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Formula E 2017/18: Turvey fastest on first day of Valencia testing

Oliver Turvey set the fastest time on the opening day of Formula E pre-season testing as barely a tenth covered the top six drivers at Valencia

The NIO driver posted a 1m18.565s in the afternoon session in Spain to head a close sextet on the first of three days of official running.

Turvey's time was 0.012 seconds quicker than Renault e.dams' Sebastien Buemi, with Audi's reigning champion Lucas di Grassi just 0.002s further back in third.

Felix Rosenqvist also lapped within a tenth of Turvey in the afternoon, while Sam Bird - who set his best time in the morning - and di Grassi's team-mate Daniel Abt completed the leading half-dozen.

Bird's afternoon was compromised by a crash at the makeshift chicane on the start/finish straight.

The Briton was one of several drivers to complain about the chicane after the morning session and damaged one of his DS Virgin Racing DSV-03s in the incident.

He still completed a decent amount of running in the afternoon but did not put in a full-power lap and was just under two seconds off Turvey's pace.

Bird's team-mate Alex Lynn also opted to avoid a 200kW run in the afternoon but his morning time was good enough for seventh-fastest.

Jean-Eric Vergne caused one of several other red flags in the afternoon, spinning his Techeetah into the gravel at Turn 3, and wound up 0.451s off the pace in eighth.

Mitch Evans put Jaguar inside the top five in the morning and improved by a tenth in the afternoon to finish ninth overall, sixth tenths and fourth places clear of new team-mate Nelson Piquet Jr, as Nico Prost completed the top 10 in the second Renault.

FE newcomers Edoardo Mortara, Andre Lotterer and James Rossiter all caused stoppages.

Rossiter and Mortara are vying for a race seat at Venturi, with Rossiter incurring damage at the same chicane Bird hit and Mortara stopping on track.

Rossiter was the quicker of the two, posting a morning lap time 1.6s off the ultimate pace and half a second quicker than Mortara managed in an afternoon session of restricted running.

Porsche LMP1 driver Lotterer suffered the same fate as Mortara, stopping his Renault-powered Techeetah on track, and wound up 12th fastest, half a second slower than Vergne.

Alexander Sims won the battle of the BMW-contracted men as he outpaced recently re-signed Andretti driver Antonio Felix da Costa - Sims was 15th and 0.010s quicker than da Costa, who will hand his car over to DTM race winner Tom Blomqvist tomorrow.

While Turvey was quickest, his new team-mate (and Piquet's replacement) Luca Filippi was 18th, two seconds off the pace.

Lotterer's LMP1 team-mate Neel Jani was slowest for Dragon Racing, but did not complete a qualifying run.

Morning session times

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 Sam Bird Virgin DS Virgin 1m18.669s - 41
2 Lucas di Grassi Audi Audi 1m18.718s 0.049s 33
3 Daniel Abt Audi Audi 1m18.761s 0.092s 46
4 Alex Lynn Virgin DS Virgin 1m18.957s 0.288s 37
5 Mitch Evans Jaguar Jaguar 1m19.159s 0.490s 35
6 Nelson Piquet Jr. Jaguar Jaguar 1m19.627s 0.958s 26
7 Felix Rosenqvist Mahindra Mahindra 1m19.725s 1.056s 17
8 Nicolas Prost e.dams Renault 1m19.771s 1.102s 38
9 Sebastien Buemi e.dams Renault 1m19.856s 1.187s 20
10 Oliver Turvey NIO NextEV NIO 1m20.023s 1.354s 29
11 Jean-Eric Vergne Techeetah Renault 1m20.114s 1.445s 19
12 James Rossiter Venturi Venturi 1m20.159s 1.490s 23
13 Jerome d'Ambrosio Dragon Penske 1m20.287s 1.618s 34
14 Nick Heidfeld Mahindra Mahindra 1m20.298s 1.629s 24
15 Luca Filippi NIO NextEV NIO 1m20.642s 1.973s 29
16 Andre Lotterer Techeetah Renault 1m20.646s 1.977s 26
17 Alexander Sims Andretti Andretti 1m20.699s 2.030s 30
18 Edoardo Mortara Venturi Venturi 1m20.946s 2.277s 17
19 Antonio Felix da Costa Andretti Andretti 1m20.946s 2.277s 27
20 Neel Jani Dragon Penske 1m21.888s 3.219s 23

Afternoon session times

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 Oliver Turvey NIO NextEV NIO 1m18.565s - 43
2 Sebastien Buemi e.dams Renault 1m18.577s 0.012s 24
3 Lucas di Grassi Audi Audi 1m18.579s 0.014s 38
4 Felix Rosenqvist Mahindra Mahindra 1m18.643s 0.078s 21
5 Daniel Abt Audi Audi 1m18.697s 0.132s 39
6 Jean-Eric Vergne Techeetah Renault 1m19.016s 0.451s 30
7 Mitch Evans Jaguar Jaguar 1m19.063s 0.498s 37
8 Nicolas Prost e.dams Renault 1m19.097s 0.532s 44
9 Nick Heidfeld Mahindra Mahindra 1m19.117s 0.552s 18
10 Andre Lotterer Techeetah Renault 1m19.491s 0.926s 28
11 Nelson Piquet Jr. Jaguar Jaguar 1m19.855s 1.290s 28
12 Jerome d'Ambrosio Dragon Penske 1m19.991s 1.426s 38
13 Alexander Sims Andretti Andretti 1m20.094s 1.529s 37
14 Antonio Felix da Costa Andretti Andretti 1m20.107s 1.542s 38
15 Sam Bird Virgin DS Virgin 1m20.516s 1.951s 32
16 Edoardo Mortara Venturi Venturi 1m20.712s 2.147s 15
17 James Rossiter Venturi Venturi 1m22.004s 3.439s 28
18 Alex Lynn Virgin DS Virgin 1m22.093s 3.528s 48
19 Neel Jani Dragon Penske 1m22.329s 3.764s 40
20 Luca Filippi NIO NextEV NIO 1m23.139s 4.574s 40


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