Formula E Puebla E-Prix I
Puebla E-Prix: Rowland leads incident-filled practice sessions
Oliver Rowland topped the times in both the wet and dry incident-packed Formula E practice sessions for Nissan e.dams ahead of an inaugural Puebla E-Prix in Mexico.
Matt Kew
Edited: Jun 19, 2021, 4:24 PM
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The Brit bolted to the top of the leaderboard in the dying moments of the 30-minute second stint with a fine 1m22.861s effort to move a full 0.268s clear of Antonio Felix da Costa.
This came despite the top two both crashing earlier on in the session, with da Costa having posted his flying lap before running straight on at the tight first left-hand corner.
Rowland had been in the wars also at Turn 1, having initially locked up his fronts before losing the rear and clouting the concrete wall on the exit but emerging unscathed. In an uncharacteristic result for Formula E, a sizeable sixth tenth gap split the top four with the second DS Techeetah machine of Jean-Eric Vergne running third ahead of Alex Lynn.
Rowland had also come out on top in the protracted and rain-soaked opening practice, having headed Porsche racer Pascal Wehrlein by 0.086s in a crash-strewn session.
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With a wall added at the Turn 5-6 left-hander compared to the simulator preparation, drivers were left unsighted for the blind and off-camber Turn 7 right-hander. This caught out several of the big names in the slippery conditions, with Rene Rast and champions da Costa and Sebastien Buemi coming off worse as they glanced the wall.
The tap forced Rast to stop and pull of the circuit at the next corner with suspension damage although the three-time DTM title winner rejoined later on.
Mahindra Racing driver Alexander Sims brought out an early red flag when he locked the rears on the exit of Turn 11 and stopped with a suspected battery-related issue. This led to a lengthy delay while his car was recovered, with the session eventually extended by 15 minutes.
That and a practice full-course yellow lap mitigated the time loss for Vergne, whose DS Techeetah mechanics completed a swift 15-minute swap of the powertrain after identifying a fault while making set-up changes following a Friday evening shakedown session.
Dragon Penske Autosport driver Sergio Sette Camara came a cropper throughout the Saturday morning runs. The Brazilian already carries a 20-place grid drop for Puebla after his team broke the seal on his homologated inverter, although not changing any parts, to check a fault.
He then lost the rear and smacked the wall at Turn 7 in the first practice run, which forced him to head immediately for the pits. He then rejoined the track only to suffer a sizeable lock-up into Turn 1 and career straight on.
Following the second session, he remains under investigation for suspected speeding in the pitlane.
Cassidy pulled off the save of the day when he lost the rear of his Envision Virgin Racing machine on the approach to Turn 7 but caught the massive slide as he ran over the grass and doused the patchy asphalt in mud.
While rain is forecast to interrupt qualifying, in the more representative drier session, points leader Robin Frijns ran to ninth behind title rivals Stoffel Vandoorne and Jaguar Racing driver Mitch Evans in seventh.
Puebla E-Prix FP1 results
Cla Driver Team Laps Time Gap Interval 1 Oliver Rowland
DAMS 20 1'24.314 2
Pascal Wehrlein
Porsche Team 19 1'24.400 0.086 0.086 3
Antonio Felix da Costa
Techeetah 18 1'24.734 0.420 0.334 4
Edoardo Mortara
Venturi 16 1'24.859 0.545 0.125 5
Jake Dennis
Andretti Autosport 17 1'24.920 0.606 0.061 6
Mitch Evans
Jaguar Racing 16 1'24.944 0.630 0.024 7
Stoffel Vandoorne
Mercedes 19 1'24.995 0.681 0.051 8
Andre Lotterer
Porsche Team 19 1'25.061 0.747 0.066 9
Norman Nato
Venturi 17 1'25.199 0.885 0.138 10
Robin Frijns
Virgin Racing 17 1'25.254 0.940 0.055 11
Sergio Sette Camara
Dragon Racing 15 1'25.269 0.955 0.015 12
Tom Blomqvist
NIO Formula E Team 18 1'25.708 1.394 0.439 13
Lucas di Grassi
Team Abt 19 1'25.844 1.530 0.136 14
Alex Lynn
Mahindra Racing 19 1'25.880 1.566 0.036 15
Nyck de Vries
Mercedes 19 1'25.947 1.633 0.067 16
Sébastien Buemi
DAMS 18 1'26.031 1.717 0.084 17
Jean-Eric Vergne
Techeetah 12 1'26.268 1.954 0.237 18
Maximilian Gunther
Andretti Autosport 17 1'26.520 2.206 0.252 19
René Rast
Team Abt 13 1'26.555 2.241 0.035 20
Joel Eriksson
Dragon Racing 17 1'26.605 2.291 0.050 21
Sam Bird
Jaguar Racing 18 1'27.058 2.744 0.453 22
Oliver Turvey
NIO Formula E Team 18 1'27.597 3.283 0.539 23
Nick Cassidy
Virgin Racing 17 1'27.975 3.661 0.378 24
Alexander Sims
Mahindra Racing 3 1'38.838 14.524 10.863 View full results
Puebla E-Prix FP2 results
Cla Driver Team Laps Time Gap Interval 1 Oliver Rowland
DAMS 15 1'22.861 2
Antonio Felix da Costa
Techeetah 15 1'23.129 0.268 0.268 3
Jean-Eric Vergne
Techeetah 15 1'23.299 0.438 0.170 4
Alex Lynn
Mahindra Racing 13 1'23.465 0.604 0.166 5
Edoardo Mortara
Venturi 14 1'23.513 0.652 0.048 6
Nyck de Vries
Mercedes 16 1'23.523 0.662 0.010 7
Jake Dennis
Andretti Autosport 14 1'23.544 0.683 0.021 8
Mitch Evans
Jaguar Racing 13 1'23.570 0.709 0.026 9
Stoffel Vandoorne
Mercedes 16 1'23.586 0.725 0.016 10
Robin Frijns
Virgin Racing 15 1'23.791 0.930 0.205 11
Sergio Sette Camara
Dragon Racing 13 1'23.837 0.976 0.046 12
Norman Nato
Venturi 15 1'23.838 0.977 0.001 13
Lucas di Grassi
Team Abt 13 1'23.943 1.082 0.105 14
Nick Cassidy
Virgin Racing 13 1'23.958 1.097 0.015 15
Sam Bird
Jaguar Racing 14 1'23.963 1.102 0.005 16
René Rast
Team Abt 13 1'24.223 1.362 0.260 17
Oliver Turvey
NIO Formula E Team 14 1'24.252 1.391 0.029 18
Maximilian Gunther
Andretti Autosport 11 1'24.591 1.730 0.339 19
Tom Blomqvist
NIO Formula E Team 15 1'24.921 2.060 0.330 20
Pascal Wehrlein
Porsche Team 18 1'25.046 2.185 0.125 21
Sébastien Buemi
DAMS 15 1'25.362 2.501 0.316 22
Alexander Sims
Mahindra Racing 4 1'25.557 2.696 0.195 23
Joel Eriksson
Dragon Racing 14 1'25.822 2.961 0.265 24
Andre Lotterer
Porsche Team 18 1'26.188 3.327 0.366 View full results
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