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Formula E Berlin: Nick Heidfeld leads Mahindra one-two in practice

Nick Heidfeld headed a Mahindra one-two in practice for the first of Formula E's two races in Berlin this weekend

The German driver just shaded team-mate Felix Rosenqvist in the day's second practice session with a laptime of 1m08.070s.

Rosenqvist, who predicted before the event that the new Tempelhof circuit would suit Mahindra, improved in the final third of FP2 but fell two-hundredths of a second shy on a 1m08.092s.

But that meant the Swedish rookie was still quicker than the fastest time from the opening session, topped by championship leader Sebastien Buemi.

The Renault e.dams driver went for a full-power lap in FP1, while many others only ran at 170kW, but left it until the closing moments of FP2 before lapping at 200kW.

But the Swiss racer produced a scruffy lap and only wound up ninth-fastest.

His nearest championship rival Lucas di Grassi is nursing a slight injury after spraining his left ankle, but improved late on to finish FP2 fourth fastest, behind Venturi's Maro Engel.

Stephane Sarrazin will go into his first qualifying session for the Techeetah team having set the fifth-fastest time in FP2.

Jose Maria Lopez was next up ahead of his DS Virgin team-mate Sam Bird, with Sarrazin's new team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne and Oliver Turvey completing the top 10 either side of Buemi.

Formula E is running on a different layout at Tempelhof to the one it used in its inaugural season.

The series has returned to the former airport after last year's race took place on the streets of Berlin close to the Tempelhof site.

Its revised 10-corner circuit, as well as the airfield's abrasive surface, caused problems for several drivers in FP1 - most notably Nelson Piquet Jr, who hit the wall exiting Turn 5 but was able to make it back to the pits.

The only red flag across the two sessions was caused by Mitch Evans, who stopped his Jaguar approaching the Turn 9 hairpin midway through FP1.

FP2 RESULTS:

Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Nick Heidfeld Mahindra 1m08.070s - 12
2 Felix Rosenqvist Mahindra 1m08.092s 0.022s 17
3 Maro Engel Venturi 1m08.314s 0.244s 24
4 Lucas di Grassi Abt 1m08.345s 0.275s 19
5 Stephane Sarrazin Techeetah 1m08.415s 0.345s 9
6 Jose Maria Lopez Virgin 1m08.458s 0.388s 15
7 Sam Bird Virgin 1m08.471s 0.401s 18
8 Jean-Eric Vergne Techeetah 1m08.555s 0.485s 3
9 Sebastien Buemi e.dams 1m08.643s 0.573s 16
10 Oliver Turvey NextEV 1m08.661s 0.591s 18
11 Mitch Evans Jaguar 1m08.775s 0.705s 16
12 Nelson Piquet Jr. NextEV 1m08.838s 0.768s 14
13 Loic Duval Dragon 1m08.868s 0.798s 11
14 Nicolas Prost e.dams 1m08.885s 0.815s 16
15 Daniel Abt Abt 1m08.929s 0.859s 21
16 Jerome d'Ambrosio Dragon 1m09.020s 0.950s 13
17 Robin Frijns Andretti 1m09.055s 0.985s 9
18 Tom Dillmann Venturi 1m09.210s 1.140s 18
19 Antonio Felix da Costa Andretti 1m09.235s 1.165s 8
20 Adam Carroll Jaguar 1m09.688s 1.618s 16


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