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Buemi heads first Mexico practice

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Sebastien Buemi tops the first practice session in Mexico, with Loic Duval finishing second and Oliver Turvey third.

Besides the Friday shake down, it was the first time a Formula E car had driven the Mexican track but, if there was anybody who might be hoping that could throw off Renault e.dams’ momentum, Buemi and team mate Nico Prost quickly wiped away the hope.

With the low sun causing a few problems at the start of the session, Buemi took the top spot early, with Prost not far behind.

Oversteer was causing a bit of trouble for a few drivers, including Simona De Silvestro and Lucas Di Grassi, who didn’t seem to be enjoying the new track.

Di Grassi later stopped in the pit lane on his way into the garage, with his team having to go up the lane to wheel him back in. Eventually, Di Grassi finished the session ninth.

There was hope for the rest of the field, with Mike Conway going P3 twenty minutes into the session, only a tenth slower than e.dams.

It was when the full power laps came in, though, that we really saw the advantage e.dams had.

NEXTEV’s Nelson Piquet was the first driver to use the full 200kW of energy available to him, topping the timing sheet with a 1:05.406, only for Prost to go quicker using only 170kW of energy.

Turvey, Buemi, D’Ambrosio and Duval also completed 200kW runs.

With less than fifteen minutes to go, Simona De Silvestro stopped on track, with the Battery Management System error showing on her dashboard. Andretti’s Roger Griffiths said it wasn’t necessarily the battery that had caused the car to stop, and they wouldn’t know for sure until the car returned to the pits, but Williams were on hand to try to resolve the problem.

With eight minutes to go, the green flag came out, ready for Buemi to use his full power lap to go P1 with a 1:03.995. Duval finished second, and Turvey third.

Prost and Abt finished P4 and 5, with D’Ambrosio finishing P6 after pitting during his full power lap.

Sarrizin, Heidfeld, Di Grassi, and Conway completed the top ten.

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Image courtesy of FIA Formula E Media

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