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Abt smashes Donington lap record in qualifying simulation

Daniel Abt set a new Formula E lap record as testing resumed at Donington Park on Monday.

Daniel Abt, ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport

Daniel Abt, ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport

John Rowley

Daniel Abt, ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport
Daniel Abt, ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport
Nicolas Prost, Renault e.Dams
Sam Bird, DS Virgin Racing Formula E Team
Sam Bird, DS Virgin Racing Formula E Team
Nicolas Prost, Renault e.Dams
Sam Bird, DS Virgin Racing Formula E Team
Sam Bird, DS Virgin Racing Formula E Team
Nicolas Prost, Renault e.Dams

The Abt Schaeffler driver used the full 200kw qualifying mode to record a lap of 1m30.250s, comfortably quicker than Sebastien Buemi’s previous best of 1m31.050s, set on the final day of last week’s test.

“When Buemi said that a 1m29s was possible last week that really motivated me,” said Abt. “It was a positive day. There was no stopping on track and that’s the main thing. That meant I could just drive and performance-wise we were really good."

Nicolas Prost was second fastest for Renault e.dams, but he wasn’t happy with the handling of his car on a windy day at Donington. 

“It was not bad you know, [I’m] not very happy with the car in terms of balance from last week but the pace was not bad," said Prost.

"We’re still learning a lot each day, we are testing different things especially at the rear end of the car so in terms of set-up there are things to understand. Today we tried something extreme at the rear and I wasn’t so happy with the car.”

Video: Behind the scenes at testing

 

Third fastest was Sam Bird, who had both DS Virgin cars at his disposal, much like Abt did at his team.

Bird said: “We’ve worked on a variety of things today from system checks to set-up work and everything has run smoothly. It helped having the extra running by jumping from car to car.

"So far it’s seems a good package, especially in torque-six mode, but this circuit is not representative of what we’ll face in Beijing and there’s still work to do.”

After setting the pace in five of the previous six tests, Buemi was back in 10th after stopping on track with a broken gearbox during the afternoon session.

There was one new face in the paddock as Nicolas Lapierre drove for Team Aguri. The Frenchman was the busiest driver of the day racking up almost 80 laps for the team.

As was the case in last week’s test there was little running for either Andretti or Trulli. New Andretti signing Simona de Silvestro made a few unsuccessful attempts at setting a lap time, but the Trulli cars remained back in the team’s garage for the whole day. 

After its troubles at the previous test NEXTEV TCR was able to get some decent miles under its belt, although a technical problem did halt Nelson Piquet Jr in the early evening. After not running at all last time out, Oliver Turvey was able to complete 32 laps and set a time slightly faster than the reigning champion.

Pos Driver  Car   Time   Delay 
Daniel Abt ABT Schaeffler 1m30.250  
Nicolas Prost Renault e.dams 1m31.021 0.771
Sam Bird Virgin 1m31.023 0.773
Loic Duval Dragon-Venturi 1m31.144 0.894
Jacques Villeneuve Venturi 1m31.193 0.943
Stephane Sarrazin Venturi 1m31.680 1.430
Bruno Senna Mahindra 1m31.696 1.446
Nick Heidfeld Mahindra 1m31.805 1.555
Nicolas Lapierre Spark-Renault 1m32.694 2.444
10  Sebastien Buemi Renault e.dams 1m35.318 5.068
11  Oliver Turvey NEXTEV TCR 1m36.773 6.523
12  Nelson Piquet Jr NEXTEV TCR 1m37.460 7.210
13  Jarno Trulli Motomatica   no time
14  Simona de Silvestro Andretti   no time

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