Da Costa on top in FP3
Antonio Felix da Costa was fastest for DS Techeetah in the only free practice session before the second round of the 2019/20 ABB FIA Formula E Championship.
Da Costa put in his quickest lap, a 1:11.084, in the dying stages of the session while his teammate Jean-Eric Vergne watched from the garage. It has not been Vergne’s weekend so far, retiring from the race yesterday after his steering seized, before making an error early in today’s session which damaged the rear left corner of the car and requiring a battery change.
Yesterday’s winner, Sam Bird, was second on the time sheets by just over two hundredths of a second but was apparently blocked on his lap so there is more time to be had from the Envision Virgin Racing car. Alexander Sims, yesterday’s pole sitter, was third for BMW i Andretti.
With just under ten minutes to go Nissan e.dams’ Oliver Rowland was the first to go to 250kW and set a lap in the 1:11’s, he ended the session fourth, ahead of Pascal Wehrlein’s Mahindra.
Robin Frijns was sixth fastest with the two Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler cars of Daniel Abt and Lucas di Grassi behind him. The second BMW i Andretti, driven by Maximilian Guenther was ninth while Mitch Evans’ 1:11.925 meant his Panasonic Jaguar rounded out the top 10.
