Zurich ePrix: Di Grassi sets practice pace

Di Grassi set his best time in the opening 45-minute session – a 1m11.995s – as he opted to complete a 200kW run early in the day.

Championship leader Jean-Eric Vergne was eighth quickest in the combined times across the two sessions, with title rival Sam Bird one place ahead in seventh.

In hot and sunny conditions at the Zurich Street Circuit, which has been built right on the shores of Lake Zurich and features the longest straight in FE history, most of the 20 drivers set their best times in the second 30-minute session.

Di Grassi finished that session 13th with his teammate Daniel Abt, 14th in overall, 16th in the second running as the Audi squad concentrated on race simulations.

Mahindra’s Felix Rosenqvist topped FP2 with a 1m12.207s, which was 0.212s slower than di Grassi’s best overall.

Rosenqvist set fastest sectors in the opening two-thirds of the 2.465km lap but locked up dramatically at the Turn 10 hairpin and lost 0.3s.

Mitch Evans (Jaguar) had a dramatic FP2 but topped the times for the most of the session.

He was usurped by Rosenqvist after their second full-power runs and although he improved his overall fastest time, he eventually wound up third overall.

Evans also shot down the Turn 1 escape road, which is situated at the end of the bumpy start-finish straight, and then rubbed the barriers approaching the Turn 7/8 chicane in the closing minutes.

Jerome D’Ambrosio was fourth fastest overall, just ahead of his Dragon teammate Jose Maria Lopez, who was involved in incidents throughout the morning.

In FP1, he was being closely followed by Bird as the pair approached Turn 1 when the Virgin driver lost the rear of his car approaching the corner and spun into the outside wall– damaging the suspension on his car and leading to them later exchanging words in pitlane.

Lopez followed Evans down the escape road in the final minutes of FP2 but avoided an incident, before he lost his car at the same corner in the dying seconds of the session and hit the left barrier side-on, although he was able to carry on.

Alex Lynn was sixth overall, with Andre Lotterer – who hit the rear of Nico Prost at Turn 10 during FP2, damaging the Renault e.dams driver’s left-rear bodywork – ninth overall.

Swiss driver Sebastien Buemi rounded out the overall top 10 and spun into the tight left-hand Turn 4 barriers five minutes before FP2’s end.

He hit the wall square on with the rear of his car and was able to carry on.

Oliver Turvey, 15th in the overall times, and Antonio Felix da Costa were the other drivers to set their best practice times in FP1.

Da Costa, 19th overall, did not set a timed lap for much of FP2, ending up slowest in that session, due to an issue his Andretti time is currently investigating.

FP1 results

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	Lucas Di Grassi	Audi Sport Abt	1'11.995
2	Mitch Evans	Jaguar	1'13.138	1.143
3	Daniel Abt	Audi Sport Abt	1'13.392	1.397
4	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Jaguar	1'13.398	1.403
5	Oliver Turvey	NIO	1'13.401	1.406
6	Sam Bird	DS Virgin	1'13.571	1.576
7	Jean-Éric Vergne	Techeetah	1'13.579	1.584
8	Felix Rosenqvist	Mahindra	1'13.600	1.605
9	Sébastien Buemi	Renault e.dams	1'13.728	1.733
10	José María López	Dragon	1'13.764	1.769
11	André Lotterer	Techeetah	1'13.778	1.783
12	António Félix da Costa	Andretti	1'13.787	1.792
13	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon	1'13.800	1.805
14	Nicolas Prost	Renault e.dams	1'13.935	1.940
15	Alex Lynn	DS Virgin	1'14.033	2.038
16	Edoardo Mortara	Venturi	1'14.067	2.072
17	Nick Heidfeld	Mahindra	1'14.129	2.134
18	Maro Engel	Venturi	1'14.269	2.274
19	Stéphane Sarrazin	Andretti	1'14.750	2.755
20	Luca Filippi	NIO	1'14.942	2.947

FP2 results

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	Felix Rosenqvist	Mahindra	1'12.207
2	Mitch Evans	Jaguar	1'12.261	0.054
3	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon	1'12.595	0.388
4	José María López	Dragon	1'12.601	0.394
5	Alex Lynn	DS Virgin	1'12.620	0.413
6	Sam Bird	DS Virgin	1'12.665	0.458
7	Jean-Éric Vergne	Techeetah	1'12.684	0.477
8	André Lotterer	Techeetah	1'12.802	0.595
9	Sébastien Buemi	Renault e.dams	1'12.848	0.641
10	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Jaguar	1'12.895	0.688
11	Maro Engel	Venturi	1'12.911	0.704
12	Nick Heidfeld	Mahindra	1'12.968	0.761
13	Lucas Di Grassi	Audi Sport Abt	1'13.225	1.018
14	Oliver Turvey	NIO	1'13.445	1.238
15	Edoardo Mortara	Venturi	1'13.475	1.268
16	Daniel Abt	Audi Sport Abt	1'13.494	1.287
17	Stéphane Sarrazin	Andretti	1'13.500	1.293
18	Nicolas Prost	Renault e.dams	1'13.635	1.428
19	Luca Filippi	NIO	1'13.821	1.614
20	António Félix da Costa	Andretti	1'14.234	2.027