Mexico ePrix: Buemi heads Duval in first practice

The championship leader stopped the clocks at 1m03.995s to head Dragon Racing driver Loic Duval by 0.367s.

Buemi and Duval were among only a few drivers to run at the full qualifying allowance of 200kW. NEXTEV TCR driver Oliver Turvey placed third after also completing a lap at maximum power.

The drivers experienced the track for the first time in a brief shakedown session yesterday, but this morning’s running featured the first full-power laps on the specially-adapted Hermanos Rodriguez track - which, at 2.092km, is the shortest on the calendar.

Producing the fourth best time of the 45-minute session was Nicolas Prost who, unlike his team mate Buemi, did not attempt a 200kW lap. Fifth was Daniel Abt in the Abt Schaeffler Audi Sport car, ahead of Jerome d’Ambrosio’s Dragon entry.

Local hero Salvador Duran ended the session 15th in his Team Aguri car, while his team mate Antonio Felix da Costa had a frustrating start as he was forced to sit out the first 15-minutes due to a battery change being required on one of his cars. The Portuguese driver ended the session in 12th position.

The major incidents in the session were confined to Nelson Piquet locking up and straightlining the turn three chicane and Stephane Sarrazin spinning his Venturi 360 degrees round, also at turn three.

Lucas di Grassi also had a brief delay when he had to be pushed into his pit box by his mechanics after stopping at the pit entry. The Brazilian finished the session in ninthposition.

There was also a brief red flag with ten minutes of the session remaining to retrieve Simona de Silvestro's stranded Andretti car. The Swiss driver was forced to park her machine at the exit of turn four with a technical problem.

The final practice session before qualifying takes place at 10.30am local time.

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	Sébastien Buemi	DAMS	1:03.995
2	Loic Duval	Dragon Racing	1:04.362	+0.367
3	Oliver Turvey	China Racing	1:05.067	+1.072
4	Nicolas Prost	DAMS	1:05.149	+1.154
5	Daniel Abt	Audi Sport Team Abt	1:05.188	+1.193
6	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon Racing	1:05.257	+1.262
7	Stéphane Sarrazin	Venturi	1:05.273	+1.278
8	Nick Heidfeld	Mahindra Racing	1:05.274	+1.279
9	Lucas di Grassi	Audi Sport Team Abt	1:05.287	+1.292
10	Mike Conway	Venturi	1:05.388	+1.393
11	Nelson Piquet Jr.	China Racing	1:05.406	+1.411
12	Antonio Felix da Costa	Team Aguri	1:05.465	+1.470
13	Jean-Eric Vergne	Virgin Racing	1:05.681	+1.686
14	Bruno Senna	Mahindra Racing	1:05.817	+1.822
15	Salvador Duran	Team Aguri	1:05.944	+1.949
16	Sam Bird	Virgin Racing	1:05.994	+1.999
17	Robin Frijns	Andretti Autosport	1:06.051	+2.056
18	Simona de Silvestro	Andretti Autosport	1:06.289	+2.294