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Vergne takes lap record once again

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Jean-Eric Vergne once again finished the day on top, lowering the record lap time at Donington Park. Fastest man in the morning, Sebastien Buemi, had to settle for second fastest, beaten by nearly two tenths of a second.

It was a mixed three hour session, stopped by red flags and a full course yellow practice, but, straight from the beginning, Buemi was showing just what his Renault e.dams could do, setting multiple purple sectors and heading to the top of the timing screens.

Vergne was the first man to come close to knocking Buemi off of his perch. In pretty much an identical car to the champion, Vergne set a time only six thousandths of a second slower than Buemi’s. But it was still slower, and he would have to sit in second for now, splitting the e.dams duo.

Mahindra’s Felix Rosenqvist was late onto the track, one of the last three drivers to set a time, but once he was on it he continued the impressive driving we’ve seen all season. The rookie wasn’t quite as close to Vergne as Vergne was to Buemi, but he still managed third, knocking Nico Prost down another place.

Sam Bird’s bollard bumping bothered the officials, and he was shown a warning flag for his actions, but nothing more came of it.

Robin Frijns caused the first red flag of the session, and it wouldn’t be the last. By the time the MS Amlin Andretti car had been cleared from the track, the first hour of the session had been completed, and the top three still read Buemi, Vergne, and Rosenqvist.

Whilst Frijns causing a red flag probably wasn’t a surprise, his team mate jumping to the top of the sheet was. Just after the halfway point, Antonio Felix Da Costa beat Buemi’s time by over a second. The Portuguese driver wouldn’t stay there for long though.

Mitch Evans, testing for Jaguar, managed a time nearly a tenth of a second faster than Da Costa, snatching the top spot.

Evans kept that through to the next red flag, caused with just over an hour of the session left. Jose Maria Lopez, the only man on track, ran into trouble whilst Adam Carroll was having difficulty getting out of the pit lane. Once the track was cleared, there was five minutes of green flag before a brief Full Course Yellow practice.

By the time the Full Course Yellow was finished, there was only around forty minutes left until the end of the session. Still, it was enough time for Frijns to cause another red flag. The car was cleared quickly, and the e.dams duo shot off to reclaim the top spots.

Buemi was ahead of Prost on track, setting a fastest sector one and two, only for Prost to go quicker in the first sector. It was Buemi who went fastest over the entire lap, three tenths of a second faster than his team mate and, more importantly, beating the track record he’d set in the morning with a 1:29.370.

Lucas Di Grassi hadn’t been having a very impressive day so far but, in the last half an hour, the Brazilian went third fastest with a 1:29.999.

Renault e.dams may have thought they’d gotten the session wrapped up, but there was one Frenchman who had other ideas. Jean-Eric Vergne hadn’t been put out by his near miss earlier in the session, but waited until the very end of the afternoon to try again. This time, the Techeetah driver managed to go faster, with a time of 1:29.196. It means the Frenchman retakes the lap record.

Di Grassi was also up for spoiling the Renault e.dams party, pipping Prost to third.

Testing continues tomorrow.

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Image courtesy of Rajan Jangda

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