Guenther leads opening Jeddah E-Prix practice

Maximilian Guenther put DS Penske on top in the opening practice session for the Jeddah E-Prix.

The night session is the only pre-race session to take place at the same time of day with the same ambient temperatures as the weekend’s two races, but being the first of the weekend, the track was also at its dustiest, meaning it still wasn’t entirely representative.

Teams also used the session to practice for Pit Boost, which returns this weekend, albeit in an adjusted format with drivers only having one Attack Mode use in the Pit Boost race this weekend (Friday’s race) rather than the customary two.

Guenther, the winner of the inaugural Formula E circuit at the track last season, went to the top with just under four and a half minutes of the 40 minute session to go with a 1m15.714s lap. Pascal Wehrlein was second for Porsche, his final flying lap just 0.03s off Guenther in the final seconds of the session.

Jake Dennis was third after hitting the top of the times with just under nine minutes of the session remaining. He ultimately ended up 0.162s of Guenther’s table-topping time.

Mahindra’s Edoardo Mortara was fourth, ahead of Mitch Evans and Oliver Rowland, who had a moment with Taylor Barnard in the final moments of the session. Barnard was on a flying lap and approaching the Turn 13 hairpin when Rowland, unaware of the DS Penske driver, closed the gap on the inside, resulting in contact between the pair.

Sebastien Buemi was seventh, ahead of Dan Ticktum and Norman Nato, with Barnard completing the top 10. The Citroens of Nick Cassidy and Jean Eric Vergne were next up. Vergne was twice a victim of impeding, coming up to a slow Buemi at the penultimate chicane while Buemi was prepping for that fast lap – a lap that momentarily moved the Envision driver up to second.

He was then held up by Pepe Marti in the final five minutes of the session, with Marti moving over at the entry to Turn 8 to let Barnard past, but then Vergne filed through immediately after, but Marti had already returned to the racing line. He realized by the exit of the second element of the chicane, Turn 9, and moved over.

Joel Eriksson was 13th for Envision, ahead of Andretti’s Felipe Drugovich, Porsche’s Nico Mueller, who usurped Marti at the top of the times halfway through the session, Nyck de Vries, and Marti himself. The Lola Yamaha Abts of Zane Maloney and Lucas di Grassi, and Jaguar's Antonio Felix da Costa completed the field.

After the session, the Jaguar driver mentioned being unhappy with braking in both 300kW and 350kW – going straight on at Turn 8 in the latter mode which prevented him from setting a representative time. However, he said it was “no time to panic just yet” and that “there’s some performance in the car, it just wasn’t extracted.”

RESULTS