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Formula E 2018/19: Sims completes BMW clean sweep of fastest test times

Alexander Sims gave BMW a clean sweep of fastest times in Formula E's official 2018/19 pre-season testing at Valencia as he set the fastest lap of the final day

Sims, who also topped the opening day of running at the Ricardo Tormo circuit, moved to the top of the times late-on with a 1m17.402s, pushing reigning FE champion Jean-Eric Vergne into second place.

BMW retains the test's fastest time, which was set by Antonio Felix da Costa during Wednesday's morning running, with Sim's Friday effort ending up 0.425 seconds adrift of that benchmark.

All of the drivers - except Venturi's Edoardo Mortara - set their fastest times of the day during the afternoon session, as conditions at the track improved from the soaking morning running during the two-hour lunch break.

Vergne, who only set his fastest time of the day as the final chequered flag approached, wound up 0.218s slower than Sims.

Mitch Evans gave Jaguar its highest finish in any session of the test with third place, ahead of Mahindra Racing's Pascal Wehrlein and Maximilian Gunther (Dragon Racing).

Robin Frijns was sixth for Virgin Racing, with HWA's Gary Paffett and Sam Bird seventh and eighth respectively ahead of Sebastien Buemi. Lucas di Grassi rounded out the top 10 for Audi.

Antonio Fuoco, who took over the #7 Dragon car from Jose Maria Lopez - who was 12th in the wet morning session - finished in P11.

Felipe Massa caused one of the day's six red flags - four of which came during the afternoon session - when he stopped on track in the final hour, and was 16th for Venturi.

Daniel Juncadella, who took over Stoffel Vandoorne's HWA car as the Belgian driver left the test after Wednesday's running to contest the US Grand Prix for McLaren, finished the day in 17th place.

Oliver Rowland gave Nissan e.dams a second driver for the first time in the test on the final day - as he drove the car Alexander Albon had been scheduled to run before news broke that he is closing on a 2019 Toro Rosso Formula 1 drive.

Rowland ended up 18th-fastest on the day with 85 laps completed.

Mortara did not complete a lap during the afternoon session as an unspecified technical problem on his car meant he could not rejoin.

Morning times

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 Antonio Felix da Costa BMW BMW 1m24.870s - 29
2 Jean-Eric Vergne Techeetah DS 1m25.258s 0.388s 32
3 Pascal Wehrlein Mahindra Mahindra 1m25.519s 0.649s 38
4 Alexander Sims BMW BMW 1m25.567s 0.697s 27
5 Lucas di Grassi Audi Audi 1m25.659s 0.789s 40
6 Sam Bird Virgin Audi 1m25.912s 1.042s 29
7 Sebastien Buemi Nissan Nissan 1m25.972s 1.102s 46
8 Felipe Massa Venturi Venturi 1m26.027s 1.157s 39
9 Maximilian Guenther Dragon Penske 1m26.524s 1.654s 40
10 Andre Lotterer Techeetah DS 1m26.571s 1.701s 33
11 Daniel Juncadella HWA Venturi 1m26.655s 1.785s 32
12 Jose Maria Lopez Dragon Penske 1m26.872s 2.002s 35
13 Nelson Piquet Jr. Jaguar Jaguar 1m26.978s 2.108s 43
14 Mitch Evans Jaguar Jaguar 1m27.489s 2.619s 43
15 Oliver Rowland Nissan Nissan 1m27.705s 2.835s 36
16 Tom Dillmann NextEV NIO 1m27.921s 3.051s 34
17 Oliver Turvey NextEV NIO 1m27.950s 3.080s 28
18 Gary Paffett HWA Venturi 1m28.011s 3.141s 12
19 Jerome d'Ambrosio Mahindra Mahindra 1m28.163s 3.293s 38
20 Daniel Abt Audi Audi 1m28.906s 4.036s 16
21 Edoardo Mortara Venturi Venturi 1m29.024s 4.154s 21
22 Robin Frijns Virgin Audi 1m29.887s 5.017s 42

Afternoon times

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 Alexander Sims BMW BMW 1m17.402s - 51
2 Jean-Eric Vergne Techeetah DS 1m17.620s 0.218s 36
3 Mitch Evans Jaguar Jaguar 1m17.864s 0.462s 37
4 Pascal Wehrlein Mahindra Mahindra 1m17.888s 0.486s 30
5 Maximilian Guenther Dragon Penske 1m17.947s 0.545s 32
6 Robin Frijns Virgin Audi 1m18.088s 0.686s 49
7 Gary Paffett HWA Venturi 1m18.164s 0.762s 41
8 Sam Bird Virgin Audi 1m18.219s 0.817s 45
9 Sebastien Buemi Nissan Nissan 1m18.220s 0.818s 25
10 Lucas di Grassi Audi Audi 1m18.269s 0.867s 46
11 Antonio Fuoco Dragon Penske 1m18.284s 0.882s 35
12 Jerome d'Ambrosio Mahindra Mahindra 1m18.409s 1.007s 19
13 Daniel Abt Audi Audi 1m18.479s 1.077s 50
14 Tom Dillmann NextEV NIO 1m18.778s 1.376s 34
15 Oliver Turvey NextEV NIO 1m19.083s 1.681s 35
16 Felipe Massa Venturi Venturi 1m19.328s 1.926s 30
17 Daniel Juncadella HWA Venturi 1m19.353s 1.951s 39
18 Oliver Rowland Nissan Nissan 1m20.416s 3.014s 49
19 Nelson Piquet Jr. Jaguar Jaguar 1m21.997s 4.595s 41
20 Andre Lotterer Techeetah DS 1m23.048s 5.646s 56
21 Antonio Felix da Costa BMW BMW 1m23.121s 5.719s 16
22 Edoardo Mortara Venturi Venturi - - 0


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