FE: Duval fastest in Putrajaya practice

Loic Duval edged Beijing ePrix winner Sebastien Buemi to top practice for the second round of the Formula E season in Putrajaya.

Dragon Racing driver Duval leapt up the timing screen in the closing stages of the session with a 1m20.188s, besting the fastest time from last year's Malaysian round by more than a second. He survived a big moment through the penultimate corner, a fast right-hander, as he beat Buemi by 0.084s in a 75-minute session littered with incidents.

Buemi, whose Renault e.dams team dominated the opener in China, led the way for most of the running but didn't improve on his second effort with 200kW of power after a mistake in the first sector.

Two tenths behind Buemi came Daniel Abt in the first of the Abt Audi Sport cars. The German's teammate Lucas di Grassi looked rapid but went off at Turn 3 on his first full power run and had a lurid slide exiting the hairpin on the second run, which had threatened to be a session-topping time until that point. Di Grassi regrouped and ran again, but wound up 0.4s behind Duval in fifth.

Between the two Abt Schaeffler FE01s was Sam Bird, a shade quicker than di Grassi.

The Briton complained of braking and ride issues in the Beijing race but his and DS Virgin Racing team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne's pace appears strong again in Putrajaya, Vergne the last of the eight cars within a second of Duval.

The NEXTEV TCR team's difficult start to the season continued with a troubled practice session for both its drivers.

Oliver Turvey ended with a long stoppage on track in the final sector, having already spun at Turn 3.

Champion Nelson Piquet Jr. had other issues, stopping on track in the early stages and later having his own off at Turn 3, running straight on shortly after Turvey's error. He wound up 16th, 2.4s off the pace and only a shade faster than 1997 Formula 1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, who stopped on track at the same time as Piquet with a suspected battery issue.

Other drivers to suffer minor dramas included Buemi's Renault e.dams team-mate Nicolas Prost, who stopped briefly on the start-finish straight.

Jerome d'Ambrosio had an off at Turn 3 in the second Dragon Racing entry and looked set to join his teammate at the top of the times late on before being scuppered by the yellow flags brought out by Turvey's stoppage.

The session was red flagged twice in the opening 15 minutes, first for a fallen banner and then after a bolt had come loose at the Turn 7 chicane.

Originally on Autosport.com