Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

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


Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Formula E close to securing new Berlin street venue for 2016
Next article Buenos Aires Formula E: Sam Bird on pole, Sebastien Buemi last

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe