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Santiago Formula E: Jean-Eric Vergne leads crash-strewn practice

Jean-Eric Vergne set the fastest time across two red-flagged practice sessions for Formula E's Santiago race

The circuit was coated in dust at the start of the day and as track conditions and temperatures improved the second session proved comfortably quicker.

Lucas di Grassi, Sam Bird, Mitch Evans and then Alex Lynn had spells atop the times after early full-power runs, with Lynn lapping 0.8 seconds faster than Bird's practice one benchmark.

That remained the fastest time until Vergne popped up late on with a 1m18.662s for Techeetah to outpace Lynn by 0.030s.

Any chance of late improvements were scuppered when Nico Prost plunged into the barrier exiting Turn 9.

The Renault e.dams driver ran wide into the 90-degree left-hander and nosed his Z.E.17 into the wall, bringing out the red flag and ending the session early.

That confirmed Vergne as quickest, ahead of Lynn, Evans, Nick Heidfeld and championship leader Felix Rosenqvist.

Reigning champion Lucas di Grassi, without a point to his name and heading into qualifying with a 10-place grid penalty, was only 10th-fastest in second practice.

Mahindra's Rosenqvist was one of several drivers to visit the escape road at Turn 3 during a messy opening session, as the challenging Santiago track caught out many.

Rosenqvist and Nelson Piquet Jr both headed down it twice, with Luca Filippi and Jerome d'Ambrosio also taking a trip in the wrong direction, but all of them kept it out of the barriers.

Sebastien Buemi did not, losing the rear of his Renault on the exit of a corner and slapping the wall, damaging the right-rear.

A bigger incident for Maro Engel brought the opening session to a premature end in similar circumstances to Prost's stoppage-inducing practice two shunt.

Engel ran deep into Turn 3 and nosed his Venturi quite heavily in the wall.

FP1 times

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 Sam Bird Virgin DS Virgin 1m19.439s - 18
2 Felix Rosenqvist Mahindra Mahindra 1m19.646s 0.207s 23
3 Jean-Eric Vergne Techeetah Renault 1m19.701s 0.262s 20
4 Mitch Evans Jaguar Jaguar 1m19.819s 0.380s 20
5 Andre Lotterer Techeetah Renault 1m19.824s 0.385s 19
6 Alex Lynn Virgin DS Virgin 1m19.907s 0.468s 20
7 Jose Maria Lopez Dragon Penske 1m20.176s 0.737s 16
8 Edoardo Mortara Venturi Venturi 1m20.265s 0.826s 23
9 Oliver Turvey NIO NextEV NIO 1m20.309s 0.870s 21
10 Nelson Piquet Jr. Jaguar Jaguar 1m20.396s 0.957s 20
11 Lucas di Grassi Audi Audi 1m20.405s 0.966s 20
12 Daniel Abt Audi Audi 1m20.477s 1.038s 21
13 Sebastien Buemi e.dams Renault 1m20.585s 1.146s 18
14 Nicolas Prost e.dams Renault 1m20.814s 1.375s 19
15 Nick Heidfeld Mahindra Mahindra 1m20.952s 1.513s 18
16 Jerome d'Ambrosio Dragon Penske 1m21.033s 1.594s 17
17 Luca Filippi NIO NextEV NIO 1m21.224s 1.785s 16
18 Maro Engel Venturi Venturi 1m21.870s 2.431s 22
19 Tom Blomqvist Andretti Andretti 1m23.380s 3.941s 18
20 Antonio Felix da Costa Andretti Andretti 1m23.616s 4.177s 13

FP2 times

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 Jean-Eric Vergne Techeetah Renault 1m18.662s - 13
2 Alex Lynn Virgin DS Virgin 1m18.692s 0.030s 12
3 Mitch Evans Jaguar Jaguar 1m18.872s 0.210s 12
4 Nick Heidfeld Mahindra Mahindra 1m18.887s 0.225s 11
5 Felix Rosenqvist Mahindra Mahindra 1m18.962s 0.300s 17
6 Sam Bird Virgin DS Virgin 1m19.227s 0.565s 13
7 Edoardo Mortara Venturi Venturi 1m19.240s 0.578s 15
8 Daniel Abt Audi Audi 1m19.264s 0.602s 13
9 Sebastien Buemi e.dams Renault 1m19.274s 0.612s 12
10 Lucas di Grassi Audi Audi 1m19.320s 0.658s 13
11 Oliver Turvey NIO NextEV NIO 1m19.364s 0.702s 13
12 Jose Maria Lopez Dragon Penske 1m19.414s 0.752s 11
13 Luca Filippi NIO NextEV NIO 1m19.671s 1.009s 10
14 Jerome d'Ambrosio Dragon Penske 1m19.714s 1.052s 11
15 Antonio Felix da Costa Andretti Andretti 1m19.803s 1.141s 15
16 Andre Lotterer Techeetah Renault 1m20.039s 1.377s 14
17 Nelson Piquet Jr. Jaguar Jaguar 1m20.051s 1.389s 12
18 Maro Engel Venturi Venturi 1m20.143s 1.481s 17
19 Tom Blomqvist Andretti Andretti 1m20.298s 1.636s 12
20 Nicolas Prost e.dams Renault 1m20.301s 1.639s 12

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