 4 1 brazil Lucas di Grassi germany Team Abt 1'09.584 0.146 5 9 switzerland Sébastien Buemi france DAMS 1'09.606 0.168 6 66 germany Daniel Abt germany Team Abt 1'09.636 0.198 7 7 belgium Jérôme d'Ambrosio united_states Dragon Racing 1'09.682 0.244 8 36 united_kingdom Alex Lynn Virgin Racing 1'09.883 0.445 9 20 new_zealand Mitch Evans Jaguar Racing 1'09.945 0.507 10 2 Sam Bird Virgin Racing 1'09.946 0.508 11 16 Oliver Turvey china NIO Formula E Team 1'09.982 0.544 12 23 germany Nick Heidfeld india Mahindra Racing 1'10.037 0.599 13 3 brazil Nelson Piquet Jr. united_kingdom Jaguar Racing 1'10.132 0.694 14 5 germany Maro Engel monaco Venturi 1'10.332 0.894 15 6 argentina Jose Maria Lopez united_states Dragon Racing 1'10.378 0.940 16 68 italy Luca Filippi china NIO Formula E Team 1'10.426 0.988 17 28 portugal Antonio Felix da Costa Andretti Autosport 1'10.434 0.996 18 8 france Nicolas Prost france DAMS 1'10.450 1.012 19 4 france Tom Dillmann monaco Venturi 1'10.456 1.018 20 27 france Stéphane Sarrazin united_states Andretti Autosport 1'10.735 1.297

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