Sam Bird and Oliver Rowland top FP1 and FP2 respectively to kick off today’s Santiago E-Prix.
The day started with a very dusty Parque O’Higgins Circuit but that didn’t stop the entire grid trying to get as much running as possible in the short amount of time they get to practice.
Last years Santiago race winner, Sam Bird finished the first session on top for the Envision Virgin Racing team. DS Techeetah’s new recruit, Antonio Felix Da Costa followed him up in second and Edoardo Mortara, Rokit Venturi Racing, ended the session third.
18 drivers ended up finishing FP1 within a second of each other meaning everyone is still in the hunt.
Oliver Rowland topped a more eventful FP2 session which ended early after a crash for NIO 333 Racing Driver Ma Qing Hua brought out the red flag.
The crash tore apart the suspension and raised questions, as is always the case in FE, as to whether Ma will be able to continue into qualifying and the race later on today.
Rowland was followed by Felipe Massa putting a Venturi driver in the top 3 for both sessions and Jaguar’s Mitch Evans finished the session third.
A red flag was brought out earlier in the session when a cooling fan ended up on the track after being left on Brendon Hartley’s GEOX Dragon car before coming off under braking on his outlap.
He is currently under investigation for an unsafe pit release.
Audi team principal, Allan McNish said on the world feed that his “heart sank when red flag came out.”
Many drivers missed out on their final full power runs at the full 250kw the Gen 2 cars are capable of meaning they will go into qualifying without all the information they want.
McNish went on to say: “You can’t hold back in this game. If you hold back you will be at the back”
Qualifying will start in just under an hour at 12:00 in Santiago. (15:00 GMT)
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Brendon Hartley (NZL), GEOX Dragon, Penske EV-4 © FIA Formula E Practice 1 Results
1 Sam Bird Envision Virgin Racing 1.04.914 2 Antonio Felix Da Costa DS Techeetah +0.150 3 Edoardo Mortara Rokit Venturi Racing +0.182 4 Lucas Di Grassi Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler +0.289 5 Nico Muller GEOX Dragon +0.338 6 Jerome D’Ambrosio Mahindra Racing +0.400 7 Alexander Sims BMW i-Andretti Motorsport +0.474 8 Sebastian Buemi Nissan e.dams +0.483 9 Pascal Wehrlein Mahindra Racing +0.515 10 Andre Lotterer Tag Heuer Porsche FE Team +0.538 11 James Calado Panasonic Jaguar Racing +0.558 12 Stoffel Vandoorne Mercedes-Benz EQ +0.592 13 Mitch Evans Panasonic Jaguar Racing +0.599 14 Oliver Rowland Nissan e.dams +0.655 15 Daniel Abt Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler +0.718 16 Jean-Eric Vergne DS Techeetah +0.745 17 Max Gunther BMW i-Andretti Motorsport +0.792 18 Nyck De Vries Mercedes-Benz EQ +0.869 19 Oliver Turvey NIO 333 Racing +1.162 20 Robin Frijns Envision Virgin Racing +1.207 21 Felipe Massa Rokit Venturi Racing +1.279 22 Brendon Hartley GEOX Dragon +1.594 23 Neel Jani Tag Heuer Porsche FE Team +1.694 24 Ma Qing Hua NIO 333 Racing +2.123 Practice 2 Results
1 Oliver Rowland Nissan e.dams 1.04.799 2 Felipe Massa Rokit Venturi Racing +0.131 3 Mitch Evans Panasonic Jaguar Racing +0.247 4 Max Gunther BMW i-Andretti Motorsport +0.321 5 Andre Lotterer Tag Heuer Porsche FE Team +0.458 6 Antonio Felix Da Costa DS Techeetah +0.481 7 Edoardo Mortara Rokit Venturi Racing +0.528 8 Oliver Turvey NIO 333 Racing +0.599 9 Daniel Abt Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler +0.670 10 Brendon Hartley GEOX Dragon +0.741 11 Nyck De Vries Mercedes-Benz EQ +0.787 12 Pascal Wehrlein Mahindra Racing +0.799 13 James Calado Panasonic Jaguar Racing +0.835 14 Stoffel Vandoorne Mercedes-Benz EQ +1.100 15 Jean-Eric Vergne DS Techeetah +1.459 16 Lucas Di Grassi Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler +1.484 17 Alexander Sims BMW i-Andretti Motorsport +1.550 18 Jerome D’Ambrosio Mahindra Racing +1.569 19 Nico Muller GEOX Dragon +1.861 20 Robin Frijns Envision Virgin Racing +2.058 21 Sebastien Buemi Nissan e.dams +2.105 22 Sam Bird Envision Virgin Racing +2.208 23 Neel Jani Tag Heuer Porsche FE Team +2.257 24 Ma Qing Hua NIO 333 Racing +3.565
