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Formula E 2018/19: BMW's Sims leads Valencia Gen2 testing day one

BMW driver Alexander Sims topped the times on the first day of Formula E 2018/19 pre-season testing with the series' new Gen2 car at Valencia

Sims, who will make his FE debut in the upcoming campaign, topped the morning session at the Ricardo Tormo circuit with a time of 1m17.567s.

But Sims went even faster towards the end of the afternoon running when he set a 1m17.553s, as the majority of the drivers improved their best times in the second half of the day.

Andre Lotterer ended the day with the second fastest time - a 1m17.654s, which put him 0.101 seconds adrift of Sims.

Antonio Felix da Costa finished the day in third, having been second-fastest to his BMW team-mate in the morning and 0.167s adrift.

Audi pair Lucas di Grassi and Daniel Abt both spent the morning session completing shorter runs and ended the day fourth and fifth overall.

Jerome D'Ambrosio, only announced as a Mahindra Racing driver on Tuesday morning, was sixth for his new squad, one spot ahead of reigning FE champion Jean-Eric Vergne - who was one of only three drivers that drove in both sessions not to go quicker in the afternoon.

Sebastien Buemi finished the day with the eighth fastest time, 0.547s slower than Sims.

The Nissan e.dams driver also completed 16 laps in Alexander Albon's car in the afternoon.

Jose Maria Lopez was ninth for Dragon Racing, with FE newcomer Felipe Massa rounding out the top 10 for Venturi.

Long-time season four title contender Sam Bird was the highest place Virgin Racing driver in 11th, with his new team-mate Robin Frijns ending up in 14th place.

Ex-Formula 1 racer Pascal Wehrlein was 13th for Mahindra.

Mitch Evans and his Jaguar team-mate Nelson Piquet Jr both set their fastest times of the day in the morning and ended up 16th and 20th overall, with the latter completing a mammoth 27-lap stint just before the lunch break.

Evans also lost a significant chunk of his morning running due to a battery change.

Newly-crowned DTM champion and HWA driver Gary Paffett caused the first of the day's two red flags when he slid into the tight chicane that has been built three-quarters of the way down the start/finish straight to simulate the tighter confines of regular FE circuits.

The crash occurred with just over an hour of the morning session remaining, with Paffett rejoining in the afternoon after his car had been repaired to set the day's 18th quickest time.

Paffett's HWA team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne was 19th fastest, 3.47s slower than Sims, but did not complete a lap in the afternoon session.

Maximilian Gunther was the slowest driver to set a timed lap, with Albon and Antonio Fuoco, who is sharing the #6 Dragon Racing car with Gunther this week, not setting a time all day.

The brief second red flag period occurred mid-way through the afternoon running to secure a loose part of the chicane tyre wall.

Morning times

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 Alexander Sims BMW BMW 1m17.567s - 33
2 Antonio Felix da Costa BMW BMW 1m17.734s 0.167s 36
3 Lucas di Grassi Audi Audi 1m17.739s 0.172s 38
4 Jean-Eric Vergne Techeetah DS 1m18.033s 0.466s 22
5 Andre Lotterer Techeetah DS 1m18.227s 0.660s 33
6 Daniel Abt Audi Audi 1m18.513s 0.946s 40
7 Sam Bird Virgin Audi 1m18.732s 1.165s 28
8 Mitch Evans Jaguar Jaguar 1m18.747s 1.180s 15
9 Sebastien Buemi Nissan Nissan 1m18.902s 1.335s 21
10 Felipe Massa Venturi Venturi 1m19.140s 1.573s 39
11 Edoardo Mortara Venturi Venturi 1m19.219s 1.652s 43
12 Robin Frijns Virgin Audi 1m19.275s 1.708s 27
13 Tom Dillmann NextEV NIO 1m19.300s 1.733s 21
14 Jerome d'Ambrosio Mahindra Mahindra 1m19.535s 1.968s 30
15 Jose Maria Lopez Dragon Penske 1m20.631s 3.064s 29
16 Oliver Turvey NextEV NIO 1m20.865s 3.298s 18
17 Pascal Wehrlein Mahindra Mahindra 1m20.915s 3.348s 8
18 Stoffel Vandoorne HWA Venturi 1m21.023s 3.456s 13
19 Nelson Piquet Jr. Jaguar Jaguar 1m21.629s 4.062s 42
20 Gary Paffett HWA Venturi 1m22.083s 4.516s 7
21 Maximilian Guenther Dragon Penske 1m32.242s 14.675s 3

Afternoon times

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 Alexander Sims BMW BMW 1m17.553s - 41
2 Andre Lotterer Techeetah DS 1m17.654s 0.101s 36
3 Antonio Felix da Costa BMW BMW 1m17.727s 0.174s 46
4 Lucas di Grassi Audi Audi 1m17.732s 0.179s 40
5 Daniel Abt Audi Audi 1m17.819s 0.266s 45
6 Jerome d'Ambrosio Mahindra Mahindra 1m17.987s 0.434s 30
7 Jean-Eric Vergne Techeetah DS 1m18.035s 0.482s 22
8 Sebastien Buemi Nissan Nissan 1m18.100s 0.547s 14
9 Jose Maria Lopez Dragon Penske 1m18.154s 0.601s 33
10 Felipe Massa Venturi Venturi 1m18.176s 0.623s 32
11 Sam Bird Virgin Audi 1m18.456s 0.903s 21
12 Tom Dillmann NextEV NIO 1m18.504s 0.951s 45
13 Pascal Wehrlein Mahindra Mahindra 1m18.606s 1.053s 27
14 Robin Frijns Virgin Audi 1m18.690s 1.137s 20
15 Edoardo Mortara Venturi Venturi 1m18.707s 1.154s 25
16 Oliver Turvey NextEV NIO 1m19.053s 1.500s 36
17 Gary Paffett HWA Venturi 1m19.144s 1.591s 48
18 Sebastien Buemi Nissan Nissan 1m21.883s 4.330s 16
19 Mitch Evans Jaguar Jaguar 1m22.711s 5.158s 57
20 Nelson Piquet Jr. Jaguar Jaguar 1m23.286s 5.733s 51


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