Oliver Rowland quickest in last FP2 of the season

With a lower Manhattan backdrop, the second Free Practice of the last double-header in New York City began with a clean, blue sky and a dusty track. Among the first to hit the 14-turn track were reigning champion Jean Eric-Vergne (DS Techeetah), Pascal Wehrlein (Mahindra Racing), Oliver Rowland (Nissan e.dams), and Daniel Abt (Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler).

The thirty-minute session began with heavy traffic and title contender Lucas di Grassi (Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler) topping the timesheets for the first nine minutes of the session until Antonio Felix da Costa (BMW i Andretti Motorsport) set the provisional fastest time with a 1:10.598 – going even faster than his teammate Alexander Sims who set a new lap record with a 1:09.959 during the first practice session of the day.

Nevertheless, FP2 in New York City was not all smooth sailing: two-times New York City E-Prix winner Sam Bird (Envision Virgin Racing) slightly touched the wall without any major consequences to the car and so did Mitch Evans (Panasonic Jaguar Racing) in a different sector, which did not prevent the New Zealander to set the new fastest time with less than ten minutes to go. HWA Racelab’s Stoffel Vandoorne also touched the wall in turn 9, compromising a promising lap just a few minutes before the session came to a close.

In the end, it was Oliver Rowland (Nissan e.dams) who established himself as the fastest man on the streets of Brooklyn, setting a time of 1:09.695 directly at the end of the session. The top-five was completed by da Costa, Sebastien Buemi (Nissan e.dams), Sims and Robin Frijns (Envision Virgin Racing). The favourite for the title, Jean-Eric Vergne, finished the session in P17 – right behind his strongest contender in the fight for the title, Lucas di Grassi (Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler).