Abt steals the show as Renault e.Dams lose their edge

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ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport driver Daniel Abt finished the second free practice session in Long Beach on top ahead of Sebastien Buemi and team mate Lucas di Grassi. Dragon Racing still struggles with getting up to their usual strength.

In the 15-minute shorter second free practice session the drivers were confronted with slightly different track conditions as temperatures in Long Beach were constantly rising. Due to the limited time, the drivers were quick to hit the track. Jean-Eric Vergne (DS Virgin Racing) quickly established himself on top but the order kept changing quickly. Following a rather weak FP1 performance, the Mahindra Racing duo Nick Heidfeld and Bruno Senna was able to improve with Heidfeld even taking a strong second place before Mike Conway (Venturi) demoted him to P3.

It quickly became apparent that the drivers wanted to get as much practice as possible on the challenging track in Long Beach, as the times kept dropping quickly and the drivers were inclined to want a bit too much at times. Several drivers made slight contact with the walls or missed the ideal breaking point thus proving how difficult it is to get a perfect lap on the streets of Long Beach.

With ten minutes to go, Buemi put in his first full-power lap and immediately dipped under the 57-second mark. His main championship rival Lucas di Grassi (ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport) established himself in P2 with less then a tenth of a second behind. It was the Brazilian’s team mate Daniel Abt outclassed the two title contenders and took the lead with an impressive 56,778. The top-5 was completed by Buemi, di Grassi, da Costa and Robin Frinjs (Andretti) who once again showed the potential of Andretti on the West Coast.

Less impressing were once again both Dragon Racing drivers who finished the session in P10 (Jerome d’Ambrosio) and P12 (Loic Duval). An improvement to FP1 could be seen yet it is unlikely that the team currently in P2 in the team standings will be fighting for pole-position or the victory later on today. Nevertheless, it’s not the Buemi who goes into the following sessions as the clear favourite as ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport seems to have the edge on their French rivals in Long Beach.

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Image courtesy of FIA Formula E Media

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