Practice report
Formula E Diriyah ePrix II
Diriyah E-Prix: Evans snatches top spot from Ticktum in FE FP3
Jaguar's Mitch Evans snatched top spot at the end of the Diriyah E-Prix's third free practice session, knocking Dan Ticktum off the top of the Formula E timing board.
Jake Boxall-Legge
Edited: Jan 28, 2023, 5:51 PM
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Sam Bird kicked off the more representative times of the session with a 1m12.163s, but the pace quickly escalated as the drivers shook off the morning cobwebs and began their runs in earnest.
Friday's polesitter Sebastien Buemi then collected a 1m11.620s, which was quickly knocked off the top by the NIO 333 pairing of Sergio Sette Camara and Ticktum.
Antonio Felix da Costa, who was caught up in a lap 1 tangle with Mitch Evans and the Mahindras in the first race, displaced the NIO 333s from the top, before Bird migrated north once more with a 1m10.811s.
Evans pipped his Jaguar team-mate by half a tenth, but was then succeeded by Nissan's Sacha Fenestraz at the top of the timing boards by 0.014s.
McLaren's Jake Hughes then put his car on top with a 1m10.324s, and then bettered his lap by three tenths two laps later, but Buemi broke the 70s barrier to set a 1m09.897s, moving above the Briton.
Sette Camara produced a 1m09.758s to relegate the Envision driver down a position at the halfway mark of the session.
Despite a setup change that caused understeer into Turn 1, Buemi reckoned he would keep the tweaks as he claimed a 1m09.575s to return to the top, but was again displaced by a NIO 333 car as Ticktum went fastest by 0.3s.
Dan Ticktum, NIO 333 FE Team, NIO 333 ER9
Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images
The Londoner's time continued to hold firm despite efforts from Norman Nato and Jean-Eric Vergne in the final few minutes, the latter 0.009s up on Ticktum in the opening pair of sectors, but losing nearly a tenth in the final sector to slot into second.
Evans then stole the show at the chequered flag, logging a 1m09.092s at the close of the session to go fastest ahead of Ticktum and Vergne.
Nato's time was good enough for fourth, 0.125s ahead of race one podium finisher Bird. The following cars were separated by mere fractions, with Rene Rast, Buemi, Hughes and Stoffel Vandoorne all within half a tenth of Bird's fifth-placed time.
Andre Lotterer completed the top 10 ahead of Sette Camara, but both are under investigation for a technical infraction - as is Abt's Nico Muller.
Muller's replacement team-mate Kelvin van der Linde had a minor contretemps with Antonio Felix da Costa, as the two got too close in the series of sweeping corners at the back of the circuit - knocking off the South African's front wing endplate.
Van der Linde had earlier come to a stop at Turn 4 at the start of the session, but was able to reboot his Mahindra-powered car to carry on with his session.
Lucas di Grassi propped up the times after he made a rare mistake at Turn 18 to hit the barrier side on. Although he was able to escape with minimal damage, he did not return to the circuit after retreating to the pits.
Full FP3 results:
Cla Driver Team Time Gap 1 Mitch Evans
Jaguar Racing 1'09.092 2
Dan Ticktum
NIO Formula E Team 1'09.241 0.149 3
Jean-Eric Vergne
DS Penske 1'09.315 0.223 4
Norman Nato
Nissan e.dams 1'09.417 0.325 5
Sam Bird
Jaguar Racing 1'09.542 0.450 6
René Rast
McLaren 1'09.554 0.462 7
Sébastien Buemi
Envision Racing 1'09.575 0.483 8
Jake Hughes
McLaren 1'09.586 0.494 9
Stoffel Vandoorne
DS Penske 1'09.587 0.495 10
Andre Lotterer
Andretti Autosport 1'09.645 0.553 11
Sergio Sette Camara
NIO Formula E Team 1'09.646 0.554 12
Antonio Felix da Costa
Porsche Team 1'09.723 0.631 13
Nick Cassidy
Envision Racing 1'09.728 0.636 14
Edoardo Mortara
Maserati Racing 1'09.786 0.694 15
Sacha Fenestraz
Nissan e.dams 1'09.803 0.711 16
Maximilian Gunther
Maserati Racing 1'09.853 0.761 17
Jake Dennis
Andretti Autosport 1'09.873 0.781 18
Pascal Wehrlein
Porsche Team 1'09.958 0.866 19
Oliver Rowland
Mahindra Racing 1'10.009 0.917 20
Kelvin van der Linde
Team Abt 1'10.311 1.219 21
Nico Müller
Team Abt 1'10.628 1.536 22
Lucas di Grassi
Mahindra Racing 1'10.904 1.812 View full results
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