Rome E-Prix: Cassidy tops damp practice ahead of Gunther

The Super GT and Super Formula champion topped the times with his 1m40.107s lap, set using the 250kW attack mode, to squeak clear of BMW Andretti racer Maximilian Guenther.

Kiwi Cassidy was handed a five-second time penalty and had two penalty points added to his race licence after he was adjudged to have caused a collision at Turn 7 with Jake Dennis during the Saturday event.

But he put in the graft early for the chilly 45-minute session to lead the way by 0.049s over Gunther. As conditions very gradually deteriorated and the times fell away, Cassidy would remain unmatched.

Out of a flurry of yellow flag incidents littered across the circuit in the EUR region of the Italian capital, Alex Lynn’s error was the most notable.

The Mahindra Racing driver lost the rear of his car under braking into the Turn 12 chicane. As he attempted to catch the slide, he then upset his line into the left-hander and nosed gently into the TecPro barrier at the apex.

Early pacesetter Stoffel Vandoorne was shuffled back to an eventual third in the fullness of time, running 0.555s adrift of Cassidy.

Vandoorne was wiped out of the first Rome race on Saturday when he hit a manhole cover and span into the wall while trying to avoid slowing race leader Lucas di Grassi.

The Mercedes racer also fell foul of the slippery circuit, his car upset over the crest into the braking zone for Turn 12.

He was subsequently forced to abort the chicane altogether and take to the escape road.

Dragon Penske Autosport charge Sergio Sette Camara ran to fourth quickest, a further 0.15s in arrears, but remains under investigation for power overuse.

The Brazilian was already penalised in the preceding day’s race. He earned an initial drivethrough for exceeding power limits.

As he took to the pitlane, he tagged with Edoardo Mortara and Alexander Sims and was then given a five-second race time penalty for speeding under a full-course yellow.

Nissan e.dams driver Oliver Rowland led countryman Dennis to fifth as surprise Saturday race victor Jean-Eric Vergne ran to seventh place in the new DS Techeetah E-Tense FE21 machine.

Sebastien Buemi beat Edoardo Mortara and Andre Lotterer inside the top 10.

Rome E-Prix - FP3 results:

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Nick Cassidy	Virgin Racing	19	1'40.107
2	Maximilian Gunther	Andretti Autosport	19	1'40.156	0.049
3	Stoffel Vandoorne	Mercedes	17	1'40.662	0.555
4	Sergio Sette Camara	Dragon Racing	17	1'40.808	0.701
5	Oliver Rowland	DAMS	18	1'40.962	0.855
6	Jake Dennis	Andretti Autosport	16	1'40.985	0.878
7	Jean-Eric Vergne	Techeetah	18	1'41.029	0.922
8	Sébastien Buemi	DAMS	19	1'41.097	0.990
9	Edoardo Mortara	Venturi	19	1'41.165	1.058
10	Andre Lotterer	Porsche Team	20	1'41.216	1.109
11	Nico Müller	Dragon Racing	18	1'41.310	1.203
12	Robin Frijns	Virgin Racing	15	1'41.341	1.234
13	Alex Lynn	Mahindra Racing	16	1'41.376	1.269
14	Pascal Wehrlein	Porsche Team	20	1'41.418	1.311
15	Sam Bird	Jaguar Racing	17	1'41.590	1.483
16	Lucas di Grassi	Team Abt	18	1'41.764	1.657
17	Antonio Felix da Costa	Techeetah	21	1'41.883	1.776
18	Nyck de Vries	Mercedes	18	1'42.005	1.898
19	Norman Nato	Venturi	20	1'42.206	2.099
20	René Rast	Team Abt	16	1'42.211	2.104
21	Alexander Sims	Mahindra Racing	17	1'42.303	2.196
22	Mitch Evans	Jaguar Racing	19	1'42.428	2.321
23	Tom Blomqvist	NIO Formula E Team	17	1'42.464	2.357
24	Oliver Turvey	NIO Formula E Team	18	1'45.221	5.114
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