Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Australia

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.

Antonio Felix da Costa, BMW I Andretti Motorsports, BMW iFE18

Antonio Felix da Costa, BMW I Andretti Motorsports, BMW iFE18

Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images

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 Portugal Antonio Felix da Costa

 

BMW iFE.18

1'16.977
48 laps
1'17.634
5 laps
2 France Jean-Eric Vergne

 

DS E-Tense FE 19

1'17.398
37 laps
1'17.342
13 laps
3 Belgium Jerome d'Ambrosio

 

Mahindra M5 Electro

1'17.431
32 laps
1'20.134
9 laps
4 Germany Andre Lotterer

 

DS E-Tense FE 19

1'17.855
42 laps
1'17.437
17 laps
5 Switzerland Sebastien Buemi

 

Nissan IM01

1'23.943
25 laps
1'17.473
15 laps
6 Brazil Lucas di Grassi

 

Audi e-tron FE05

1'17.535
50 laps
1'18.009
9 laps
7 Brazil Felipe Massa

 

Venturi VFE05

1'17.696
36 laps
1'28.050
20 laps
8 United Kingdom Alexander Sims

 

BMW iFE.18

1'17.876
36 laps
1'17.698
8 laps
9 Switzerland Edoardo Mortara

 

Venturi VFE05

1'17.729
25 laps

1'22.314

10 laps

10 Germany Pascal Wehrlein

 

Mahindra M5 Electro

1'17.781
39 laps
1'20.543
6 laps
11 Argentina Jose María López

 

Penske EV-3

1'17.830
46 laps
1'18.202
9 laps
12 Germany Daniel Abt

 

Audi e-tron FE05

1'17.866
31 laps
1'17.917
8 laps
13 New Zealand Mitch Evans

 

Jaguar I-TYPE 3

1'17.975
36 laps
1'18.117
8 laps
14 Belgium Stoffel Vandoorne

 

Venturi VFE05

1'18.032
33 laps

1 tour
15 United Kingdom Sam Bird

 

Audi e-tron FE05

1'19.920
40 laps
1'18.115
5 laps
16 France Tom Dillmann

 

NIO 004

1'18.236
32 laps
1'18.217
18 laps
17 United Kingdom Oliver Turvey

 

NIO 004

1'18.240
33 laps
1'18.551
12 laps
18 Netherlands Robin Frijns

 

Audi e-tron FE05

1'18.288
38 laps
1'18.364
3 laps
19 Brazil Nelson Piquet Jr

 

Jaguar I-TYPE 3

1'20.235
54 laps
1'18.498
15 laps
20 Italy Antonio Fuoco

 

Penske EV-3

1'18.778
40 laps
 
21 United Kingdom Gary Paffett

 

Venturi VFE05

1'19.382
42 laps

2 laps
22 Germany Maximilian Gunther

 

Penske EV-3

  1'19.540
10 laps

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article How F1's nearly man plans to become Formula E's "king"
Next article Rowland replaces Albon for final Valencia test day

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Australia