Practice report

Formula E Paris ePrix

Paris ePrix: Di Grassi tops FP2 with last-gasp lap

Last year’s Paris ePrix winner Lucas di Grassi topped second practice for Formula E’s return to the French capital.

Scott Mitchell

Edited: May 20, 2017, 11:01 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Lucas Di Grassi, ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport

The Abt Audi Sport driver left it to the dying moments of the session to go quickest by two tenths of a second.

Di Grassi and championship leader Sebastien Buemi were among several drivers to leave it late to carry out a 200kW lap in FP2.

In the closing minutes of the session Jose Maria Lopez was quickest on a 1m01.559s, which Buemi could not quite match on a last-minute qualifying simulation and ended up 0.022s adrift of in his Renault e.dams machine.

Moments later di Grassi vaulted to the top with a 1m01.359s, fractionally faster than Mike Conway’s practice benchmark last year.

Daniel Abt backed up the Audi-backed team’s pace with the fourth-fastest time, just 0.01s slower than FP1 pacesetter Buemi – whose Renault team struggled here last season.

The track appears slower here than last year, despite warmer temperatures due to the race taking place a month later, with no real improvement in laptimes.

Turn 1 continued to catch drivers out, with di Grassi and Lopez among several drivers to lock up and run deep into the run-off area.

Techeetah drivers Jean-Eric Vergne and Esteban Gutierrez and Jaguar’s Adam Carroll, who ended FP2 slowest, also had trips down the escape road.

Vergne’s attempt at a 200kW was scruffy and only good enough to ninth ahead of qualifying for his home race, as the Renault-powered Frenchman seeks to end his Formula E win drought.

Apart from a lurid slide at Turn 14 the returning Conway performed well standing in for the DTM-competing Loic Duval at Faraday Future Dragon Racing.

He was only 16th fastest but was 0.033s slower than team-mate Jerome d’Ambrosio.

Formula E debutant Tom Dillmann, in for Maro Engel (also on DTM duty) at Venturi, was 18th, 1.4s off the pace and three tenths slower than Stephane Sarrazin in the same car.

FP2 results

Pos.#DriverTeamLapsTimeGap 1 11 brazil Lucas di Grassi germany Team Abt 21 1'01.359 2 37 argentina Jose Maria Lopez united_kingdom Virgin Racing 20 1'01.559 0.200 3 9 switzerland Sébastien Buemi france DAMS 20 1'01.581 0.222 4 66 germany Daniel Abt germany Team Abt 23 1'01.591 0.232 5 2 Sam Bird Virgin Racing 14 1'01.605 0.246 6 19 sweden Felix Rosenqvist india Mahindra Racing 20 1'01.707 0.348 7 8 france Nicolas Prost france DAMS 16 1'01.808 0.449 8 88 united_kingdom Oliver Turvey china NEXTEV TCR Formula E Team 19 1'01.923 0.564 9 25 france Jean-Eric Vergne china Techeetah 20 1'02.031 0.672 10 27 netherlands Robin Frijns united_states Andretti Autosport 17 1'02.271 0.912 11 3 brazil Nelson Piquet Jr. china NEXTEV TCR Formula E Team 15 1'02.296 0.937 12 33 mexico Esteban Gutierrez china Techeetah 15 1'02.328 0.969 13 4 france Stéphane Sarrazin monaco Venturi 22 1'02.419 1.060 14 20 new_zealand Mitch Evans united_kingdom Jaguar Racing 19 1'02.463 1.104 15 7 belgium Jérôme d'Ambrosio united_states Dragon Racing 19 1'02.492 1.133 16 6 Mike Conway Dragon Racing 18 1'02.525 1.166 17 28 portugal Antonio Felix da Costa Andretti Autosport 13 1'02.573 1.214 18 5 france Tom Dillmann monaco Venturi 25 1'02.789 1.430 19 23 germany Nick Heidfeld india Mahindra Racing 14 1'02.929 1.570 20 47 united_kingdom Adam Carroll Jaguar Racing 18 1'03.137 1.778

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Paris ePrix: Buemi tops FP1 by 0.7s

Next article Paris ePrix: Buemi denies Vergne pole by 0.006s

Top Comments

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

View More & Comment

Latest news

NASCAR explains why they penalized Zane Smith after latest clash with Carson Hocevar

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Phoenix II

11 h

NASCAR explains why they penalized Zane Smith after latest clash with Carson Hocevar

Porsche boss Laudenbach says he is "not happy" with how things were handled by IMSA in 2026

IMSA

IMSA IMSA 11 h

Porsche boss Laudenbach says he is "not happy" with how things were handled by IMSA in 2026

Five things to watch out for at the F1 United States GP

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

12 h

Five things to watch out for at the F1 United States GP

KTM sees MotoGP 2027 as a fresh start: “We never had the chance to build a new bike”

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP 13 h

KTM sees MotoGP 2027 as a fresh start: “We never had the chance to build a new bike”

Feature

Discover prime content

Why ‘Mr Formula E’ has called time on his racing career

Formula E

By James Newbold

Why ‘Mr Formula E’ has called time on his racing career

The team orders debacle that made for a controversial Formula E title decider

Formula E

London ePrix II

The team orders debacle that made for a controversial Formula E title decider

The 'incredible stories' that could be told in Formula E's London title decider

Formula E

London ePrix I

The 'incredible stories' that could be told in Formula E's London title decider

Cars, stars, and the shootout winners from the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed

General

By Maciej Hamera

Cars, stars, and the shootout winners from the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts