Practice report

Formula E Berlin E-Prix I

Berlin E-Prix: BMW's Dennis remains on top in second practice

Jake Dennis was again quickest in Formula E practice ahead of the 2021 Berlin E-Prix season finale as the rookie headed Lucas di Grassi and points leader Nyck de Vries.

Matt Kew

Edited: Aug 14, 2021, 8:18 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Jake Dennis, BMW i Andretti Motorsport, BMW iFE.21

The Brit, who has signed with the newly independent Andretti Autosport race team for 2022, backed up his FP1 leaderboard-topping pace with the fastest time on Saturday morning.

The BMW Andretti racing driver slotted into first place with a 1m06.228s courtesy of his late 250kW full power run to find a 0.154s margin over experienced Audi rival Lucas di Grassi.

Dennis posted his flying run with three minutes remaining of the half-hour session at the Tempelhof Airport venue and at the time had held a mighty 0.319s advantage.

However, di Grassi’s late run to second knocked current championship leader de Vries into third, the Mercedes driver having only been 22nd fastest with five minutes left on the clock.

Robin Frijns, who after a very early Turn 4 glance with the wall, consistently ran at the top of the times throughout the switches from race power to attack mode and into qualifying runs.

The Envision Virgin Racing driver ended up with the fourth-best time, running 0.397s off Dennis while Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein completed the top six.

Maximilian Gunther, teammate to Dennis who set the third-fastest time in first practice on Friday afternoon, was fourth tenths adrift and ran to sixth ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne.

Defending Formula E champion Antonio Felix da Costa pipped his two-time title-winning DS Techeetah teammate Jean-Eric to eighth and ninth, but Vergne is showing formidable pace.

The French racer was fifth in first practice after the qualifying simulation runs, but notably was the second-fastest driver in the lesser-powered 235kW and 200kW sprints.

He backed up that underlying pace at a circuit where he won last year, as Vergne headed di Grassi in the 200kW laps and Vergne ran immediately to the top over da Costa on his first switch to the attack mode boost.

Norman Nato rounded out the top 10 for Venturi Racing as the rookie fights to keep hold of his seat for next season amid heavy rumours of di Grassi joining after Audi’s departure.

The Dragon Penske Autosport team massively limited the mileage of its two drivers, as Sergio Sette Camara had only delivered two laps before his final flying run to 11th.

Sam Bird, who could fall out of group one qualifying after race one to tee-up a title charge from group two on Sunday, was 12th over a strong late run from NIO 333’s Oliver Turvey.

FP2 results:

Cla Driver Team Time Gap 1 United Kingdom Jake Dennis United States Andretti Autosport 1'06.228 2 Brazil Lucas di Grassi Germany Team Abt 1'06.382 0.154 3 Netherlands Nyck de Vries Germany Mercedes 1'06.547 0.319 4 Robin Frijns Virgin Racing 1'06.625 0.397 5 Germany Pascal Wehrlein Germany Porsche Team 1'06.630 0.402 6 Germany Maximilian Gunther United States Andretti Autosport 1'06.646 0.418 7 Belgium Stoffel Vandoorne Germany Mercedes 1'06.693 0.465 8 Portugal Antonio Felix da Costa China Techeetah 1'06.711 0.483 9 France Jean-Eric Vergne China Techeetah 1'06.714 0.486 10 France Norman Nato Monaco Venturi 1'06.716 0.488 11 Brazil Sergio Sette Camara United States Dragon Racing 1'06.732 0.504 12 United Kingdom Sam Bird Jaguar Racing 1'06.754 0.526 13 Oliver Turvey NIO Formula E Team 1'06.760 0.532 14 Switzerland Edoardo Mortara Monaco Venturi 1'06.783 0.555 15 New Zealand Mitch Evans Jaguar Racing 1'06.794 0.566 16 Alexander Sims India Mahindra Racing 1'06.800 0.572 17 Germany René Rast Germany Team Abt 1'06.857 0.629 18 United Kingdom Alex Lynn India Mahindra Racing 1'06.882 0.654 19 Tom Blomqvist NIO Formula E Team 1'07.053 0.825 20 Oliver Rowland France DAMS 1'07.056 0.828 21 Germany Andre Lotterer Germany Porsche Team 1'07.071 0.843 22 New Zealand Nick Cassidy Virgin Racing 1'07.109 0.881 23 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi France DAMS 1'07.178 0.950 24 Sweden Joel Eriksson United States Dragon Racing 1'07.359 1.131 View full results

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Berlin E-Prix: Dennis pips Mortara in tightly-bunched FP1

Next article Berlin E-Prix: Vergne leads DS Techeetah 1-2 in qualifying

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

The surprising convergence behind F1's increasingly competitive 2026 season

Formula 1

The surprising convergence behind F1's increasingly competitive 2026 season

“I was getting beat up” – How Daniel Ricciardo burned out on ‘humiliating’ F1 return

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1 2 h

“I was getting beat up” – How Daniel Ricciardo burned out on ‘humiliating’ F1 return

Myers Riley Motorsports adds Andretti alongside returning Fraga for 2027 IMSA GTD campaign

IMSA

IMSA IMSA 3 h

Myers Riley Motorsports adds Andretti alongside returning Fraga for 2027 IMSA GTD campaign

Las Vegas GP reveals neon sign-inspired trophy design

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Las Vegas GP

3 h

Las Vegas GP reveals neon sign-inspired trophy design

Feature

Discover prime content

Why ‘Mr Formula E’ has called time on his racing career

Formula E

By James Newbold

Why ‘Mr Formula E’ has called time on his racing career

The team orders debacle that made for a controversial Formula E title decider

Formula E

London ePrix II

By Ed Hardy

The team orders debacle that made for a controversial Formula E title decider

The 'incredible stories' that could be told in Formula E's London title decider

Formula E

London ePrix I

By Ed Hardy

The 'incredible stories' that could be told in Formula E's London title decider

Cars, stars, and the shootout winners from the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed

General

By Maciej Hamera

Cars, stars, and the shootout winners from the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts