Renault e.Dams claims the streets of London in FP2

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Renault e.Dams once again claimed the streets of London as championship contender Sebastien Buemi put in the fastest time in FP2, followed by Daniel Abt (ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport) and Buemi’s teammate Nicolas Prost. The Swiss’ title rival Lucas di Grassi (ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport) complained about traffic but finished the session in a nevertheless solid fifth place.

Following a rather eventful first practice session in London’s Battersea Park, the majority of the grid immediately went on track as soon as the green flag indicated the start of free practice two. The 2.925 km long track allows no room for mistake and does not offer many overtaking opportunities either, making qualifying matter more than usual. Therefore, most drivers started practicing their full-power laps almost straightaway.

The Renault e.Dams duo Sebastien Buemi and Nicolas Prost too centre stage as they established themselves on top of the timesheets. As the double-header in London marks not only the finale of another fantastic season, it is also the place of the nail-biting title showdown between Buemi and Lucas di Grassi (ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport) so all eyes are on the two championship contenders this weekend. As FP1 already showed, the Renault e.Dams seems to have the edge over the ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport in London and this was proven once again in FP2 as di Grassi struggled to match his rival’s pace.

Dragon Racing driver Loic Duval quickly established himself as Renault e.Dams biggest contender in this session, holding on to P3 for a large part of FP2. His teammate Jerome d’Ambrosio struggled with getting up to speed, spending the majority of the session at the bottom of the timesheets and only started moving up the order with five minutes remaining. In the end, he finished the session as 14th overall.

At the place of their biggest Formula E success so far, NextEV TCR showed a strong performance in the second practice session with both Nelson Piquet Jr and Oliver Turvey well within the Top-10, being separated by Venturi’s Stephane Sarrazin who still has a score to settle with Formula E’s London track following his performance in Battersea Park last year. Jean-Eric Vergne secured P6 for DS Virgin Racing during the last few minutes of the session, demoting local hero and last year’s winner Sam Bird to P11.

The fastest lap went to the current runner-up in the championship, Buemi, who was able to reclaim P1 for himself with only a few minutes left after Daniel had managed to top the timesheets earlier on. The German finished the session in P2, with Prost, Duval and di Grassi all in the Top-5. The latter improved to fifth on his last lap and had to deal with a lot of traffic that probably cost him a few valuable seconds. The Top-10 was then completed by Vergne, Piquet Jr, Sarrazin, Turvey and Bruno Senna (Mahindra Racing).

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Images courtesy of Rajan Jangda

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