Puebla E-Prix: Rowland leads incident-filled practice sessions

The Brit bolted to the top of the leaderboard in the dying moments of the 30-minute second stint with a fine 1m22.861s effort to move a full 0.268s clear of Antonio Felix da Costa.

This came despite the top two both crashing earlier on in the session, with da Costa having posted his flying lap before running straight on at the tight first left-hand corner.

Rowland had been in the wars also at Turn 1, having initially locked up his fronts before losing the rear and clouting the concrete wall on the exit but emerging unscathed. In an uncharacteristic result for Formula E, a sizeable sixth tenth gap split the top four with the second DS Techeetah machine of Jean-Eric Vergne running third ahead of Alex Lynn.

Rowland had also come out on top in the protracted and rain-soaked opening practice, having headed Porsche racer Pascal Wehrlein by 0.086s in a crash-strewn session.

With a wall added at the Turn 5-6 left-hander compared to the simulator preparation, drivers were left unsighted for the blind and off-camber Turn 7 right-hander. This caught out several of the big names in the slippery conditions, with Rene Rast and champions da Costa and Sebastien Buemi coming off worse as they glanced the wall.

The tap forced Rast to stop and pull of the circuit at the next corner with suspension damage although the three-time DTM title winner rejoined later on.

Mahindra Racing driver Alexander Sims brought out an early red flag when he locked the rears on the exit of Turn 11 and stopped with a suspected battery-related issue. This led to a lengthy delay while his car was recovered, with the session eventually extended by 15 minutes.

That and a practice full-course yellow lap mitigated the time loss for Vergne, whose DS Techeetah mechanics completed a swift 15-minute swap of the powertrain after identifying a fault while making set-up changes following a Friday evening shakedown session.

Dragon Penske Autosport driver Sergio Sette Camara came a cropper throughout the Saturday morning runs. The Brazilian already carries a 20-place grid drop for Puebla after his team broke the seal on his homologated inverter, although not changing any parts, to check a fault.

He then lost the rear and smacked the wall at Turn 7 in the first practice run, which forced him to head immediately for the pits. He then rejoined the track only to suffer a sizeable lock-up into Turn 1 and career straight on.

Following the second session, he remains under investigation for suspected speeding in the pitlane.

Cassidy pulled off the save of the day when he lost the rear of his Envision Virgin Racing machine on the approach to Turn 7 but caught the massive slide as he ran over the grass and doused the patchy asphalt in mud.

While rain is forecast to interrupt qualifying, in the more representative drier session, points leader Robin Frijns ran to ninth behind title rivals Stoffel Vandoorne and Jaguar Racing driver Mitch Evans in seventh.

Puebla E-Prix FP1 results

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval
1	Oliver Rowland	DAMS	20	1'24.314
2	Pascal Wehrlein	Porsche Team	19	1'24.400	0.086	0.086
3	Antonio Felix da Costa	Techeetah	18	1'24.734	0.420	0.334
4	Edoardo Mortara	Venturi	16	1'24.859	0.545	0.125
5	Jake Dennis	Andretti Autosport	17	1'24.920	0.606	0.061
6	Mitch Evans	Jaguar Racing	16	1'24.944	0.630	0.024
7	Stoffel Vandoorne	Mercedes	19	1'24.995	0.681	0.051
8	Andre Lotterer	Porsche Team	19	1'25.061	0.747	0.066
9	Norman Nato	Venturi	17	1'25.199	0.885	0.138
10	Robin Frijns	Virgin Racing	17	1'25.254	0.940	0.055
11	Sergio Sette Camara	Dragon Racing	15	1'25.269	0.955	0.015
12	Tom Blomqvist	NIO Formula E Team	18	1'25.708	1.394	0.439
13	Lucas di Grassi	Team Abt	19	1'25.844	1.530	0.136
14	Alex Lynn	Mahindra Racing	19	1'25.880	1.566	0.036
15	Nyck de Vries	Mercedes	19	1'25.947	1.633	0.067
16	Sébastien Buemi	DAMS	18	1'26.031	1.717	0.084
17	Jean-Eric Vergne	Techeetah	12	1'26.268	1.954	0.237
18	Maximilian Gunther	Andretti Autosport	17	1'26.520	2.206	0.252
19	René Rast	Team Abt	13	1'26.555	2.241	0.035
20	Joel Eriksson	Dragon Racing	17	1'26.605	2.291	0.050
21	Sam Bird	Jaguar Racing	18	1'27.058	2.744	0.453
22	Oliver Turvey	NIO Formula E Team	18	1'27.597	3.283	0.539
23	Nick Cassidy	Virgin Racing	17	1'27.975	3.661	0.378
24	Alexander Sims	Mahindra Racing	3	1'38.838	14.524	10.863
View full results

Puebla E-Prix FP2 results

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval
1	Oliver Rowland	DAMS	15	1'22.861
2	Antonio Felix da Costa	Techeetah	15	1'23.129	0.268	0.268
3	Jean-Eric Vergne	Techeetah	15	1'23.299	0.438	0.170
4	Alex Lynn	Mahindra Racing	13	1'23.465	0.604	0.166
5	Edoardo Mortara	Venturi	14	1'23.513	0.652	0.048
6	Nyck de Vries	Mercedes	16	1'23.523	0.662	0.010
7	Jake Dennis	Andretti Autosport	14	1'23.544	0.683	0.021
8	Mitch Evans	Jaguar Racing	13	1'23.570	0.709	0.026
9	Stoffel Vandoorne	Mercedes	16	1'23.586	0.725	0.016
10	Robin Frijns	Virgin Racing	15	1'23.791	0.930	0.205
11	Sergio Sette Camara	Dragon Racing	13	1'23.837	0.976	0.046
12	Norman Nato	Venturi	15	1'23.838	0.977	0.001
13	Lucas di Grassi	Team Abt	13	1'23.943	1.082	0.105
14	Nick Cassidy	Virgin Racing	13	1'23.958	1.097	0.015
15	Sam Bird	Jaguar Racing	14	1'23.963	1.102	0.005
16	René Rast	Team Abt	13	1'24.223	1.362	0.260
17	Oliver Turvey	NIO Formula E Team	14	1'24.252	1.391	0.029
18	Maximilian Gunther	Andretti Autosport	11	1'24.591	1.730	0.339
19	Tom Blomqvist	NIO Formula E Team	15	1'24.921	2.060	0.330
20	Pascal Wehrlein	Porsche Team	18	1'25.046	2.185	0.125
21	Sébastien Buemi	DAMS	15	1'25.362	2.501	0.316
22	Alexander Sims	Mahindra Racing	4	1'25.557	2.696	0.195
23	Joel Eriksson	Dragon Racing	14	1'25.822	2.961	0.265
24	Andre Lotterer	Porsche Team	18	1'26.188	3.327	0.366
View full results