Formula E pre-season testing: Lotterer ends first day fastest for Porsche

The Porsche driver posted a 1m12.519s effort with 20 minutes to go to climb to the top of the timing screens, despite not activating the 35kW boost of attack mode.

A three-hour afternoon session at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia came to an early end when new Venturi Racing recruit Norman Nato ran into the gravel.

Nato, who replaces Felipe Massa at the team, had set the seventh fastest time when he came to a stop on the outside of Turn 7 with 12 minutes to go.

With the session not restarted, it meant Lotterer's effort in the dry was 5.5s quicker than the best morning time, set by Venturi's Edoardo Mortara.

It also marked the fastest-ever FE lap at the circuit, beating Maximilian Guenther's time from last year by 2.5s, although this follows the removal of the chicane from the main straight.

PLUS: How Formula E's pre-season test venue provides confusion and clarity

Jean-Eric Vergne was a late climber for DS Techeetah to move second, 0.088s behind Lotterer, despite the team continuing with last season's car for the first four races of 2020-21.

Vergne eclipsed defending champion and team-mate Antonio Felix da Costa by 0.04s, as new Envision Virgin Racing driver Nick Cassidy ran to fourth.

Alexander Sims was fifth in the Mahindra Racing machine ahead of three-time DTM champion Rene Rast for Audi.

Behind Nato, Nico Muller ran strongly for Dragon / Penske Autosport to claim eighth with BMW Andretti signing Jake Dennis edging Robin Frijns in the lower fringes of the top 10.

Lucas di Grassi was 11th with the all-new Audi powertrain, having activated his attack mode a session-highest four times.

Stoffel Vandoorne, in 15th, and 20th-placed Mercedes team-mate Nyck de Vries both fell foul of the new track limits imposed at the first and final corners.

They both collected a 15-minute stop-and-go penalty for repeated offences.

Meanwhile, after his late morning crash caused by a stuck throttle at Turn 6, Mitch Evans was 22nd fastest for Jaguar Racing, only ahead of Mortara and Tom Blomqvist for NIO 333.

Test times

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Gap	Laps
1	Andre Lotterer	Porsche	Porsche	1m12.519s	31
2	Jean-Eric Vergne	DS Techeetah	DS	0.088s	34
3	Antonio Felix da Costa	DS Techeetah	DS	0.132s	36
4	Nick Cassidy	Virgin	Audi	0.170s	33
5	Alexander Sims	Mahindra	Mahindra	0.186s	42
6	Rene Rast	Audi	Audi	0.221s	37
7	Norman Nato	Venturi	Mercedes	0.258s	43
8	Nico Muller	Dragon	Penske	0.281s	28
9	Jake Dennis	BMW	BMW	0.318s	40
10	Robin Frijns	Virgin	Audi	0.341s	33
11	Lucas di Grassi	Audi	Audi	0.354s	33
12	Sebastien Buemi	Nissan e.Dams	Nissan	0.503s	33
13	Maximilian Guenther	BMW	BMW	0.540s	34
14	Oliver Rowland	Nissan e.Dams	Nissan	0.570s	33
15	Stoffel Vandoorne	Mercedes	Mercedes	0.582s	38
16	Sam Bird	Jaguar	Jaguar	0.585s	40
17	Pascal Wehrlein	Porsche	Porsche	0.621s	33
18	Alex Lynn	Mahindra	Mahindra	0.809s	39
19	Sergio Sette Camara	Dragon	Penske	0.973s	20
20	Nyck de Vries	Mercedes	Mercedes	1.056s	38
21	Oliver Turvey	NIO	NIO	1.567s	51
22	Mitch Evans	Jaguar	Jaguar	2.574s	5
23	Edoardo Mortara	Venturi	Mercedes	2.862s	40
24	Tom Blomqvist	NIO	NIO	3.496s	45

comments

Series	Formula E
Drivers	Andre Lotterer
Teams	Porsche Team
Author	Matt Kew

Formula E pre-season testing: Lotterer ends first day fastest for Porsche

Andre Lotterer beat the cars of reigning teams' champion DS Techeetah to top the first day of Formula E pre-season testing in an afternoon session ended by a red flag

Test times

About this article