Dennis quickest for Andretti in final Jeddah E-Prix practice

Jake Dennis was fastest in the final practice session of the Jeddah E-Prix weekend, heading Mitch Evans.

The session was another to take place during the daytime, unlike the night-time scenario of the weekend’s races, and was hotter than previous daytime sessions so far during the weekend.

Andretti driver Dennis held the top spot early in the session and returned to first with just under two minutes to go with a 1m55.227s, going 0.093s quicker than the Jaguar man’s best time. Evans couldn’t improve on his final lap, coincidentally coming up on a slow Dennis as he was returning to the pits.

Dan Ticktum was third-quickest for Cupra Kiro, ahead of Friday polesitter and second place finisher in the race Edoardo Mortara for Mahindra.

Mortara’s fellow front row start from the first race of the weekend Maximilian Guenther completed the top five ahead of his DS Penske teammate Taylor Barnard, with Norman Nato once again the highest-placed Nissan in seventh.

Friday race winner, Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein, ended the session in eighth, having held top spot at the halfway point of the 40-minute session, while Felipe Drugovich and Jean-Eric Vergne rounded out the top-10 for Andretti and Citroen respectively.

Nico Mueller was 11th quickest for Porsche ahead of Sebastien Buemi, who had a brief spell as quickest in the first half of the session.

Oliver Rowland – watched on by his mentee, Racing Bulls Formula 1 driver Arvid Lindblad who is there to learn about energy saving ahead of his maiden F1 season – finished down in 13th as he continued to struggle with the balance of his Nissan.

Nick Cassidy wound up 14th for Citroen, ahead of Nyck de Vries who missed the first 15 minutes of the session after changing an inverter and two motor units on his Mahindra after his non-start in Friday’s race.

Nevertheless, he still completed 18 laps, two more than the lowest lap counts of Guenther, Rowland and Cassidy, but two fewer than Mueller and Zane Maloney who did the most. The changes will carry a cumulative 60-place grid penalty (20 per part), which means he will start at the back of the grid for today’s race, and serve a 10-second stop-and-go penalty during it.

Pepe Marti, another driver unhappy with the feel and consistency of his car, ended the session 16th for Cupra Kiro, ahead of Antonio Felix da Costa who made contact with Vergne on his final fast lap, the Jaguar driver coming up to the slow Citroen at the final chicane who was preparing for one last push in the final seconds of the session.

Joel Eriksson (Envision) and the Lola Yamaha Abts of Maloney and Lucas di Grassi completed the field.

RESULTS