Rome E-Prix – Maximilian Guenther topped a very brief FP2 session but it’s Lucas di Grassi’s FP1 time which is fastest so far.
Rome’s second practice session was brought to a halt after just 10 minutes some kerbing came loose at the chicane. Initially it was estimated the repair would take twenty minutes so Scott Elkins, the Race Director, said that the session could be extended past it’s scheduled 9:45 finish time however repairs ended up taking longer than expected. At 10:05 it was announced that the session would not restart and the kerb would be replaced with a wall instead.
Click here for full session times.
That means that the cars damaged in FP1 – NIO 333’s Oliver Turvey, BMW i Andretti’s Jake Dennis and DS Techeetah’s Jean-Eric Vergne, in the post-session incident and NIO 333’s Tom Blomqvist who hit the wall earlier in that session, will not have lost out on as much track time to their competitors as they had feared.
Blomqvist’s car had been fixed and he had just been heading down the pitlane when the red flag was flown, while Dennis’ BMW was completed during the session stoppage.
As FP2 ended very early, proper fast laps hadn’t been set so far and Guenther’s 1:39.517 was the fastest of the session and would have seen him eighth in the earlier practice. That means going into qualifying, it’s Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler who have the fastest time on this new Rome circuit, as di Grassi set a 1:38.785 in FP1.
Stoffel Vandoorne was the closest to di Grassi’s time, and the only other car in the 1:38s, as he was just 0.062 seconds back in his Mercedes EQ. Frijns was third fastest of the day so far with a 1:39.031 for Envision Virgin while Sergio Sette Camara was the best of the Dragon/Penske team, 0.259 off the lead.
ROKiT Venturi’s Norman Nato was fifth with a 1:39.139 while Frijns’ teammate Nick Cassidy was only one thousandth further back. The first Rome E-Prix victor and winner of the most recent race this season, Sam Bird was just under half a second off di Grassi for the seventh fastest.
Guenther’s FP2 time slots him into eighth quickest of the day, and the only one in the top 10 from that second session, while Nissan e.dams’ Oliver Rowland was ninth 0.773 off the lead. Dennis rounds out the 10 fastest laps of the practice sessions with a 1:39.587.
