Buemi fastest in first Berlin practice, Piquet tops second session
Sebastien Buemi set the fastest lap in practice for the Berlin ePrix as Nelson Piquet Jr topped a session for the first time as champion
For the fourth event in a row Buemi was quickest in the morning session, taking his tally of FP1 top spots for the season to six.
The Swiss driver was one of only two drivers to complete a 200kW lap in FP1, the other being NEXTEV TCR's Oliver Turvey.
However, Buemi failed to register a representative lap in FP2 after nosing the wall early on and later appearing to be baulked by Renault e.dams team-mate Nicolas Prost.
Buemi wound up 15th fastest in the second session, one place behind Prost, but his 57.648s from FP1 would stand as the best time across both sessions as any chance of meaningful improvement in FP2 was ruined by two incidents.
Stephane Sarrazin caused the most significant disruption, bringing out the red flags for 10 minutes after crashing his Venturi car exiting Turn 11.
When the session resumed with less than five minutes to run, Rene Rast stopped at Turn 6 and brought out the yellow flags.
At that stage Sam Bird was top on a 57.922s but Piquet popped up with a 57.909s late on, going purple in the middle sector despite the caution remaining in place for Rast's stopped car.
That bumped Bird to P2, with Jean-Eric Vergne third despite clipping the wall and Robin Frijns and Piquet's team-mate Turvey completing the top five.
Lucas di Grassi's quiet practice meant neither of the two title protagonists featured at the sharp end of the times.
After accidentally activating neutral in FP1, championship leader di Grassi was 12th quickest in the second session.
PRACTICE ONE TIMES
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sebastien Buemi | e.dams | 57.648s | - | 32 |
| 2 | Oliver Turvey | China | 58.690s | 1.042s | 38 |
| 3 | Lucas di Grassi | Abt | 58.916s | 1.268s | 34 |
| 4 | Nicolas Prost | e.dams | 59.168s | 1.520s | 31 |
| 5 | Sam Bird | Virgin | 59.236s | 1.588s | 26 |
| 6 | Loic Duval | Dragon | 59.255s | 1.607s | 33 |
| 7 | Mike Conway | Venturi | 59.260s | 1.612s | 32 |
| 8 | Jerome d'Ambrosio | Dragon | 59.482s | 1.834s | 31 |
| 9 | Stephane Sarrazin | Venturi | 59.525s | 1.877s | 32 |
| 10 | Daniel Abt | Abt | 59.583s | 1.935s | 35 |
| 11 | Bruno Senna | Mahindra | 59.600s | 1.952s | 31 |
| 12 | Nelson Piquet Jr. | China | 59.724s | 2.076s | 32 |
| 13 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Virgin | 59.789s | 2.141s | 28 |
| 14 | Nick Heidfeld | Mahindra | 1m00.084s | 2.436s | 25 |
| 15 | Rene Rast | Aguri | 1m00.139s | 2.491s | 32 |
| 16 | Robin Frijns | Andretti | 1m00.548s | 2.900s | 26 |
| 17 | Simona de Silvestro | Andretti | 1m00.846s | 3.198s | 30 |
| 18 | Ma Qinghua | Aguri | 1m01.125s | 3.477s | 32 |
SECOND TWO TIMES
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nelson Piquet Jr. | China | 57.909s | - | 6 |
| 2 | Sam Bird | Virgin | 57.922s | 0.013s | 16 |
| 3 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Virgin | 58.066s | 0.157s | 16 |
| 4 | Robin Frijns | Andretti | 58.145s | 0.236s | 15 |
| 5 | Oliver Turvey | China | 58.207s | 0.298s | 21 |
| 6 | Loic Duval | Dragon | 58.263s | 0.354s | 15 |
| 7 | Bruno Senna | Mahindra | 58.310s | 0.401s | 16 |
| 8 | Daniel Abt | Abt | 58.363s | 0.454s | 19 |
| 9 | Mike Conway | Venturi | 58.370s | 0.461s | 19 |
| 10 | Nick Heidfeld | Mahindra | 58.991s | 1.082s | 11 |
| 11 | Simona de Silvestro | Andretti | 58.992s | 1.083s | 14 |
| 12 | Lucas di Grassi | Abt | 59.076s | 1.167s | 17 |
| 13 | Jerome d'Ambrosio | Dragon | 59.178s | 1.269s | 13 |
| 14 | Nicolas Prost | e.dams | 59.256s | 1.347s | 17 |
| 15 | Sebastien Buemi | e.dams | 59.891s | 1.982s | 19 |
| 16 | Stephane Sarrazin | Venturi | 59.986s | 2.077s | 8 |
| 17 | Rene Rast | Aguri | 1m00.381s | 2.472s | 14 |
| 18 | Ma Qinghua | Aguri | 1m02.686s | 4.777s | 14 |
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About this article
| Series | Formula E |
| Drivers | Nelson Piquet Jr. , Sébastien Buemi |
| Author | Scott Mitchell |
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