Testing report
Formula E Pre-Season Testing
Bird leads Gunther on opening day of Formula E test
Envision Virgin Racing driver Sam Bird topped the first day of Formula E 2019/20 pre-season testing at Valencia as Mercedes’ woes on Nyck de Vries’s car continued.
Alex Kalinauckas
Edited: Oct 19, 2019, 3:05 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
With most of the afternoon action dedicated to long runs, BMW Andretti driver Maximilian Gunther’s session-topping 1m15.926s effort from the morning continued as the day’s benchmark until Sebastien Buemi (Nissan e.dams) posted a 1m15.913s just past the halfway stage of the three-hour afternoon session.
Buemi improved his best time of the day to a 1m15.882s but was shuffled down the order due to a flurry of fast times being posted approaching the chequered flag.
Gunther looked to have secured the best time of the day after setting a 1m15.663s late on before Bird pipped him to the top spot by 0.093s.
Antonio Felix da Costa ended the afternoon session and the day overall in third place with a 1m15.681s for DS Techeetah, with Mitch Evans taking fourth for Jaguar ahead of da Costa’s new teammate, reigning FE champion Jean-Eric Vergne.
Buemi ended up sixth overall as the last driver to go quicker than Gunther’s fastest morning time in the afternoon session on a 1m15.882s.
Oliver Rowland finished the afternoon running in seventh place in the second Nissan e.dams-run car ahead of Pascal Wehrlein (Mahindra Racing) and Bird’s teammate Robin Frijns.
Daniel Abt rounded out the top 10 for the works Audi team ahead of BMW driver Alexander Sims and Lucas di Grassi (Audi).
The afternoon running was interrupted by a single brief red flag after an hour had passed by following Jaguar driver James Calado, who finished 19th in the second session, coming to a stop at the pitlane exit
Mercedes’ first day as an FE competitor ended with Stoffel Vandoorne down in 22nd place, 1.881 slower than Bird’s fastest time in the afternoon,
His teammate Nyck de Vries had stopped after an hour of the morning running had been completed after a technical issue that resulted in a blown battery fuse on his Silver Arrow 01 car.
Mercedes continued to investigate the issue during the afternoon running and was only able to get de Vries out for a handful of laps in the final minutes.
Session results
Pos.
Driver / Powertrain
AM PM 1 Sam Bird
Audi e-tron FE06 (Virgin Racing)
1'16.943
34 1'15.570
32 2 Maximilian Gunther
BMW iFE.20 1'15.926
35 1'15.663
54 3 Antonio Felix da Costa
DS E-Tense FE20 1'16.032
27 1'15.681
39 4 Mitch Evans
Jaguar I-TYPE 4 1'16.520
29 1'15.724
46 5 Jean-Eric Vergne
DS E-Tense FE20 1'16.162
37 1'15.798
43 6 Sebastien Buemi
Nissan IM02 1'16.297
31 1'15.882
29 7 Oliver Rowland
Nissan IM02 1'16.246
32 1'15.942
32 8 Pascal Wehrlein
Mahindra M6Electro 1'16.385
36 1'15.975
36 9 Robin Frijns
Audi e-tron FE06 (Virgin Racing)
1'16.640
31 1'16.081
33 10 Daniel Abt
Audi e-tron FE06 1'16.952
27 1'16.084
35 11 Alexander Sims
BMW iFE.20
1'16.828
40 1'16.097
53 12 Lucas di Grassi
Audi e-tron FE06 1'16.297
28 1'16.140
33 13 Nico Müller
Penske EV-4
1'16.387
36 1'16.398
44 14 Andre Lotterer
Porsche 99X Electric
1'16.622
31 1'16.482
44 15 Edoardo Mortara
Mercedes EQ Silver Arrow 01 (Venturi)
1'16.531
27 1'16.537
33 16 Jerome d'Ambrosio
Mahindra M6Electro 1'16.552
23 1'18.046
27 17 Felipe Massa
Mercedes EQ Silver Arrow 01 (Venturi)
1'17.189
16 1'16.580
42 18 Brendon Hartley
Penske EV-4
1'16.839
38 1'16.698
43 19 Oliver Turvey
NIO FE-005
4 1'16.867
33 20 James Calado
Jaguar I-TYPE 4 1'17.738
18 1'17.016
48 21 Neel Jani
Porsche 99X Electric 1'17.343
30 22 Stoffel Vandoorne
Mercedes EQ Silver Arrow 01 1'17.389
22 1'17.451
44 23 Nyck de Vries
Mercedes EQ Silver Arrow 01 1'22.500
13 1'17.654
3 24 Ma Qing Hua
NIO FE-005
1'20.571
19 1'20.220
29
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Calado: Single-seater absence makes “no difference” in FE
Next article Frijns quickest in Valencia test as de Vries crashes
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Alex Kalinauckas
Who is Kimi Antonelli, F1 sprint polesitter at just 18?
Formula 1
Formula 1
Who is Kimi Antonelli, F1 sprint polesitter at just 18?
Why Bottas has the edge over Perez in 2026 F1 return race
Formula 1
Formula 1
Japanese GP
Why Bottas has the edge over Perez in 2026 F1 return race
What if Red Bull solved its second-car problem with a paint job?
Formula 1
Formula 1
Japanese GP
What if Red Bull solved its second-car problem with a paint job?
More from
Sam Bird
McLaren Formula E team set to close without buyer
Formula E
Formula E
McLaren Formula E team set to close without buyer
Top 10: Ranking the best GP2 non-champions
FIA F2
FIA F2
Top 10: Ranking the best GP2 non-champions
Five things we learned from the Mexico City E-Prix
Formula E
Formula E
Mexico City ePrix
Five things we learned from the Mexico City E-Prix
More from
Envision Racing
The reunited Formula E partnership that could finally flourish
Formula E
Formula E
The reunited Formula E partnership that could finally flourish
Envision Virgin reveals first two-seater electric formula car
Formula E
Formula E
Envision Virgin reveals first two-seater electric formula car
Powell joins Envision Virgin as Formula E sim driver
Formula E
Formula E
Powell joins Envision Virgin as Formula E sim driver
Latest news
Tom Cruise interested in racing ARCA car, per NASCAR CEO Steve O'Donnell
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
58 min
Tom Cruise interested in racing ARCA car, per NASCAR CEO Steve O'Donnell
Gibbs, Spire and Gabehart argue over contempt and injunction
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
3 h
Gibbs, Spire and Gabehart argue over contempt and injunction
William Byron to run Jeff Gordon throwback Axalta scheme at Phoenix
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
4 h
William Byron to run Jeff Gordon throwback Axalta scheme at Phoenix
Alexander Rossi takes over IR-28 testing as IndyCar pushes new chassis to the limit at Sebring
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 4 h
Alexander Rossi takes over IR-28 testing as IndyCar pushes new chassis to the limit at Sebring
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe