Jaguar’s dark day continues as di Grassi shines

While Lucas di Grassi confirms Audi’s regained strength topping the time sheets in FP2, Jaguar’s black day turned even darker as Nelson Piquet JR crashes again.

The Paris E-Prix is set to be an exciting one, judging by how close together the field was in the first practice session of the day. Thus the fans in front of TV screens all around the world and the thousands of attendees at the track were hoping for another nail-biting practice – and they should not be disappointed.

With only 30 minutes to finally become one with the car before things heat up in qualifying, the majority of drivers headed out straight away to get some experience going round the track using the full 200kw-power. Local hero Jean-Eric Vergne (TECHEETAH) was able to establish himself on top rather quickly but could not shake off Mitch Evans (Panasonic Jaguar Racing), Lucas di Grassi (Audi Sport ABT Schaeefler) and DS Virgin Racing driver Sam Bird who topped the time sheets in FP1.

With half the session still to go, Felix Rosenqvist (Mahindra Racing) became the first driver to beat Vergne as he took over P1, putting nearly half a second between himself and the Frenchman. Nelson Piquet JR (Panasonic Jaguar Racing) quickly followed the Swede’s example and crossed the line in P2. Nevertheless, he should not be able to be happy for long. After already damaging his car badly in FP1, he also hit the wall in the second practice session and broke his suspension just a few moments after putting in his impressive lap that put him in P2.

That put the session to an early end as the stranded Panasonic Jaguar Racing car was stranded on track. With just three minutes remaining, the session was restarted and the residual 19 drivers rushed out on track to put another 200kw-lap on the tarmac. With the fastest third sector of anyone, Vergne was able to regain the lead but di Grassi managed to go even faster, finishing FP2 on top ahead of Vergne, Evans and Rosenqvist and team mate Daniel Abt (Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler).