António Félix da Costa led the pack in the Jeddah E-Prix Free Practice 2 with a 1:15.470. Behind him was the DS Penske of Maximillian Günther and the Maserati of Jake Hughes.
Heading into the second practice session of the weekend, Free Practice 2 is the Season 11 driver’s last opportunity to get used to the track before qualifying around Jeddah later in the afternoon.
Yesterday in the first free practice session, Oliver Rowland led the pack with his Nissan teammate Norman Nato closely behind.
With a new track layout debuted this year for the Jeddah E-Prix time on track is important for the drivers and teams to get used to the track. Jeddah also sees the introduction of Pit Boosts to Formula E for the Jeddah E-Prix which added a new strategic aspect to race day.
The green light went on at the end of the pit lane and the cars went out on track, ready to try and match or improve on Oliver Rowland’s 1:15.849.
Nico Müller in the Andretti, came into the session with the first fast time, crossing the line with a 1:18.475. However, this was still nearly three seconds off the times from Free Practice 1. Showing that there was much room for improvement in the field.
Di Grassi bumped Müller from the top spot, putting In a 1:17.150. Faster than the previous laps but not even close to the previous days’ times.
Red Flag
Robin Frijns went off the track and pulled to a stop at turn 13. At first, it seemed like it would be a quick fix but when Frijns was unable to get his Envision going a red flag was waved.
Luckily, Frijns was brought into the garage and the green light at the end of the pit lane was turned back on. Buemi, Wehrlein and Barnard were the first drivers to get on the track. They enjoyed the empty track for their prep laps.
Barnard, who is on his first full-time season in Formula E broke into the 1:16s with a 1:16.347 topping the times. However, it was short-lived as the DS Penske of Maximillian Günther crossed the line with a 1:15.594. Günther’s time beat that of Rowlands in FP1, taking the fastest lap of the weekend so far.
Sam Bird took second place with just 0.329 seconds separating him from the top spot. Oliver Rowland fought back at the front runners but only managed to get himself into third with a 1:16.078.
Müller knocked Bird and Rowland down and got closer to Günther but still found his Andretti just 0.319 separating him from the seemingly faster DS Penske.
António Félix da Costa was the driver who bumped Günther from the top spot, crossing the line with a 1:15.470.
The two Nissan drivers had been fast all weekend. Although they weren’t able to get ahead of Günther and Da Costa. They moved into third and fourth closely matched, but with Nato leading the pair.
10 minutes remaining
Jake Hughes in his Maserati joined the frontrunners, breaking into the 1:15s. He was only 0.215 off of da Costa but the pace was impressive with his teammate down in 17th.
Frijns was still sat in the pit lane unable to get back out on track. Seven minutes were left in the session and the car was still being fixed, Frijns was looking at a disadvantage for qualifying.
In the final five minutes, there was less than a second covering the first 15 cars. Showing just how competitive qualifying later in the day was going to be.
There was a red flag waved in the final two minutes after a collision between Vandoorne and De Vries. As the Maserati was on a slow lap the Mahindra clipped the back of Vandoorne around the hairpin.
The session ended under the red flag, cutting the opportunity for final fast laps short.
Feature Image Credit: Joe Portlock/LAT Images | FE Media Centre
