Sam Bagnall/Motorsport Images
Bird quickest in disrupted second Sao Paulo Formula E practice
NEOM McLaren's Sam Bird was quickest in an abbreviated second practice for the Sao Paulo E-Prix.
Bird's best time of 1m12.773 was 0.099s quicker than DS Penske's Stoffel Vandoorne, with Nissan's Oliver Rowland a further 0.065s back. Andretti's Jake Dennis was fourth, 0.006 adrift of Rowland, with TAG Heuer Porsche driver Pascal Wehrlein completing a top five that was covered by only 0.228s.
Wehrlein's teammate Antonio Felix da Costa made it three Porsche-powered cars in the top six, with Nyck de Vries showing strongly for Mahindra Racing in seventh. It wasn't all good for the Indian team, however, with Edoardo Mortara failing to complete the session.
He stopped at the exit of Turn 3 after missing the preceding chicane, but lost all drive after performing a power cycle, necessitating a red flag.
Sergio Sette Camara (ERT), Norman Nato (Andretti), and Jehan Daruvala (Maserati MSG) completed the top 10, with Sacha Fenestraz in the second Nissan heading a Jaguar-powered trio of Nick Cassidy, Robin Frijns, and Sebastien Buemi on the fringes of the top 10.
Practice 1 pacesetter Mitch Evans was a notable absentee from that group, returning to the pits with a driveshaft issue on his out lap at the start of the session. The Jaguar TCS Racing team did manage to get the car repaired before the session time ran out, but the red flag was lifted with less than a minute to go, so final flying laps – or in Evans’ case, a first flying lap – couldn’t be completed, but drivers were able to go through things like procedural checks and crucial practice starts.
Maserati’s Maximilian Gunther was another whose day started with problems. A gearbox change for him ahead of the session means he will start the race later on Saturday with a 20-place grid penalty.
He finished the second practice session 15th, ahead of Nico Mueller, the stricken Mortara, Mueller's Abt Cupra teammate Lucas Di Grassi, McLaren’s Jake Hughes, DS Penske’s Jean-Eric Vergne and ERT’s Dan Ticktum.
Dominik Wilde
Dominik often jokes that he was born in the wrong country – a lover of NASCAR and IndyCar, he covered both in a past life as a junior at Autosport in the UK, but he’s spent most of his career to date covering the sliding and flying antics of the U.S.’ interpretation of rallycross. Rather fitting for a man that says he likes “seeing cars do what they’re not supposed to do”, previously worked for a car stunt show, and once even rolled a rally car with Travis Pastrana. He was also comprehensively beaten in a kart race by Sebastien Loeb once, but who hasn’t been?
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