Long Beach ePrix: Buemi sets pace in opening practice

Renault e.dams driver Buemi lapped the shortened version of the classic American street racing venue in 57.383s, over four tenths clear of DS Virgin’s Sam Bird.

Team Aguri's Antonio Felix da Costa set the early pace before Bird took over at the top of the times.

Buemi hit the top after five minutes, the first man to dip under the minute barrier on 59.967s.

Virgin's Jean-Eric Vergne spent a few moments as the fastest man before Buemi lowered the mark again to 59.3s, but Vergne fought back on 59.2s.

Abt's Lucas di Grassi was the first man into the 58s, on a 58.892s. Buemi topped that by 0.023s on 58.869s, before di Grassi responded with 58.780s. Buemi went P1 again on 58.519s, whereas di Grassi straightlined the ultra-tight Turn 1 chicane a and slightly glanced a barrier.

All cars were running in the 170kW range, but some turned it up to the 200kW qualifying output in the closing moments, Salvador Duran leaping to P1 on 58.119s.

Buemi then rattled off his 57.383s that would remain as the best time, as Bird went P2 on 57.815s, ahead of Andretti duo Robin Frijns and Simona de Silvestro – who both topped Duran’s time with 200kW laps.

Stephane Sarrazin was sixth quickest, ahead of da Costa, di Grassi, Nico Prost and Daniel Abt.

There were plenty of incidents on a dirty track. Renault’s Prost locked up and straightlined the chicane, a move later repeated by Mahindra’s Bruno Senna. Prost then took a trip down the escape road at the very same spot.

Venturi’s Mike Conway had a huge early moment under braking at Turn 5, but kept his car out of the wall.

FP1 Results:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Sebastien Buemi	Renault e.Dams	57.383		27
2	Sam Bird	DS Virgin Racing Formula E Team	57.815	0.432	23
3	Simona de Silvestro	Andretti Formula E Team	58.033	0.65	23
4	Robin Frijns	Andretti Formula E Team	58.039	0.656	22
5	Salvador Duran	Team Aguri	58.119	0.736	29
6	Stephane Sarrazin	Venturi Formula E Team	58.373	0.99	33
7	Antonio Felix da Costa	Team Aguri	58.775	1.392	31
8	Lucas di Grassi	ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport	58.78	1.397	32
9	Nicolas Prost	Renault e.Dams	58.783	1.4	26
10	Daniel Abt	ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport	58.79	1.407	27
11	Jean Eric Vergne	DS Virgin Racing Formula E Team	58.852	1.469	24
12	Loic Duval	Dragon Racing Formula E Team	59.039	1.656	28
13	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Dragon Racing Formula E Team	59.048	1.665	29
14	Oliver Turvey	NEXTEV TCR Formula E Team	59.12	1.737	37
15	Mike Conway	Venturi Formula E Team	59.276	1.893	25
16	Nelson Piquet Jr.	NEXTEV TCR Formula E Team	59.441	2.058	28
17	Nick Heidfeld	Mahindra Racing Formula E Team	59.505	2.122	20
18	Bruno Senna	Mahindra Racing Formula E Team	59.556	2.173	27