Sam Bagnall/Motorsport Images
Vergne tops opening Misano E-Prix practice
Jean-Eric Vergne led a DS Penske sweep of the top two positions in the opening practice session for this weekend's Misano E-Prix doubleheader.
The Frenchman's best time of 1m17.546 was 0.197s quicker than teammate Stoffel Vandoorne, while Jehan Daruvala showed strongly to go third quickest for Maserati MSG Racing, which runs the same powertrain developed by sister Stellantis brand DS Automobiles.
Vergne split the Jaguar TCS Racing pair of Nick Cassidy and Mitch Evans, while Nico Mueller was sixth quickest for Abt Cupra.
Sebastien Buemi was seventh for Envision Racing, ahead of NEOM McLaren's Sam Bird, with TAG Heuer Porsche's Pascal Wehrlein and ERT's Sergio Sette Camara completing the top-10.
In a session where drivers pushed to find the limits on the grass- and gravel-lined track -- unusual for street circuit-centric Formula E -- multiple drivers ventured off course, with McLaren driver Jake Hughes, Vandoorne and Daruvala all venturing beyond the tarmac at points in the 30-minute session.
Outside the top-10, Oliver Rowland wound up 11th for Nissan, ahead of Dan Ticktum in the other ERT entry, Lucas di Grassi in the second Abt Cupra, and Hughes. Sacha Fenestras ended the session 16th for Nissan, ahead of reigning champion Jake Dennis, who finished two three spots ahead of teammate Norman Nato, Robin Frijns (Envision) and Nyck de Vries (Mahindra) separating the Andrtetti duo.
Tokyo E-Prix winner Maximilian Guenther wound up 21st after a tricky session where he came to a brief stop at Turn 12 after struggling with brake issues with his Maserati.
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?
Read Dominik Wilde's articles
Firestone Firehawk INDY 500 V2: There’s more to it than a name
Latest News
Comments
Comments are disabled until you accept Social Networking Cookies. Update cookie preferences
If the dialog doesn't appear, ad-blockers are often the cause; try disabling yours or see our Social Features Support.