Advantage Buemi: record-breaking drive in FP1

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In an eventful first free practice session, Sebastien Buemi gave a first taste of what he is capable of by putting in an impressive lap that undisputedly put him on top of the timesheets. His championship contender Lucas di Grassi did not put in a full-power lap and finished the session in P5.

Sunny skies greeted the Formula E circus when it started into its last ever first free practice session of the 2015-2016 season. As soon as the green flags were out to indicate the start of the session, the majority of the grid instantly made its way onto the challenging track in London’s Battersea Park. A suspense-filled race yesterday set the tone for today’s FP1 as the session was constantly interrupted by drivers going off or making contact with the wall, when trying to find their limits on the 2.925 km-long track.

With half an hour still to go, the session turned into chaos as both Simona de Silvestro (MS Amlin Andretti) and the Team Aguri duo Antonio Felix da Costa and Qing Hua Ma ran into bigger problems on the extremely tight track. De Silvestro had hit the wall hard and was forced to park her car in one of the run-off areas but her actions apparently caused some confusion as Ma braked earlier than expected when seeing her, causing his teammate da Costa to run into the back off him. The Portuguese spun in due course and came to a stop with his car blocking most of the circuit, forcing race control to red-flag the session.

At this stage, Sebastien Buemi (Renault e.Dams) topped the timesheets which was not surprising anyone following his performance yesterday. His championship contender Lucas di Grassi (ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport) followed in P2 and his teammate Daniel Abt underlined the strong performance of the German squad by securing a solid P3. Yesterday’s race winner Nicolas Prost (Renault e.Dams) was right behind the trio in P4 but the standings saw a big change once the green flag was waved with 25 minutes still to go.

Venturi’s Mike Conway put in an impressive lap with about 20 minutes still to go that put him on top of the timesheets and stayed there until times started to drop during the last few minutes of the session. First Jean-Eric Vergne (DS Virgin Racing) took the lead but the spotlight was quickly on Buemi who put in an incredible 1.22.393 and easily positioned himself on top again, ahead of his French teammate. Current championship leader di Grassi finished the session in a solid P5, followed by his teammate Abt. Sam Bird (DS Virgin Racing), Bruno Senna (Mahindra Racing) and Loic Duval (Dragon Racing) completed the top-10.

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Images courtesy of Rajan Jangda

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