Testing report
Formula E Pre Season Testing
Da Costa tops second Formula E test day for BMW
Antonio Felix da Costa topped the times on the second day of 2018/19 Formula E testing, which was split between regular test running and a full race-length simulation session.
Alex Kalinauckas
Edited: Oct 17, 2018, 4:36 PM
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Da Costa claimed the honours for BMW for a second day in a row by setting the pace in the three-hour morning session with a 1m16.977s – the first lap below the 1m17s barrier so far in testing.
Season four champion Jean-Eric Vergne ended the morning in second place, 0.421s slower than da Costa on a 1m17.398s, with Jerome D’Ambrosio completing the top three for Mahindra Racing.
Lucas di Grassi was fourth for Audi, ahead of Venturi pair Felipe Massa and Edoardo Mortara.
Pascal Wehrlein was seventh for Mahindra, with Jose Maria Lopez, Andre Lotterer and Daniel Abt rounding out the top 10 for Dragon Racing, DS Techeetah and Audi.
Alexander Sims, who topped the first day of testing, was 11th.
Stoffel Vandoorne completed 33 laps in the morning session after missing all of Tuesday afternoon’s running due to a battery problem, and he ended up 13th fastest for HWA.
Sebastien Buemi was the only Nissan driver to take part in the running after Alexander Albon, recently linked with a 2019 Toro Rosso Formula 1 seat, again did not drive on Wednesday.
Buemi finished 21st and last in the morning, but did top the 30-minute session that took place before the race simulation on a 1m17.773s, with only nine drivers completing timed laps.
The race simulation, which was timetabled at the request of the teams to test FE’s new event format rules, took up most of the afternoon running and was heavily disrupted.
The cars formed up at the end of the pitlane – ready to complete the full 45-minutes-plus-one-lap that will make up FE races in season five – to begin the simulation.
Sims led the pack out, but the ‘race’ was stopped after just one lap due to Abt hitting the chicane three-quarters of the way down the main straight at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo and Vandoorne stopping on track.
After a lengthy delay – Vandoorne’s car was declared ‘red’, meaning it was not safe to touch – the simulation resumed and was notionally won by di Grassi ahead of Sims.
Only three cars took the chequered flag – with most pitting either the lap before the start of the 31st lap started by di Grassi or on the tour before, while Vandoorne did not reappear to take the restart.
A 30-minuted session closed out the day and was topped by Vergne, who improved his best effort to a 1m17.342s – still second quickest in the overall order.
Eight other drivers also went faster in this session – including Lotterer, Buemi and Sims – while Maximilian Gunther set the 22nd and slowest time of the day after taking over from Antonio Fuoco – 20th overall – who drove in the morning session for Dragon.
Vandoorne, Gary Paffett and Mortara did not appear for the final session.
Pos Driver Car Morning (3h) Afternoon (1h) 1 
Antonio Felix da Costa
BMW iFE.18
1'16.977
48 laps 1'17.634
5 laps 2 
Jean-Eric Vergne
DS E-Tense FE 19
1'17.398
37 laps 1'17.342
13 laps 3 
Jerome d'Ambrosio
Mahindra M5 Electro
1'17.431
32 laps 1'20.134
9 laps 4 
Andre Lotterer
DS E-Tense FE 19
1'17.855
42 laps 1'17.437
17 laps 5 
Sebastien Buemi
Nissan IM01
1'23.943
25 laps 1'17.473
15 laps 6 
Lucas di Grassi
Audi e-tron FE05
1'17.535
50 laps 1'18.009
9 laps 7 Felipe Massa
Venturi VFE05
1'17.696
36 laps 1'28.050
20 laps 8 
Alexander Sims
BMW iFE.18
1'17.876
36 laps 1'17.698
8 laps 9 Edoardo Mortara
Venturi VFE05
1'17.729
25 laps
1'22.314
10 laps
10 Pascal Wehrlein
Mahindra M5 Electro
1'17.781
39 laps 1'20.543
6 laps 11 
Jose María López
Penske EV-3
1'17.830
46 laps 1'18.202
9 laps 12 Daniel Abt
Audi e-tron FE05
1'17.866
31 laps 1'17.917
8 laps 13 
Mitch Evans
Jaguar I-TYPE 3
1'17.975
36 laps 1'18.117
8 laps 14 Stoffel Vandoorne
Venturi VFE05
1'18.032
33 laps
1 tour 15 Sam Bird
Audi e-tron FE05
1'19.920
40 laps 1'18.115
5 laps 16 Tom Dillmann
NIO 004
1'18.236
32 laps 1'18.217
18 laps 17 Oliver Turvey
NIO 004
1'18.240
33 laps 1'18.551
12 laps 18 
Robin Frijns
Audi e-tron FE05
1'18.288
38 laps 1'18.364
3 laps 19 Nelson Piquet Jr
Jaguar I-TYPE 3
1'20.235
54 laps 1'18.498
15 laps 20 
Antonio Fuoco
Penske EV-3
1'18.778
40 laps 21 Gary Paffett
Venturi VFE05
1'19.382
42 laps
2 laps 22 Maximilian Gunther
Penske EV-3
1'19.540
10 laps
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