Reigning champion Jean-Eric Vergne has topped the final in-season test session of the 2018/19 ABB FIA Formula E Championship in Mexico City for DS TECHEETAH.
Following another tough race day for rookie HWA RACELAB driver Stoffel Vandoorne, he posted the second fastest time ahead of fellow rookie Pascal Wehrlein who also had a torrid time in the Mexico City E-Prix losing out on the win on the final lap.
Both Audi’s were fastest in the morning session with Daniel Abt posting a 58.917s lap, followed closely by his teammate and yesterday’s race winner Lucas di Grassi with a time of 58.962s. “It feels good but it makes me sad at the same time because of yesterday,” said Abt.
“We had everything to be at the front but I made a mistake in Quali. It’s a shame there are no points for testing today!”
Third fastest of the morning’s session was Venturi’s Felipe Massa, who set a 58.977s lap. The Brazilian scored his first points in Formula E in the Mexico City race, putting him 16th in the standings. Abt’s time topped the former lap record of 58.963s set by BMW i Andretti Motorsport’s Antonio Felix da Costa in Practice 2 ahead of the 2019 CBMM Niobium Mexico City E-Prix.
With 18 cars all posting times within a second of each other, only Mahindra Racing’s Pascal Wehrlein and his teammate Jerome d’Ambrosio, NIO’s Oliver Turvey and Panasonic Jaguar Racing’s Nelson Piquet Jr. failed to post a time under a minute. Following a spectacular collision with Jean-Eric Vergne in the race yesterday, Piquet Jr. spent the morning running in the rebuilt car.
During the afternoon session, times tumbled further as DS Techeetah’s Jean-Eric Vergne posted the fastest time overall, setting a new lap record with a time of 58.775s. The test passed without any major on-track incidents, with the only driver-related red flag the result of Felipe Nasr stopping on-track with suspension damage.
The only non-regular Formula E driver to take to the track was Raffaele Marciello, who shared the #7 GEOX DRAGON with Jose Maria Lopez. The rookie posted the 17th fastest time in the afternoon session.