FE: Vergne outpaces works Renaults again

Jean-Eric Vergne lowered the Formula E lap record at Donington Park again as Renault customer Techeetah headed the factory team on the penultimate day of testing for the 2016/17 season.

The Frenchman recovered from a shunt in the morning, one that broke the left-front corner of his car and brought out the red flags, to lead the way for his new team.

Vergne's final-hour improvement to a 1m29.196s was almost half a second quicker than he managed in the first test, as Techeetah's flying start to life with a Renault Z.E.16 powertrain continued.

Sebastien Buemi beat Vergne's old lap record twice himself, having topped the morning session on a 1m29.496s before looking set to repeat the feat in the afternoon with a 1m29.370s.

The Renault e.dams driver insisted his team was not chasing lap times, though.

"We really try to focus for Hong Kong," he insisted. "The first year we had all the fastest laps in testing and I didn't win the championship, so I don't really care."

Lucas di Grassi also dipped under the old lap record in third, posting a 1m29.518s for the Abt Audi Sport team to end the day two tenths faster than Buemi's teammate Nico Prost.

NextEV and Jaguar posted their fastest times in testing so far, though both teams were more than a second off Vergne's pace.

Oliver Turvey wound up seventh, behind Daniel Abt and Mahindra's Nick Heidfeld, while Mitch Evans was 13th, albeit only a quarter of a second slower than Turvey in a tight midfield bunch.

With teams running up to four cars in the final test, long runs became the norm in both the morning and afternoon session.

Most teams were able to complete a serious amount of mileage, but Andretti's Antonio Felix da Costa suffered a battery problem that ended his morning running early.

An overheated battery cell was to blame, despite this battery being repaired after suffering the same fault when it was in teammate Robin Frijns' car at the first test.

Da Costa rejoined in his second car in the afternoon, completing 15 laps on his way to the 12th fastest time.

Originally on Autosport.com