Buenos Aires Formula E: Buemi leads practice, Vergne in doubt
Formula E championship leader Sebastien Buemi comfortably set the fastest time in practice for the Buenos Aires ePrix
The Renault e.dams driver produced a 1m08.771s in the second session to lead his main title rival Lucas di Grassi by 0.539 seconds.
Buemi's team-mate Nico Prost was third fastest in practice two, just one-thousandth of a second slower than the Abt Shaeffler FE01 ahead.
Sam Bird gave DS Virgin Racing a boost by topping the opening session and backing up that pace with the fourth best time later on.
He shaded Antonio Felix da Costa, who was 0.7s slower than Buemi's benchmark in the season-one specification Team Aguri-run Spark SRT_01E.
Andretti Autosport's Robin Frijns stopped on track approaching Turn 3 in both sessions, while team-mate Simona de Silvestro broke the left-rear of her car by hitting the wall as she exited the pitlane in first practice.
UNCERTAINTY OVER VERGNE
Jean-Eric Vergne's likelihood of participating in the event is unclear after he was diagnosed with food poisoning.
The DS Virgin driver missed opening practice, while the team explored the possibility of replacing him with Citroen's double World Touring Car champion Jose Maria Lopez.
The Argentinian is attending his home Formula E event as a guest of DS, Citroen's sister brand.
Vergne recovered enough to declare he would return for the second session, which ruled out any chance of a shock Lopez debut, but did not complete any laps.
PRACTICE ONE TIMES:
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Sam Bird | Virgin | Virgin | 1m09.913s | - | 21 |
2 | Daniel Abt | Abt | ABT Schaeffler | 1m10.302s | 0.389s | 21 |
3 | Nelson Piquet Jr. | China | NEXTEV TCR | 1m10.717s | 0.804s | 20 |
4 | Oliver Turvey | China | NEXTEV TCR | 1m10.752s | 0.839s | 21 |
5 | Sebastien Buemi | e.dams | Renault | 1m10.880s | 0.967s | 23 |
6 | Lucas di Grassi | Abt | ABT Schaeffler | 1m11.152s | 1.239s | 22 |
7 | Stephane Sarrazin | Venturi | Venturi | 1m11.232s | 1.319s | 19 |
8 | Nicolas Prost | e.dams | Renault | 1m11.291s | 1.378s | 22 |
9 | Robin Frijns | Andretti | Spark | 1m11.429s | 1.516s | 12 |
10 | Antonio Felix da Costa | Aguri | Spark | 1m11.690s | 1.777s | 20 |
11 | Loic Duval | Dragon | Venturi | 1m11.948s | 2.035s | 18 |
12 | Mike Conway | Venturi | Venturi | 1m12.209s | 2.296s | 22 |
13 | Jerome d'Ambrosio | Dragon | Venturi | 1m12.209s | 2.296s | 22 |
14 | Salvador Duran | Aguri | Spark | 1m12.343s | 2.430s | 21 |
15 | Simona de Silvestro | Andretti | Spark | 1m12.432s | 2.519s | 11 |
16 | Bruno Senna | Mahindra | Mahindra | 1m12.440s | 2.527s | 21 |
17 | Nick Heidfeld | Mahindra | Mahindra | 1m12.578s | 2.665s | 15 |
PRACTICE TWO TIMES:
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Sebastien Buemi | e.dams | Renault | 1m08.771s | - | 19 |
2 | Lucas di Grassi | Abt | ABT Schaeffler | 1m09.310s | 0.539s | 11 |
3 | Nicolas Prost | e.dams | Renault | 1m09.311s | 0.540s | 22 |
4 | Sam Bird | Virgin | Virgin | 1m09.485s | 0.714s | 16 |
5 | Antonio Felix da Costa | Aguri | Spark | 1m09.490s | 0.719s | 11 |
6 | Jerome d'Ambrosio | Dragon | Venturi | 1m09.695s | 0.924s | 15 |
7 | Stephane Sarrazin | Venturi | Venturi | 1m09.795s | 1.024s | 14 |
8 | Nelson Piquet Jr. | China | NEXTEV TCR | 1m10.089s | 1.318s | 19 |
9 | Mike Conway | Venturi | Venturi | 1m10.262s | 1.491s | 21 |
10 | Loic Duval | Dragon | Venturi | 1m10.301s | 1.530s | 16 |
11 | Robin Frijns | Andretti | Spark | 1m10.303s | 1.532s | 5 |
12 | Nick Heidfeld | Mahindra | Mahindra | 1m10.490s | 1.719s | 13 |
13 | Simona de Silvestro | Andretti | Spark | 1m10.527s | 1.756s | 6 |
14 | Oliver Turvey | China | NEXTEV TCR | 1m10.556s | 1.785s | 22 |
15 | Daniel Abt | Abt | ABT Schaeffler | 1m10.594s | 1.823s | 14 |
16 | Salvador Duran | Aguri | Spark | 1m10.595s | 1.824s | 12 |
17 | Bruno Senna | Mahindra | Mahindra | 1m10.710s | 1.939s | 18 |
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