London ePrix: Buemi tops first practice for title decider

Buemi, who begins the final day of the second Formula E season three points behind title rival Lucas di Grassi, led the way for the majority of the session.

The Swiss driver had established a benchmark of 1m25.062s by the time of a red flag midway through the session, which was brought about when Team Aguri's Antonio Felix da Costa spun and was stranded in the middle of the track approaching Turn 8.

The Portuguese caused a minor roadblock, as teammate Ma Qing Hua and reigning champion Nelson Piquet Jr were caught out by Felix da Costa's spin.

Andretti's Simona de Silvestro too had a moment in the final corner when she clipped the wall. She was able to get going, but had significant damage to her car and didn't reappear for the rest of the session.

Once the action resumed with 24 minutes left, Mike Conway quickly vaulted to the top of the times on a 1m24.258s, with Buemi setting a string of improvements that kept him in second.

Jean-Eric Vergne then became the first driver to set a lap using full power in the final five minutes, the Frenchman setting a 1m23.331s to go almost a second up on Conway.

But Buemi's 200kw attempt was even better, a 1m22.393s putting him 0.637s clear of teammate Prost, who made a late jump to second following his victory on Saturday.

Vergne held on to third place, ahead of Conway and di Grassi, who was 2.646s off the pace having not set a full-power lap. His teammate Daniel Abt was one place behind in sixth.

Completing the top 10 were Sam Bird, Loic Duval, Jerome d'Ambrosio and Bruno Senna, fresh from his career-first Formula E podium on Saturday.

FP1 results:

Pos	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Sébastien Buemi	DAMS	17	1'22.393
2	Nicolas Prost	DAMS	18	1'23.030	0.637
3	Jean-Eric Vergne	Virgin Racing	17	1'23.331	0.938
4	Mike Conway	Venturi	20	1'24.258	1.865
5	Lucas di Grassi	Team Abt	21	1'25.039	2.646
6	Daniel Abt	Team Abt	14	1'25.056	2.663
7	Sam Bird	Virgin Racing	17	1'25.359	2.966
8	Loic Duval	Dragon Racing	20	1'25.460	3.067
9	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon Racing	16	1'25.491	3.098
10	Bruno Senna	Mahindra Racing	18	1'25.515	3.122
11	Nelson Piquet Jr.	China Racing	15	1'25.582	3.189
12	Stéphane Sarrazin	Venturi	20	1'25.888	3.495
13	Robin Frijns	Andretti Autosport	16	1'25.912	3.519
14	Nick Heidfeld	Mahindra Racing	18	1'25.916	3.523
15	Oliver Turvey	China Racing	20	1'25.971	3.578
16	Antonio Felix da Costa	Team Aguri	15	1'26.397	4.004
17	Simona de Silvestro	Andretti Autosport	5	1'27.549	5.156
18	Ma Qing Hua	Team Aguri	20	1'28.583	6.190