Beijing ePrix: Di Grassi fights back, tops FP2

The running was cut short after a red flag to retrieve the crashed Andretti car of Simona de Silvestro in the final minutes.

Di Grassi, who won the very first FIA Formula E race at Beijing 12-months ago, set a time of 1m37.279s. The Brazilian’s lap was within three-tenths of a second of Sebastien Buemi’s best lap of the weekend so far, set in the first of the two practice sessions.

The improved pace from the ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport team ensures that Renault’s dominant performance so far in China appears to have been checked before qualifying this afternoon.

Di Grassi’s teammate Daniel Abt finished second and was 0.7s off the Brazilian, clocking a time of 1m37.993s.

The early part of the running saw drivers simulating race runs on 170kW power, with initial indications of race pace being around the 1m39s and 1m40s mark.

Stephane Sarrazin claimed third place for Venturi, while Antonio Felix da Costa placed fourth for Team Aguri.

The Portuguese driver’s 1m39.768s lap was set midway through the session and a follow-up lap ended with a harmless spin as last years Buenos Aires ePrix winner explored the limits of his Aguri SRT01-e.

Felix da Costa's Aguri team mate Nathanael Berthon had his most competitive session so far and ended sixth with a time of 1m40.283s.

Previous session pacesetters Renault e.DAMS pair, Nicolas Prost and Sebastien Buemi, finished the session in fifth and ninth respectively.

Jacques Villeneuve completed one timed lap as he sat out most of the session while Nick Heidfeld only appeared for the second half of running after a standard battery change on his Mahindra M2ELECTRO.

The German ended the session seventh fastest while teammate Bruno Senna was 13th.

Nelson Piquet’s NEXTEV TCR FormulaE 001 emerged midway through the session after his team effected repairs after his FP1 dramas. The Brazilian ended up 12th just behind teammate Oliver Turvey in 11th.

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time	Delay
1	Lucas di Grassi	ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport	1'37.279
2	Daniel Abt	ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport	1'37.993	0.714
3	Stephane Sarrazin	Venturi	1'38.336	1.057
4	Antonio Felix da Costa	Team Aguri	1'39.768	2.489
5	Nicolas Prost	Renault e.Dams	1'39.827	2.548
6	Nathanael Berthon	Team Aguri	1'40.283	3.004
7	Nick Heidfeld	Mahindra	1'40.349	3.070
8	Jean-Eric Vergne	DS Virgin	1'40.376	3.097
9	Sebastien Buemi	Renault e.Dams	1'40.669	3.390
10	Robin Frijns	Andretti	1'40.978	3.699
11	Oliver Turvey	NEXTEV TCR	1'41.055	3.776
12	Nelson Piquet	NEXTEV TCR	1'41.333	4.054
13	Bruno Senna	Mahindra	1'41.457	4.178
14	Sam Bird	DS Virgin	1'41.474	4.195
15	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Dragon	1'41.965	4.686
16	Loic Duval	Dragon	1'42.408	5.129
17	Simona de Silvestro	Andretti	1'43.150	5.871
18	Jacques Villeneuve	Venturi	No Time