Free Practice 2: Virgin out early with
Nisssan, Techeetah and Audi. The track filled rapidly and on the long
straights clouds of dust plumed into the air as drivers delicately
felt out the surface. After the dust settled, quite literally, it was
Vergne with the early fast time, a 1:11.23 and 0.37 seconds up on
Massa.
However, as with all good things they
generally don't last and with just over 25 minutes left in the
session D'Ambrosio went to the top briefly, before being surpassed by
Lucas Di Grassi. Traffic was brutal on the narrow, tight circuit and
despite the running, still the offline runs kicked up all sorts of
debris.
22 minutes to go and it was Da Costa's
turn, in the BMW Andretti to set the fastest lap, now down into the
1:10s as Vergne got on with some race simulation and let him by into
T1. By then, though, drivers were rolling into the pits to make minor
alterations and cool things down before heading back out. 18 minutes
to go and Da Costa Di Grassi D'Ambrosio Vergne and Evans were the top
5 and the bottom 5 were Gunther, Lopez, Dillmann, Mortara and Abt.
Only momentarily as taking advantage of a fairly empty track he
rocked his way up to P2 leaving Mortara at the bottom of the pile.
Sam Bird on a hotlap then had a neat
brush of the wall, but not costing him much on his way to P3 with a
1:11:048. Buemi was next up and displaced Bird handily as Evans was
on a real scorcher born out by his eeking out Da Costa for P1 by less
than a tenth. As the session progressed it became clear that the
braking zone into T11 was an excellent place to watch the cars, with
the bumps unsettling the rear and most drivers squirreling into the
turn. Da Costa had a proper lock up and hammered the kerbs hard on
his trip through and then, with just 2 minutes left, Vergne missed it
entirely and had to reverse out of the corner, without tagging the
wall happily enough for his mechanics.
As the checquers fell, it was Da Costa, Buemi and Sims at the top with Rowland on a hotlap, and to the top he went, with a 1:09:695. At the bottom were Lotterer, whose lap was spoiled by traffic, Vandoorne and Lynn as the teams got it together and began to pore over the last data they'd get before the qualifying session began... though with Techeetah having purpled S1, Nissan S2 and BMW S3 the race looked very much to be on.
If you want to relive the action of FP2 then look no further...
As the checquers fell, it was Da Costa, Buemi and Sims at the top with Rowland on a hotlap, and to the top he went, with a 1:09:695. At the bottom were Lotterer, whose lap was spoiled by traffic, Vandoorne and Lynn as the teams got it together and began to pore over the last data they'd get before the qualifying session began... though with Techeetah having purpled S1, Nissan S2 and BMW S3 the race looked very much to be on.
If you want to relive the action of FP2 then look no further...
— ABB Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) July 13, 2019
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