Frijns leads the way on second morning

Robin Frijns kept Envision Virgin Racing on top in the morning session of day two, leading the BMW i Andrettis of Maximilian Günther and Alexander Sims, while GEOX Dragon put in a good showing.

The early pace was set by the GEOX Dragon rookie duo of Brendon Hartley and Nico Müller, leading yesterday’s pace setters of Günther and DS Techeetah’s Antonio Felix da Costa.

The first red flag of the day was brought out by the Mercedes EQ of Nyck de Vries, who binned his car into the barriers at the temporary chicane 45 minutes into the session.

Less than three minutes after the resumption of the session, the red flag was once again called upon as the TAG Heuer Porsche of Andre Lotterer locked up into the chicane and smashed into the barrier, destroying the front right wheel cover and suspension.

Just before the second stoppage, da Costa had gone to the top of the times with a 1:16.087s, beating Hartley’s time by a British Secret Agent’s gap of 0.007s.

The times continued to tumble as we reached the halfway point of the session, with Günther, Pascal Wehrlein and Jean-Eric Vergne all taking turns in the top spot.

da Costa soon returned to the top of the timing screen as he put in a 1:15.557s, with the GEOX Dragon duo not far behind as both Hartley and Müller put in impressive showings, the latter taking over in P1 with 80 minutes left on the clock.

There were two further red flag stoppages as the Mahindra Racing of Jerome d’Ambrosio came to grief at the chicane, followed shortly after by the Venturi of Felipe Massa as the session went green.

Günther held the top spot following the resumption of the session, but with 15 minutes left on the clock Frijns put his Envision Virgin Racing fastest with the top four separated by 0.067s.

The session was brought to a premature end as Daniel Abt came to a halt at turn two with five minutes left on the clock, leading the stewards to bring out the chequered flag early.

Sims put both BMW i Andrettis into the top three ahead of the Nissan e.dams of Oliver Rowland, while Müller completed a strong session in his GEOX Dragon to finish inside the top five.

da Costa ended the session sixth fastest ahead of Hartley, while Mitch Evans, Lucas di Grassi and Sam Bird completed the top ten.