Practice report
Formula E Berlin ePrix VI
Berlin E-Prix: BMW's Gunther tops final practice of 2020
A fantastic full-power lap from Maximilian Gunther meant he comfortably topped the final free practice session of the Formula E season ahead of the sixth Berlin race.
Matt Kew
Published: Aug 13, 2020, 10:31 AM
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The BMW Andretti driver posted a brilliant 250kW effort of 1m15.091s on the extended Tempelhof Airport configuration to beat champion Antonio Felix da Costa by 0.242s.
Gunther, winner of the third race in the German capital, had also led the early normal-power times in the 45-minute session as he did the previous day too.
Despite messing up his first attempt at an attack mode lap with the 35kW boost, where he only found 0.3s over his standard run, Gunther responded with the fastest time set so far on the longer layout.
Da Costa found his locking rear brake issue had continued overnight and was proving particularly troublesome into Turn 1 and ran to a 1m15.333s.
Race-five victor Oliver Rowland headed a Nissan e.dams 3-4 over stablemate Sebastien Buemi, with the 2015-16 champion set to be beaten by a teammate in the standings for the first time in FE.
Meanwhile, a strong run for Jaguar driver Mitch Evans took him to fifth ahead of Nyck de Vries for Mercedes - who was second at the time before being shuffled down.
Gunther’s teammate Alexander Sims ran to seventh ahead of Andre Lotterer, the Porsche driver leading the way with 10 minutes to run after being the first person to set a full-power time.
Mahindra's Alex Lynn beat Venturi Racing pilot Felipe Massa as they rounded out the top 10.
Behind Sam Bird and Edoardo Mortara, the second Mercedes of Stoffel Vandoorne was only 12th ahead of Lucas di Grassi.
Di Grassi, on course to finish outside the top three in the points for the first time, spun on his full-power out-lap into Turn 1.
Out-going champion Jean-Eric Vergne was also another surprise spinner as he lost the rear of his DS Techeetah on entry into the Turn 7 left-hander.
That meant Vergne ran to only 21st fastest ahead of Audi’s Rene Rast, Tom Blomqvist - preparing for the second race of his FE return with Jaguar - and Daniel Abt.
Berlin E-Prix - Practice results:
Cla Driver Team Time Gap 1 Maximilian Gunther
Andretti Autosport 1'15.091 2
Antonio Felix da Costa
Techeetah 1'15.333 0.242 3
Oliver Rowland
DAMS 1'15.441 0.350 4
Sébastien Buemi
DAMS 1'15.495 0.404 5
Mitch Evans
Jaguar Racing 1'15.591 0.500 6
Nyck de Vries
Mercedes 1'15.679 0.588 7
Alexander Sims
Andretti Autosport 1'15.733 0.642 8
Andre Lotterer
Porsche Team 1'15.760 0.669 9
Alex Lynn
Mahindra Racing 1'15.792 0.701 10
Felipe Massa
Venturi 1'15.826 0.735 11
Sam Bird
Virgin Racing 1'15.841 0.750 12
Edoardo Mortara
Venturi 1'15.893 0.802 13
Stoffel Vandoorne
Mercedes 1'15.914 0.823 14
Lucas di Grassi
Team Abt 1'15.955 0.864 15
Neel Jani
Porsche Team 1'15.970 0.879 16
Nico Müller
Dragon Racing 1'16.021 0.930 17
Robin Frijns
Virgin Racing 1'16.058 0.967 18
Sergio Sette Camara
Dragon Racing 1'16.082 0.991 19
Jérôme d'Ambrosio
Mahindra Racing 1'16.132 1.041 20
Oliver Turvey
NIO Formula E Team 1'16.242 1.151 21
Jean-Eric Vergne
Techeetah 1'16.271 1.180 22
René Rast
Team Abt 1'16.382 1.291 23
Tom Blomqvist
Jaguar Racing 1'16.480 1.389 24
Daniel Abt
NIO Formula E Team 1'16.547 1.456 View full results
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