Practice report
Formula E Berlin ePrix V
Berlin E-Prix: Da Costa heads de Vries in practice
A last-ditch effort from new Formula E champion Antonio Felix da Costa meant he topped the free practice times on the extended Tempelhof Airport circuit over Nyck de Vries.
Matt Kew
Published: Aug 12, 2020, 10:25 AM
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The DS Techeetah driver’s 1m15.653s effort in the dying moments, set after the chequered flag had waved, put him 0.034s clear of reigning FIA Formula 2 champion de Vries.
BMW's Maximilian Gunther had set the pace in opening practice on the 130-metre longer Berlin circuit, despite running with a strapped wrist following his race four shunt into the back of Oliver Turvey.
But on full power mode, in the shorter 30-minute session, da Costa - who had locked up into Turn 1 of practice one before his car defaulted to neutral - posted a time some 0.6s quicker than Gunther’s previous effort as the top 12 cars were covered by less than 0.5s.
Jean-Eric Vergne had led the way in the opening minutes of second practice, prior to anyone switching to the 35kW-boosted attack mode, before he was knocked off top spot by de Vries.
Behind Mercedes’ de Vries, Sebastien Buemi recovered from a slight graze with the wall to run to third as the Nissan e.dams team continues to show excellent and improved pace following the five-month coronavirus delay.
Lucas di Grassi ran to fourth for Audi ahead of second Mercedes driver Stoffel Vandoorne, who missed the first 12 minutes of the early session after his team supposedly had to change a 12-volt battery in the car, located behind the driver's seat.
Dragon Racing’s strong one-lap pace continued, as Nico Muller ran to sixth place ahead of Nissan's Oliver Rowland and Alex Lynn for Mahindra.
In the second run, despite topping the times mid-way through after his attack mode lap, Gunther fell to ninth ahead of Neel Jani who completed the top 10 for Porsche.
Behind Jani’s teammate Andre Lotterer, Edoardo Mortara beat Jean-Eric Vergne to 12th.
The closely contested battle for the runner-up sport in the championship means Vergne enters the final double-header second in the points, with just 15 separating him down to Mitch Evans in sixth.
Jaguar contender Evans had run strongly in the final sector but reported brake lock ups, meaning his effort was only good enough for 20th.
His new, short-term teammate Tom Blomqvist – standing in for FIA World Endurance Championship fixture-tied James Calado – ended the session 24th and last, 0.6s behind Evans.
Berlin E-Prix - First practice results:
Cla Driver Team Time Gap 1 Maximilian Gunther
Andretti Autosport 1'16.251 2
Oliver Rowland
DAMS 1'16.260 0.009 3
René Rast
Team Abt 1'16.315 0.064 4
Robin Frijns
Virgin Racing 1'16.340 0.089 5
Antonio Felix da Costa
Techeetah 1'16.341 0.090 6
Lucas di Grassi
Team Abt 1'16.364 0.113 7
Sam Bird
Virgin Racing 1'16.378 0.127 8
Sébastien Buemi
DAMS 1'16.386 0.135 9
Mitch Evans
Jaguar Racing 1'16.400 0.149 10
Edoardo Mortara
Venturi 1'16.467 0.216 11
Nyck de Vries
Mercedes 1'16.530 0.279 12
Alex Lynn
Mahindra Racing 1'16.658 0.407 13
Oliver Turvey
NIO Formula E Team 1'16.705 0.454 14
Jean-Eric Vergne
Techeetah 1'16.716 0.465 15
Stoffel Vandoorne
Mercedes 1'16.805 0.554 16
Tom Blomqvist
Jaguar Racing 1'16.817 0.566 17
Neel Jani
Porsche Team 1'16.839 0.588 18
Felipe Massa
Venturi 1'16.908 0.657 19
Jérôme d'Ambrosio
Mahindra Racing 1'17.048 0.797 20
Nico Müller
Dragon Racing 1'17.080 0.829 21
Andre Lotterer
Porsche Team 1'17.115 0.864 22
Daniel Abt
NIO Formula E Team 1'17.149 0.898 23
Alexander Sims
Andretti Autosport 1'17.191 0.940 24
Sergio Sette Camara
Dragon Racing 1'17.394 1.143 View full results
Berlin E-Prix - second practice results:
Cla Driver Team Time Gap 1 Antonio Felix da Costa
Techeetah 1'15.653 2
Nyck de Vries
Mercedes 1'15.687 0.034 3
Sébastien Buemi
DAMS 1'15.752 0.099 4
Lucas di Grassi
Team Abt 1'15.853 0.200 5
Stoffel Vandoorne
Mercedes 1'15.882 0.229 6
Nico Müller
Dragon Racing 1'15.899 0.246 7
Oliver Rowland
DAMS 1'15.910 0.257 8
Alex Lynn
Mahindra Racing 1'15.993 0.340 9
Maximilian Gunther
Andretti Autosport 1'16.073 0.420 10
Neel Jani
Porsche Team 1'16.133 0.480 11
Andre Lotterer
Porsche Team 1'16.136 0.483 12
Edoardo Mortara
Venturi 1'16.144 0.491 13
Jean-Eric Vergne
Techeetah 1'16.158 0.505 14
Jérôme d'Ambrosio
Mahindra Racing 1'16.163 0.510 15
Felipe Massa
Venturi 1'16.170 0.517 16
Sergio Sette Camara
Dragon Racing 1'16.191 0.538 17
Sam Bird
Virgin Racing 1'16.358 0.705 18
Robin Frijns
Virgin Racing 1'16.402 0.749 19
Daniel Abt
NIO Formula E Team 1'16.420 0.767 20
Mitch Evans
Jaguar Racing 1'16.486 0.833 21
Alexander Sims
Andretti Autosport 1'16.529 0.876 22
Oliver Turvey
NIO Formula E Team 1'16.701 1.048 23
René Rast
Team Abt 1'16.755 1.102 24
Tom Blomqvist
Jaguar Racing 1'17.070 1.417 View full results
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