Twitter Facebook Youtube

Renault e.dams 1-2 in final test session

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Sebastien Buemi left it to the final mad rush to set his fastest time of the session this afternoon and snatch P1 from team mate Nico Prost.

It’s time to pack up the chargers and put away the steering wheels. Formula E pre-season testing is officially over and Buemi finished the six days on a high, with another session P1 this afternoon.

Strangely, he didn’t spend most of the session there, sitting at the bottom of the timing screen until there was less than forty minutes on the clock.

Lucas Di Grassi was straight to business when he headed out on track at two this afternoon. The Brazilian was quick to set a quick lap, but Jean-Eric Vergne was quick to set a quicker one.

We’ve become used to seeing the Techeetah driver at the top of the timing screen over the course of testing. Venturi’s Stephane Sarrazin, less so, but he was the next man to take P1 with a time of 1:31.312.

It was a time that many struggled to get close to early on. Loic Duval took second place first, only for Vergne and then Lopez to take the place.

The first of many red flags of the session came within the first hour, but the problem was quickly cleared, only for Vergne’s Techeetah car to have a disagreement with the turn 10 bollard over its positioning. Vergne knocked the bollard free and brought out the red flag again.

The Frenchman was handed a 30 minute time penalty for hitting the bollard before Lopez was handed the same penalty for overtaking under the red flags.

The green flags were waved once the bollard was fixed and Marco Engel headed out onto the track. The Venturi driver is another that we’re not entirely used to seeing at the top of the timings, making his P1 time an even bigger shock than his team mate’s.

Just as Vergne’s time penalty finished, the red flag was brought out again. The marshals at Donington quickly cleared the problem, and the drivers could get back to hitting the bollard… er, testing.

Di Grassi was the next driver to be shown a warning flag for hitting the bollard at turn 10. He wasn’t the only driver we’re used to seeing a little higher having trouble.

Though he’d set the highest number of laps, Prost was at the bottom of the timing sheet with a best time that was over three seconds slower than Engel’s time. Once he’d started the lap, it took Prost 1:29.726 to fix the problem and jump to the top of the timing sheet.

Just before the two hour mark, Jerome d’Ambrosio knocked Prost to P2, with a time of 1:29.669, before Turvey and Frijns but their cars between Prost and Engel.

After a brief pause to the action to allow for a full course yellow practice, Di Grassi headed out on track, hoping to mimic Prost a little and jump up from his P19 position. The Brazilian found himself alone on track, perfect to set the fastest lap of the session.

Only a few minutes later, Sam Bird lowered that time to go P1, with Duval following him over the line to go P2. Bird’s team mate Lopez was a full two tenths of a second slower than him, setting for third and pushing Di Grassi even further down the order.

Whilst his team mate was sitting at the bottom of the timings, Prost headed out on track again, taking P1 for e.dams once again.

Finally, Buemi headed out of the garage. The Swiss driver set a personal best in the first sector and the session best time in the second sector, but his third sector let him down, and he could only manage a time three hundredths of a second slower than Prost. It looked like he might let his team mate take a turn at the top.

Di Grassi set out to put an ABT car on the top, setting a personal best in the first sector. His second sector ended up over ten minutes long, though, when he took a trip in the gravel and brought out the red flag.

With six minutes to go, the green flag was raised again, and there was another mad dash to the chequered flag.

Sixteen of the twenty cars headed straight onto the track, making it a little hard to find clear air. Something of an expert of setting fastest laps on busy tracks, Buemi lowered the fastest lap of the session to just over 1:29. With only a minute left, nobody could beat the time.

Formula E now packs up and prepares to ship the cars halfway across the world to Hong Kong for the first race of the season next month. There, we’ll see who showed their true hand at Donington Park and what we can really expect this season.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Image courtesy of Rajan Jangda

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]