Vergne lowers lap record on penultimate Formula E test day
Jean-Eric Vergne remained in control of the timesheets on the penultimate day of Formula E season three testing at Donington Park, lowering his existing lap record by almost half a second.
Photo by: John Rowley
Reigning champion Sebastien Buemi had already broken through Vergne's benchmark of 1m29.634s in the morning session as he set a 1m29.496s in the Renault e.dams machine.
That remained the quickest time for much of the day until the Swiss improved again at the start of the final half hour of running in the afternoon session, Buemi lowering the bar to a 1m29.370s.
Not be outdone, however, Vergne - whose Techeetah machine uses customer Renault power - clocked a 1m29.196s with around 15 minutes to go, beating the record he established in the first test by 0.438s.
The day didn't go entirely smoothly for Vergne however, as he suffered a crash late in the morning session that left the rear wing of one of his chassis damaged.
Lucas di Grassi was the third driver to break Vergne's previous record, recording a 1m29.518s in the closing stages of the afternoon to go third fastest in the Abt Schaeffler Audi Sport machine.
Nicolas Prost made it two Renault e.dams machines in the top four, ahead of the second Abt Schaeffler car of Daniel Abt and the Mahindra of Nick Heidfeld.
The morning times of DS Virgin duo Jose Maria Lopez and Sam Bird proved enough for seventh and eighth overall, while the top 10 was completed by Oliver Turvey (NextEV) and Loic Duval (Dragon).
Mitch Evans was the best of the Jaguar runners in 14th place, the Kiwi lapping two tenths quicker than teammate Adam Carroll had managed on Monday.
Day 5 testing times:
Pos. | Driver | Team | Morning | Afternoon |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Techeetah | 1'31.709 | 1'29.196 |
2 | Sebastien Buemi | Renault | 1'29.496 | 1'29.370 |
3 | Lucas di Grassi | ABT Schaeffler | 1'32.207 | 1'29.518 |
4 | Nicolas Prost | Renault | 1'30.151 | 1'29.722 |
5 | Daniel Abt | ABT Schaeffler | 1'30.741 | 1'30.039 |
6 | Nick Heidfeld | Mahindra | 1'30.607 | 1'30.080 |
7 | Jose Maria Lopez | DS-Virgin | 1'30.126 | 1'30.500 |
8 | Sam Bird | DS-Virgin | 1'30.282 | 1'32.001 |
9 | Oliver Turvey | NEXTEV TCR | 1'30.854 | 1'30.312 |
10 | Loic Duval | Dragon | 1'31.329 | 1'30.388 |
11 | Nelson Piquet Jr. | NEXTEV TCR | 1'31.116 | 1'30.422 |
12 | Felix Rosenqvist | Mahindra | 1'30.979 | 1'30.438 |
13 | Antonio Felix da Costa | Andretti | 1'33.416 | 1'30.536 |
14 | Mitch Evans | Jaguar | 1'31.027 | 1'30.582 |
15 | Robin Frijns | Andretti | 1'33.295 | 1'30.648 |
16 | Stephane Sarrazin | Venturi | 1'30.671 | 1'35.770 |
17 | Adam Carroll | Jaguar | 1'30.874 | 1'33.536 |
18 | Maro Engel | Venturi | 1'31.168 | 1'32.584 |
19 | Jerome d'Ambrosio | Dragon | 1'32.369 | 1'32.414 |
20 | Ma Qing Hua | Techeetah | 1'32.644 | 1'31.309 |
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