Ticktum leads opening Madrid E-Prix practice

Emerging unscathed from a late trip through the gravel, Dan Ticktum topped the first practice of Formula E's Madrid E-Prix at Jarama.

The Cupra Kiro driver misjudged his braking point going into Turn 1 with around seven and a half minutes of the 40-minute session to go, resulting in him going off, but just under five minutes later he set the timing sheets alight with session bests in every sector to vault to the top.

Nyck de Vries wound up second, similarly after having an incident. In the first 10 minutes of the session he locked his front-left wheel and went straight into the concrete wall at the final chicane, bringing out a brief red flag.

Aside from a missing front wing and nose damage, de Vries’ Mahindra was relatively unscathed and he was able to drive back to the pits. In the final seconds of the session he went second quickest, beating Ticktum’s Sector 2 time and winding up 0.208s off the Brit.

Maximilian Guenther was third quickest for DS Penske, 0.207 off de Vries and 0.415 off the top spot, with Pascal Wehrlein fourth, a further 0.03s back.

Taylor Barnard was next, making DS Penske the only team with two drivers in the top five. Like the two drivers ahead of him, he set his personal best on his last lap of the session.

Jean-Eric Vergne was sixth for Citroen, having led with 15 minutes to go. Edoardo Mortara was seventh in the second Mahindra. Like his teammate he also endured struggles with braking, but kept out of the walls.

Nico Mueller put the other factory Porsche eighth on the board, ahead of Andretti’s Felipe Drugovich, with Nick Cassidy of Citroen completing the top 0.

Zane Maloney was 11th for Lola Yamaha Abt, ahead of Sebastien Buemi (Envision Racing), Mitch Evans (Jaguar TCAS Racing), and Jake Dennis (Andretti), with Joel Eriksson 15th for Envision ahead of series champions Oliver Rowland (Nissan), Antonio Felix da Costa (Jaguar) – who led around halfway through the session – and Lucas di Grassi (Lola).

Pepe Marti finished the first session of his home race down in 19th for Kiro, with Nissan’s Norman Nato completing the field.

Da Costa, di Grassi, Marti and Nato's best laps all came using 300kW and rear-wheel-drive as opposed to the 350kW and four-wheel-drive of the rest of the field.

Mortara, Evans, da Costa and Di Grassi all tied for the most number of laps completed in the session (15) while de Vries completed the least laps (12), owing to his accident.

Second practice takes place on Saturday morning at 8:30am local time (3:30am ET), ahead of qualifying and the race.

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