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Santiago Formula E: Rowland fastest in disrupted practice sessions

Nissan e.dams driver Oliver Rowland topped a red flag-interrupted Formula E practice ahead of the Santiago E-Prix as only the top three in the second session managed a full-power lap

The final 30-minute session ended prematurely following a crash for Ma Qing Hua, which left Rowland at the top of the times with a 1m04.799s effort.

Reigning Formula 2 champion Nyck de Vries posted the early benchmark with a 1m05.586s ahead of his Mercedes team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne and points leader Alexander Sims.

After five minutes, Porsche's Andre Lotterer found a 0.3-second advantage to move clear as his team-mate Neel Jani was lucky to escape without damage after clattering the tyre wall on the exit of Turn 9.

Mitch Evans posted a then session best of 1m05.046s, but was lucky to do so as the first of two red flags was waved just after he crossed the timing line.

With 16 minutes to go, ex-Toro Rosso Formula 1 driver Brendon Hartley paused the session when a cooling fan had been left on his Dragon Racing car.

The assembly dropped off the car as he rounded Turn 1, causing the stoppage while it was retrieved. The team was fined €5000.

Contact between Antonio Felix da Costa and Rowland at Turn 1 will also be assessed, after the DS Techeetah driver appeared to turn in on the Nissan.

But Rowland responded by posting his 1m04.799s run with the maximum 250kW of power to head the session, beating Felipe Massa (Venturi) by 0.131s.

Before anyone could retaliate, NIO 333 driver Ma shunted heavily at Turn 5 to cause a second stoppage, which brought second practice to an early end.

He lost the rear of the car under braking and, as he tried to recover, ran wide and ploughed into the wall.

That meant Evans's 235kW lap was still sufficient for third ahead of BMW Andretti driver Maximilian Guenther and Lotterer, with da Costa in sixth.

Hartley's difficult run continued as he was then flagged to the stewards for undertaking under the second red flag, having ran 10th quickest.

De Vries slipped to 11th ahead of Pascal Wehrlein and new Jaguar recruit James Colado, as the top 13 all lapped within a second.

Reigning champion Jean-Eric Vergne was just 15th, with Lucas di Grassi beating Sims to 17th.

Sam Bird could only manage 22nd ahead of Jani and Ma, though the Envision Virgin Racing driver did top the cooler first practice session courtesy of a 1m04.914 ahead of da Costa and Edoardo Mortara.

FP1 times

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 Sam Bird Virgin Audi 1m04.914s - 26
2 Antonio Felix da Costa DS Techeetah DS 1m05.064s 0.150s 29
3 Edoardo Mortara Venturi Mercedes 1m05.096s 0.182s 27
4 Lucas di Grassi Audi Audi 1m05.203s 0.289s 23
5 Nico Muller Dragon Penske 1m05.252s 0.338s 27
6 Jerome d'Ambrosio Mahindra Mahindra 1m05.314s 0.400s 27
7 Alexander Sims BMW BMW 1m05.388s 0.474s 27
8 Sebastien Buemi Nissan e.dams Nissan 1m05.397s 0.483s 27
9 Pascal Wehrlein Mahindra Mahindra 1m05.429s 0.515s 27
10 Andre Lotterer Porsche Porsche 1m05.452s 0.538s 28
11 James Calado Jaguar Jaguar 1m05.472s 0.558s 30
12 Stoffel Vandoorne Mercedes Mercedes 1m05.506s 0.592s 28
13 Mitch Evans Jaguar Jaguar 1m05.513s 0.599s 26
14 Oliver Rowland Nissan e.dams Nissan 1m05.569s 0.655s 29
15 Daniel Abt Audi Audi 1m05.632s 0.718s 26
16 Jean-Eric Vergne DS Techeetah DS 1m05.659s 0.745s 28
17 Maximilian Guenther BMW BMW 1m05.706s 0.792s 24
18 Nyck de Vries Mercedes Mercedes 1m05.783s 0.869s 30
19 Oliver Turvey NIO NIO 1m06.076s 1.162s 31
20 Robin Frijns Virgin Audi 1m06.121s 1.207s 23
21 Felipe Massa Venturi Mercedes 1m06.193s 1.279s 29
22 Brendon Hartley Dragon Penske 1m06.508s 1.594s 27
23 Neel Jani Porsche Porsche 1m06.608s 1.694s 30
24 Ma Qinghua NIO NIO 1m07.037s 2.123s 31

FP2 times

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 Oliver Rowland Nissan e.dams Nissan 1m04.799s - 15
2 Felipe Massa Venturi Mercedes 1m04.930s 0.131s 12
3 Mitch Evans Jaguar Jaguar 1m05.046s 0.247s 8
4 Maximilian Guenther BMW BMW 1m05.120s 0.321s 11
5 Andre Lotterer Porsche Porsche 1m05.257s 0.458s 11
6 Antonio Felix da Costa DS Techeetah DS 1m05.280s 0.481s 12
7 Edoardo Mortara Venturi Mercedes 1m05.327s 0.528s 12
8 Oliver Turvey NIO NIO 1m05.398s 0.599s 12
9 Daniel Abt Audi Audi 1m05.469s 0.670s 12
10 Brendon Hartley Dragon Penske 1m05.540s 0.741s 9
11 Nyck de Vries Mercedes Mercedes 1m05.586s 0.787s 14
12 Pascal Wehrlein Mahindra Mahindra 1m05.598s 0.799s 13
13 James Calado Jaguar Jaguar 1m05.634s 0.835s 10
14 Stoffel Vandoorne Mercedes Mercedes 1m05.899s 1.100s 11
15 Jean-Eric Vergne DS Techeetah DS 1m06.258s 1.459s 10
16 Lucas di Grassi Audi Audi 1m06.283s 1.484s 8
17 Alexander Sims BMW BMW 1m06.349s 1.550s 11
18 Jerome d'Ambrosio Mahindra Mahindra 1m06.368s 1.569s 11
19 Nico Muller Dragon Penske 1m06.660s 1.861s 9
20 Robin Frijns Virgin Audi 1m06.857s 2.058s 6
21 Sebastien Buemi Nissan e.dams Nissan 1m06.904s 2.105s 13
22 Sam Bird Virgin Audi 1m07.007s 2.208s 9
23 Neel Jani Porsche Porsche 1m07.056s 2.257s 11
24 Ma Qinghua NIO NIO 1m08.364s 3.565s 10


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