Santiago E-Prix: Lopez tops practice for Dragon

ByMotorsport.com

Published 26/01/2019 at 14:39 GMT

Dragon Racing driver Jose Maria Lopez set the fastest time across the two free practice sessions for ABB FIA Formula E’s second visit to Santiago.At a new 1.45-mile track set entirely within the city’s Park O’Higgins, scorching heat is set to be a key factor in the outcome of the race - as FP1 had got underway at 8am with the temperature already at 24.5 degrees. Audi’s Lucas di Grassi topped that

Image credit: Motorsport.com

Dragon Racing driver Jose Maria Lopez set the fastest time across the two free practice sessions for ABB FIA Formula E’s second visit to Santiago.

At a new 1.45-mile track set entirely within the city’s Park O’Higgins, scorching heat is set to be a key factor in the outcome of the race - as FP1 had got underway at 8am with the temperature already at 24.5 degrees.

Audi’s Lucas di Grassi topped that session - which was disrupted by a big crash for Nissan e.dams driver Sebastien Buemi - with a best time of 1m08.630s.

Misano ePrix

Wehrlein takes victory in Misano to reclaim championship lead as Rowland runs out of energy

14/04/2024 at 21:57

Virgin Racing pair Sam Bird and Robin Frijns each took a turn at the top spot during the shorter second session – which peaked at 28.4 degrees – with the latter holding the benchmark time for much of FP2.

But during a string of fastest laps set on full power late on during the 30-minute session, Lopez rose to the top of the times with a 1m08.194s.

He looked set to improve again with his final lap of FP2 with fastest sectors in the opening two thirds of the track before fading significantly during the final sector.

Frijns ended up second with his own best full-power effort – a 1m08.260s – coming during the flurry of fast times.

Di Grassi put himself third late on to split the Virgin drivers, with Bird ending up fourth as a result.

Pascal Wehrlein, who looked to be grappling with a sliding car throughout much of the early running, claimed fifth place for Mahindra Racing.

Jaguar’s Mitch Evans twice brushed the barrier at the exit of the Turn 12 left-hander, but did not cause visible damage to his machine and he ended up sixth.

Championship leader Jerome d’Ambrosio was seventh quickest in FP2, ahead of Alexander Sims, Oliver Rowland and Antonio Felix da Costa in the second BMW Andretti car.

Daniel Abt finished 11th ahead of DS Techeetah pair Jean-Eric Vergne, who locked up at the final hairpin mid-way through the second session, and Andre Lotterer.

Lotterer glanced the wall on the exit of the tight Turn 7 right-hander, which feeds onto the long curved section of the track, at the start of the final third of FP2 but he was able to continue.

Buemi hit the track at the beginning of FP2 despite missing much of the first session following his heavy crash at Turn 7 during FP1.

The 2015/16 FE champion locked up heavily on the approach to the corner and struck the inside wall with his right-front, which sent him careering into the barriers on the outside with major damage to the right side of his car and this caused a lengthy red flag delay.

But Buemi’s machine was fixed in time for him to go out and set the 15h best time in FP2.

Venturi’s Felipe Massa was another driver struggling with the handling of his car and he had off-track moments at Turn 12 and the final corner on his way to 16th in FP2, just ahead of Nelson Piquet Jr (Jaguar) and HWA racer Stoffel Vandoorne.

FP1 results

1	11	Lucas di Grassi	Team Abt	25	1'08.630
2	94	Pascal Wehrlein	Mahindra Racing	25	1'08.776	0.146
3	2	Sam Bird	Virgin Racing	24	1'08.988	0.358
4	4	Robin Frijns	Virgin Racing	26	1'09.059	0.429
5	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	Techeetah	29	1'09.135	0.505
6	28	Antonio Felix da Costa	Andretti Autosport	27	1'09.475	0.845
7	16	Oliver Turvey	NIO Formula E Team	30	1'09.487	0.857
8	36	Andre Lotterer	Techeetah	28	1'09.528	0.898
9	66	Daniel Abt	Team Abt	26	1'09.563	0.933
10	64	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Mahindra Racing	28	1'09.583	0.953
11	20	Mitch Evans	Jaguar Racing	25	1'09.597	0.967
12	27	Alexander Sims	Andretti Autosport	28	1'09.700	1.070
13	48	Edoardo Mortara	Venturi	24	1'09.751	1.121
14	19	Felipe Massa	Venturi	26	1'09.780	1.150
15	17	Gary Paffett	HWA Racelab	27	1'09.875	1.245
16	3	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Jaguar Racing	23	1'09.991	1.361
17	7	Jose Maria Lopez	Dragon Racing	26	1'10.017	1.387
18	22	Oliver Rowland	DAMS	18	1'10.305	1.675
19	5	Stoffel Vandoorne	HWA Racelab	26	1'10.309	1.679
20	6	Maximilian Gunther	Dragon Racing	20	1'10.349	1.719
21	8	Tom Dillmann	NIO Formula E Team	30	1'10.350	1.720
22	23	Sébastien Buemi	DAMS	5	1'13.891	5.261

FP2 results

1	7	Jose Maria Lopez	Dragon Racing	19	1'08.194
2	4	Robin Frijns	Virgin Racing	16	1'08.260	0.066
3	11	Lucas di Grassi	Team Abt	16	1'08.299	0.105
4	2	Sam Bird	Virgin Racing	16	1'08.341	0.147
5	94	Pascal Wehrlein	Mahindra Racing	15	1'08.442	0.248
6	20	Mitch Evans	Jaguar Racing	15	1'08.456	0.262
7	64	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Mahindra Racing	15	1'08.533	0.339
8	27	Alexander Sims	Andretti Autosport	15	1'08.660	0.466
9	22	Oliver Rowland	DAMS	14	1'08.684	0.490
10	28	Antonio Felix da Costa	Andretti Autosport	13	1'08.755	0.561
11	66	Daniel Abt	Team Abt	16	1'08.781	0.587
12	16	Oliver Turvey	NIO Formula E Team	14	1'08.823	0.629
13	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	Techeetah	14	1'08.833	0.639
14	36	Andre Lotterer	Techeetah	18	1'08.856	0.662
15	23	Sébastien Buemi	DAMS	21	1'08.892	0.698
16	19	Felipe Massa	Venturi	17	1'08.896	0.702
17	3	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Jaguar Racing	16	1'08.921	0.727
18	5	Stoffel Vandoorne	HWA Racelab	18	1'09.299	1.105
19	6	Maximilian Gunther	Dragon Racing	19	1'09.799	1.605
20	8	Tom Dillmann	NIO Formula E Team	10	1'10.441	2.247
21	17	Gary Paffett	HWA Racelab	17	1'10.550	2.356
22	48	Edoardo Mortara	Venturi	17	1'10.558	2.364