FE: Vergne fastest in Hong Kong practice

Jean-Eric Vergne set the quickest time across the two practice sessions for Formula E's 2016/17 season opener in Hong Kong.

The Techeetah driver used his Renault powertrain to full effect to top the second of the two Sunday morning sessions, clocking a 1m02.350s around the 1.86km Hong Kong central harbor-front circuit.

That put Vergne a quarter of a second clear of works Renault e.dams driver Nico Prost in FP2, and also shaded Lucas di Grassi's FP1 best.

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Di Grassi was one of only a handful of drivers to opt for a full-power (200kW) lap in FP1, with Renault's defending champion Sebastien Buemi a tenth slower than the Abt Audi Sport man.

That meant FP2 was a hive of activity as the rest of the field bid to complete qualifying simulations, but their efforts were disrupted multiple times.

The biggest issue came when Loic Duval lost control of his Dragon Racing car through the final corner with just over half the session remaining, slamming into the wall on the outside. His Faraday Future-backed machine came to rest in the middle of the circuit with both right-hand side wheels broken, and that stopped the session for several minutes.

Di Grassi took the rear wing off his Abt car with just over five minutes to go when he ran deep into Turn 2 and hit the barrier as he tried to spin the car round. He also distracted the following Jose Maria Lopez, and DS Virgin Racing's triple World Touring Car champion damaged his front wing by nosing the barrier and soon after broke his own rear wing when he spun at Turn 7.

That left part of the rear bodywork on the track and a yellow flag for the rest of the session, compromising several 200kW efforts – including one from Buemi.

It allowed Lopez's teammate Sam Bird to end the session third fastest, four tenths slower than Vergne, with Mahindra's Felix Rosenqvist and Andretti's Antonio Felix da Costa fifth.

Jaguar's return to major international motorsport has started in a muted fashion.

Adam Carroll and Mitch Evans were slowest in FP1 and only improved to 17th and 19th at 200kW in the second session, and were within two seconds of Vergne's benchmark.

The second session ended with a crash for Nelson Piquet Jr – the NextEV smashed the curb at the Turn 3 / 4 chicane and nosed hard into the wall on the exit of the corner.

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FREE PRACTICE 2

Originally on Autosport.com