FE: Power failure disrupts London practice

A failure of Formula E's main power supply in Battersea Park has forced the cancellation of the second practice session for the season finale.

An issue with the electric single-seater championship's charging infrastructure prevented some of the teams from preparing their cars ahead of practice two.

The decision to cancel the second session, scheduled to start 10:30 a.m.. UK time, was made to ensure each team had equal opportunity to prepare for qualifying. It is the first time the championship has suffered an issue like this with the infrastructure.

Qualifying will still take place at 12 p.m. UK time as scheduled, as only one car is required and each team has at least one charged. Investigations into the issue are already under way and the problem is not expected to have an influence on the final race of the season.

FP1: Buemi sets the pace

Sebastien Buemi set the fastest lap of the Battersea weekend so far to lead the way in the sole practice session.

The Renault e.dams driver's 1m22.393s is the first sub-1m23s lap round the London circuit, and put him just over six tenths clear of team-mate and race-one winner Nico Prost.

Jean-Eric Vergne was the best of the rest, a second slower than Buemi.

Championship leader Lucas di Grassi, who has a three-point advantage over Buemi, did not complete a 200kW lap and had planned to prepare for qualifying in second practice.

The two protagonists will qualifying in separate groups, with points leader di Grassi in group two and Buemi in group three.

Simona de Silvestro caused a red flag early in the session when she clobbered the wall exiting the final corner and broke the right-rear suspension on her Andretti car. She hobbled around the circuit in an attempt to make it back to the pits but was eventually told to pull over and stop, and in doing so caught out Ma Qing Hua behind.

The Chinese driver slowed, catching out his Team Aguri team-mate Antonio Felix da Costa behind him and the pair collided, damaging Ma's rear end and breaking the front-right corner on da Costa's car.

PRACTICE 1 TIMES:

Originally on Autosport.com