Di Grassi leads Berlin FE practice

Formula E championship leader Lucas di Grassi topped free practice for the German round of the series at Berlin Tempelhof. The Brazilian, driving for the Abt squad, lapped the airport circuit in a time of 1m22.032s to beat e.DAMS driver Nicolas Prost by 0.160 seconds in the quicker second free practice session.

Di Grassi was only 11th in early-morning practice after suffering a brief spin, but did not use the full 200kW qualifying-specification power, so his pace in the second session makes him favourite to take his first Formula E pole position later on Saturday. It was a strong performance from di Grassi, who was also fastest in the first half of the second session, and was visibly hustling the car.

Jerome d'Ambrosio was third fastest, setting a time just five-thousandths slower than Prost in the closing stages of the session.

Virgin's Jaime Alguersuari, who had been third fastest in the first session, headed a trio of ex-Scuderia Toro Rosso Formula 1 drivers in fourth, fifth and sixth places, with Jean-Eric Vergne and Scott Speed just behind him. Nelson Piquet Jr. was seventh fastest ahead of first-session pacesetter Sebastien Buemi.

Buemi had topped the earlier session by just over a second-and-a-half ahead of Nick Heidfeld, but although he improved his laptime in the second it was only good enough for eighth. Antonio Felix da Costa and Loic Duval rounded out the top 10.

Two drivers who were in the top half of the field in the first session failed to replicate that form in the second.

Daniel Abt was sixth in the first, but slowest in the second, with Venturi driver Stephane Sarrazin slipping from ninth to 16th.

The first session was twice interrupted by red flags; one to tend to the timing system, which has to be laid on the track surface, and the other to reposition a marker bollard that had been dislodged, but the second ran smoothly.

PRACTICE ONE:

PRACTICE TWO:

Originally on Autosport.com