Practice report
Formula E Santiago E-prix
Santiago E-Prix: Rowland tops crash-shortened practice
Nissan e.dams driver Oliver Rowland topped the red flag-interrupted Formula E practice ahead of the Santiago E-Prix as only the top three managed to post a full-power lap.
Matt Kew
Published: Jan 18, 2020, 2:15 PM
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The final 30-minute session ended prematurely following a crash for Ma Qinghua, which left Rowland at the top of the times with a 1m04.799s effort.
Reigning Formula 2 champion Nyck de Vries posted the early benchmark with a 1m05.586s ahead of his Mercedes teammate Stoffel Vandoorne and points leader Alexander Sims.
After five minutes, Porsche’s Andre Lotterer found a 0.3s advantage to move clear as his teammate Neel Jani was lucky to escape without damage after clattering the tyre wall on the exit of Turn 9.
Mitch Evans posted a then-session best of 1m05.046s, but was lucky to do so as the first of two red flags was waved just after he crossed the timing line.
With 16 minutes of the session to go, ex-Toro Rosso Formula 1 driver Brendon Hartley paused the session when a cooling fan had been left on his Dragon Racing car.
The assembly dropped off the car as he rounded Turn 1, causing the stoppage while it was retrieved, and for which he is under investigation for an unsafe release.
Contact between Antonio Felix da Costa and Rowland at Turn 1 will also be assessed, after the DS Techeetah driver appeared to turn in on the Nissan.
But Rowland responded by posting his 1m04.799s run with the maximum 250kW of power to head the session ahead of Felipe Massa by 0.131s.
Ma Qing Hua, NIO 333, NIO FE-005, hits the wall
Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images
Before anyone could retaliate, NIO 333 driver Ma shunted heavily at Turn 5 to cause a second stoppage from which practice two would not resume.
He lost the rear of the car under braking and as he tried to recover ran wide and ploughed into the wall.
That meant Evans’ 235kW lap was still suffice for third ahead of BMW Andretti driver Max Gunther and Lotterer, with da Costa in sixth.
Hartley’s difficult run continued as he was then flagged to the stewards for undertaking under the second red flag, having ran 10th quickest.
De Vries slipped to 11th ahead of Pascal Wehrlein and new Jaguar recruit James Calado, as the top 13 all lapped within a second.
Reigning champion Jean-Eric Vergne was just 15th, with Lucas di Grassi beating Sims to 17th.
Sam Bird could only manage 22nd ahead of Jani and Ma, despite the Envision Virgin Racing driver having topped the cooler first practice session courtesy of a 1m04.914 ahead of da Costa and Edoardo Mortara.
First practice results:
Cla Driver Team Time Gap 1 Sam Bird
Virgin Racing 1'04.914 2
Antonio Felix da Costa
Techeetah 1'05.064 0.150 3
Edoardo Mortara
Venturi 1'05.096 0.182 4
Lucas di Grassi
Team Abt 1'05.203 0.289 5
Nico Müller
Dragon Racing 1'05.252 0.338 6
Jérôme d'Ambrosio
Mahindra Racing 1'05.314 0.400 7
Alexander Sims
Andretti Autosport 1'05.388 0.474 8
Sébastien Buemi
DAMS 1'05.397 0.483 9
Pascal Wehrlein
Mahindra Racing 1'05.429 0.515 10
Andre Lotterer
Porsche Team 1'05.452 0.538 11
James Calado
Jaguar Racing 1'05.472 0.558 12
Stoffel Vandoorne
Mercedes 1'05.506 0.592 13
Mitch Evans
Jaguar Racing 1'05.513 0.599 14
Oliver Rowland
DAMS 1'05.569 0.655 15
Daniel Abt
Team Abt 1'05.632 0.718 16
Jean-Eric Vergne
Techeetah 1'05.659 0.745 17
Maximilian Gunther
Andretti Autosport 1'05.706 0.792 18
Nyck de Vries
Mercedes 1'05.783 0.869 19
Oliver Turvey
NIO Formula E Team 1'06.076 1.162 20
Robin Frijns
Virgin Racing 1'06.121 1.207 21
Felipe Massa
Venturi 1'06.193 1.279 22
Brendon Hartley
Dragon Racing 1'06.508 1.594 23
Neel Jani
Porsche Team 1'06.608 1.694 24
Ma Qing Hua
NIO Formula E Team 1'07.037 2.123 View full results
Second practice results:
Cla Driver Team Time Gap 1 Oliver Rowland
DAMS 1'04.799 2
Felipe Massa
Venturi 1'04.930 0.131 3
Mitch Evans
Jaguar Racing 1'05.046 0.247 4
Maximilian Gunther
Andretti Autosport 1'05.120 0.321 5
Andre Lotterer
Porsche Team 1'05.257 0.458 6
Antonio Felix da Costa
Techeetah 1'05.280 0.481 7
Edoardo Mortara
Venturi 1'05.327 0.528 8
Oliver Turvey
NIO Formula E Team 1'05.398 0.599 9
Daniel Abt
Team Abt 1'05.469 0.670 10
Brendon Hartley
Dragon Racing 1'05.540 0.741 11
Nyck de Vries
Mercedes 1'05.586 0.787 12
Pascal Wehrlein
Mahindra Racing 1'05.598 0.799 13
James Calado
Jaguar Racing 1'05.634 0.835 14
Stoffel Vandoorne
Mercedes 1'05.899 1.100 15
Jean-Eric Vergne
Techeetah 1'06.258 1.459 16
Lucas di Grassi
Team Abt 1'06.283 1.484 17
Alexander Sims
Andretti Autosport 1'06.349 1.550 18
Jérôme d'Ambrosio
Mahindra Racing 1'06.368 1.569 19
Nico Müller
Dragon Racing 1'06.660 1.861 20
Robin Frijns
Virgin Racing 1'06.857 2.058 21
Sébastien Buemi
DAMS 1'06.904 2.105 22
Sam Bird
Virgin Racing 1'07.007 2.208 23
Neel Jani
Porsche Team 1'07.056 2.257 24
Ma Qing Hua
NIO Formula E Team 1'08.364 3.565 View full results
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