Long Beach ePrix: Abt shocks by beating Buemi in second practice
Last year’s Long Beach pole winner Daniel Abt knocked points leader Sebastien Buemi off his perch in the second free practice session around the famed American street circuit.
Photo by: Guido Beck / ASN Media
Abt, who has promised to sing a Taylor Swift song naked on the grid if he wins a race, lapped the track in 56.778s – 0.174s faster than session one pacesetter Buemi’s Renault e.dams machine.
The strong showing by both Abt Audi cars vindicated Alain Prost’s pre-session statement that the previously-dominant Renaults “will have a little bit of pressure this weekend, I think.”
Story of the session
In the half-hour practice, the last running ahead of qualifying, there was a rush of full-power 200kW laptimes early on.
Buemi set a benchmark 58.903s at 170kW before Virgin's Jean-Eric Vergne went P1 on 58.099s on 200kW.
Mahindra's Nick Heidfeld very briefly topped the times before then Stephane Sarrazin lapped in 57.408s. Teammate Mike Conway jumped up to P2 to make it a Venturi 1-2, before clipping the wall at Turn 5.
Nico Prost jumped to the top of the times with 12 minutes remaining on a 57.352s qualifying sim with his Renault e.dams, before teammate Buemi regained his stranglehold on proceedings with 56.952s.
Di Grassi grabbed second position, just 0.092s off Buemi’s best time.
Abt then set P1 on 56.778s with 7 minutes remaining, a time nobody was able to beat.
Behind Buemi and di Grassi, Antonio Felix da Costa was fourth for Team Aguri from Robin Frijns, Sam Bird and Prost.
Salvador Duran, Vergne and Frijns (twice) went down T1 escape road, forced to make spin turns, while Heidfeld managed to swerve between the tyres after overshooting.
FP2 Results:
Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Daniel Abt | ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport | 56.778 | 18 | |
2 | Sebastien Buemi | Renault e.Dams | 56.952 | 0.174 | 22 |
3 | Lucas di Grassi | ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport | 57.044 | 0.266 | 18 |
4 | Antonio Felix da Costa | Team Aguri | 57.155 | 0.377 | 18 |
5 | Robin Frijns | Andretti Formula E Team | 57.161 | 0.383 | 19 |
6 | Sam Bird | DS Virgin Racing Formula E Team | 57.212 | 0.434 | 19 |
7 | Nicolas Prost | Renault e.Dams | 57.259 | 0.481 | 23 |
8 | Bruno Senna | Mahindra Racing Formula E Team | 57.377 | 0.599 | 22 |
9 | Stephane Sarrazin | Venturi Formula E Team | 57.408 | 0.63 | 19 |
10 | Jerome d'Ambrosio | Dragon Racing Formula E Team | 57.457 | 0.679 | 19 |
11 | Simona de Silvestro | Andretti Formula E Team | 57.682 | 0.904 | 22 |
12 | Loic Duval | Dragon Racing Formula E Team | 57.757 | 0.979 | 21 |
13 | Nelson Piquet Jr. | NEXTEV TCR Formula E Team | 57.802 | 1.024 | 20 |
14 | Mike Conway | Venturi Formula E Team | 57.862 | 1.084 | 16 |
15 | Nick Heidfeld | Mahindra Racing Formula E Team | 57.899 | 1.121 | 14 |
16 | Jean Eric Vergne | DS Virgin Racing Formula E Team | 58.099 | 1.321 | 16 |
17 | Oliver Turvey | NEXTEV TCR Formula E Team | 58.297 | 1.519 | 20 |
18 | Salvador Duran | Team Aguri | 59.214 | 2.436 | 18 |
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