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Rome E-Prix: Second practice cancelled after kerb breakage

Formula E cancelled the second practice session ahead of the Rome E-Prix after only 10 minutes of running as a kerb breakage could not be repaired in time. 

Marshals and FIA members inspect the damaged kerb

Marshals and FIA members inspect the damaged kerb

Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images

The second 30-minute run was red flagged early on as the inside kerb at Turn 12 of the chicane worked itself loose after final hits from Mahindra Racing driver Alex Lynn and Dragon/Penske's Nico Muller.

Drivers were informed by race director Scot Elkins that the session would resume.

But after a 40-minute stoppage, eventually Elkins abandoned the session. 

This was chiefly to allow sufficient time for the cars to be recharged in time for the qualifying session an hour later. 

It is understood that the kerb will now be removed altogether to leave only the inside wall to define the edge of the circuit at Turn 12. 

The extensive delays did however allow Tom Blomqvist and Jake Dennis to get back into their repaired cars after being involved in two red-flag incidents during first practice. 

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BMW Andretti driver Maximilian Gunther topped the very limited running courtesy of a 1m39.517s laptime, which was 0.8s slower than Lucas di Grassi’s FP1 benchmark. 

But Gunther, who failed to finish either race in the Saudi Arabia double-header event, did run 0.192s clear of next-best Nyck de Vries. 

That led a Mercedes 2-3 finish ahead of Nissan e.dams runner Oliver Rowland and Dragon Muller. 

Both teams were set to debut their new cars for the 2021 season in Rome but delays, with Nissan citing the pandemic as hindering parts supply, means those introductions will be held off until the Monaco E-Prix on 8 May. 

With Oliver Turvey and Jean-Eric Vergne on the sidelines for second practice, along with Blomqvist and Dennis initially as a result of the earlier multi-car pile-up, only 20 drivers completed a lap. 

Rome E-Prix - FP2 results:

Cla # Driver Team Time Gap
1 28 Germany Maximilian Gunther
United States Andretti Autosport 1'39.517
2 17 Netherlands Nyck de Vries
Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team 1'39.709 0.192
3 5 Belgium Stoffel Vandoorne
Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team 1'39.900 0.383
4 22 United Kingdom Oliver Rowland
France DAMS 1'39.924 0.407
5 6 Switzerland Nico Müller
DRAGON / PENSKE AUTOSPORT 1'39.961 0.444
6 37 New Zealand Nick Cassidy
United Kingdom Virgin Racing 1'40.042 0.525
7 20 New Zealand Mitch Evans
Jaguar Racing 1'40.232 0.715
8 99 Germany Pascal Wehrlein
Germany Porsche Team 1'40.530 1.013
9 10 United Kingdom Sam Bird
Jaguar Racing 1'40.995 1.478
10 13 Portugal Antonio Felix da Costa
China Techeetah 1'41.085 1.568
11 23 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi
France DAMS 1'41.551 2.034
12 11 Brazil Lucas di Grassi
Germany Team Abt 1'41.691 2.174
13 7 Brazil Sergio Sette Camara
DRAGON / PENSKE AUTOSPORT 1'41.924 2.407
14 33 Germany René Rast
Germany Team Abt 1'42.027 2.510
15 94 United Kingdom Alex Lynn
India Mahindra Racing 1'42.606 3.089
16 29 United Kingdom Alexander Sims
India Mahindra Racing 1'43.262 3.745
17 71 France Norman Nato
Monaco Venturi 1'43.277 3.760
18 48 Switzerland Edoardo Mortara
Monaco Venturi 1'44.362 4.845
19 36 Germany Andre Lotterer
Germany Porsche Team 1'51.099 11.582
20 4 Netherlands Robin Frijns
United Kingdom Virgin Racing 1'56.157 16.640
21 8 United Kingdom Oliver Turvey
United Kingdom NIO Formula E Team
22 25 France Jean-Eric Vergne
China Techeetah
23 27 United Kingdom Jake Dennis
United States Andretti Autosport
24 88 United Kingdom Tom Blomqvist
United Kingdom NIO Formula E Team

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