Testing report

Formula E Beijing ePrix

Beijing ePrix: Prost heads Buemi in Friday test as Renault dominates

The Renault e.DAMS team dominated the first collective session of the second season of the FIA Formula E Championship at Beijing.

Sam Smith

Edited: Oct 23, 2015, 5:17 PM

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Nicolas Prost, Renault e.Dams

Nicolas Prost headed the closest non-Renault powered car by a massive 2.114s during the 30-minute session.

The Frenchman’s 1m37.291s, set on his final lap, was almost eight seconds quicker than last year’s official race lap record set by Takuma Sato.

The time was also four seconds faster than last year’s pole lap, which was, however, set on a track which featured one more chicane.

The other DAMS driver Sebastien Buemi was 0.631s adrift of his teammate in second place, while Jean-Eric Vergne took his DS Virgin car to third on a 1m39.405s.

The Renault e.DAMS squad also completed the most laps of any team with a combined total of 28 tours of the 3.439-kilometre Beijing circuit.

The pair of Mahindra Racing cars of Bruno Senna and Nick Heidfeld placed fourth and fifth respectively in the new Mahindra M2ELECTRO entries.

Reigning champions NEXTEV had a mixed session with Oliver Turvey rounding out the top six in, but teammate and reigning champion Nelson Piquet causing a red flag midway through the session when he stopped his car at Turn 10 with a mechanical problem.

Other incidents that occurred during the half an hour included several trips down the escape roads at Turns 4 and 5, with Piquet and Nathanael Berthon locking their brakes in spectacular fashion.

All bar the Trulli Formula E drivers registered times this afternoon. The Italian team has been delayed in completing their cars after apparent customs hold-ups in getting parts for their new Motomatica JT-01 to be put together ahead of the mandatory technical checks.

Their participation in the meeting is understood to be in grave doubt and an official FIA bulletin on the situation is expected later today.

Practice, qualifying and the Beijing ePrix itself all take place on Saturday.

Pos. Driver Team Time Delay 1 Nicolas Prost Renault e.Dams 1'37.291 2 Sebastien Buemi Renault e.Dams 1'37.912 0.621 3 Jean-Eric Vergne DS Virgin 1'39.405 2.114 4 Bruno Senna Mahindra 1'39.670 2.379 5 Nick Heidfeld Mahindra 1'39.909 2.618 6 Oliver Turvey NEXTEV TCR 1'40.148 2.857 7 Jerome d'Ambrosio Dragon 1'40.410 3.119 8 Lucas di Grassi ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport 1'40.531 3.240 9 Daniel Abt ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport 1'40.852 3.561 10 Sam Bird DS Virgin 1'41.146 3.855 11 Stephane Sarrazin Venturi 1'41.387 4.096 12 Antonio Felix da Costa Team Aguri 1'41.556 4.265 13 Nelson Piquet NEXTEV TCR 1'41.938 4.647 14 Loic Duval Dragon 1'42.016 4.725 15 Robin Frijns Andretti 1'42.635 5.344 16 Simona de Silvestro Andretti 1'43.657 6.366 17 Nathanael Berthon Team Aguri 1'45.561 8.27 18 Jacques Villeneuve Venturi 1'46.425 9.134 Salvador Duran Trulli No Time Vitantonio Liuzzi Trulli No Time

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