Oliver Rowland sets the pace in Santiago Free Practice 2

Nissan e.dams Oliver Rowland tops the times of an action-packed session.

The second Free Practice session of the 2020 Antofagasta Minerals Santiago E-Prix took place, as expected, under high temperatures – 25 degrees at 10 a.m local time.

Teams and drivers went back in action after an intense first 45-minute session this morning led by Envision Virgin Racing and last year winner Sam Bird, who set the fastest lap time 1.04.914s.

SECOND FREE PRACTICE

The 30-minute session got underway with the cars heading out to the counterclockwise track, which spans into a track length of 2.3 km (1.4 miles).
Most drivers started the sessions practicing the Attack Mode.

Nyck De Vries hit the top of the charts (1.05.586s) with his Mercedes-Benz EQ within the first five minutes into the session, soon after Andre Lotterer set the quickest time 1.05.257s while teammate Neel Jani kissed the wall with his Tag Heuer Porsche X99.

Heavy traffic challenged the drivers in a busy session that saw some lockups and a less dusty track.
Heading into the final half of practice Panasonic Jaguar Racing Mitch Evans went quickest setting a lap time of 1.05.046s.

Red Flags

As soon as Brendon Hartley left the pitlane, some debris from the car came out, causing the first red flag of the session, which the marshalls removed quickly.
The session restarted and Hartley returned to the track, with the incident under investigation.
Ma Qinghua lost the rear of his NIO 333 crashing into the wall and causing the second red flag.

Antonio Felix Da Costa and Oliver Rowland went side by side for a moment, but the heavy competition did not prevent the latter, to set the fastest time overall 1.04.799s.
Felipe Massa finished right behind Rowland, with both drivers being able to do a full power lap.

The session resumed shortly after due to Ma Qinghua incident.
Mitch Evans finished third, followed by Maximilian Guenther and Andre Lotterer rounding the top five.

This last free practice precedes the always electrifying Qualifying session.

Four groups of six drivers each will be literally flying around the streets of Parque O’Higgins circuit to secure their ticket to the “Super Pole.”

The sixth fastest drivers of the group stage will battle to start the race from the best spot on the grid, pole position.
The designated drivers for each group are:

Group 1: Alexander Sims, Stoffel Vandoorne, Sam Bird, Oliver Rowland, Lucas Di Grassi, and Andre Lotterer.

Group 2: Edoardo Mortara, Robin Frijns, Nyck De Vries, Daniel Abt, James Calado, and Jean-Eric Vergne.

Group 3: Antonio Felix Da Costa, Brendon Hartley, Jerome D´Ambrosio, Mitch Evans, Pascal Wehrlein, and Max Guenther.

Group 4: Felipe Massa, Sebastien Buemi, Neel Jani, Oliver Turvey, Ma Qing Hua, and Nico Mueller.