Formula E testing: Buemi puts Renault e.dams on top on final day
Formula E champion Sebastien Buemi signed off the final official pre-season test before the 2016/17 opener in Hong Kong with a new lap record at Donington Park
The Renault e.dams driver engaged in a morning battle for fastest lap with Jean-Eric Vergne, who is driving for Renault customer team Techeetah.
Vergne was first to lower the lap record he set on Tuesday, narrowly dipping under that benchmark with a 1m29.109s.
But Buemi became the first driver to post a sub-1m29s lap of Donington in his works Renault Z.E.16, clocking a 1m28.910s.
That time stood as the best despite a late flurry of qualifying simulations at the end of the day, which ended with Buemi topping the afternoon session on a 1m29.002s.
Nicolas Prost made it a Renault e.dams one-two in the afternoon, lapping two tenths slower than his team-mate, while Vergne should have improved late on but made an error.
That consigned him to a 1m29.296s in the afternoon, which he ended fourth-fastest, 0.014s slower than DS Virgin Racing's Sam Bird.
Abt Audi Sport driver Lucas di Grassi was in the mid-1m29s in the afternoon and would have been in the mix to improve further but went off into the gravel while on a personal best.
The ensuing red flag ended his team's record of being the only outfit not to cause a stoppage across the six days of testing.
In the afternoon session the top 13 runners, comprising eight teams, were covered by less than a second - with Jaguar and Venturi the outliers.
Mitch Evans did post the British manufacturer's best lap of testing on a 1m30.061s, less than a tenth quicker than Stephane Sarrazin's best for Venturi.
MORNING TIMES
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Sebastien Buemi | e.dams | Renault | 1m28.910s | 25 |
2 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Techeetah | Renault | 0.199s | 33 |
3 | Daniel Abt | Abt | ABT Schaeffler | 0.512s | 21 |
4 | Sam Bird | Virgin | DS Virgin | 0.598s | 24 |
5 | Nicolas Prost | e.dams | Renault | 0.746s | 30 |
6 | Jerome d'Ambrosio | Dragon | Penske | 0.791s | 22 |
7 | Loic Duval | Dragon | Penske | 0.793s | 21 |
8 | Felix Rosenqvist | Mahindra | Mahindra | 0.803s | 20 |
9 | Ma Qinghua | Techeetah | Renault | 0.816s | 23 |
10 | Antonio Felix da Costa | Andretti | Andretti | 1.343s | 26 |
11 | Mitch Evans | Jaguar | Jaguar | 1.689s | 19 |
12 | Maro Engel | Venturi | Venturi | 1.740s | 23 |
13 | Nelson Piquet Jr. | NextEV | NEXTEV TCR | 1.750s | 15 |
14 | Adam Carroll | Jaguar | Jaguar | 1.986s | 28 |
15 | Stephane Sarrazin | Venturi | Venturi | 2.041s | 23 |
16 | Lucas di Grassi | Abt | ABT Schaeffler | 2.987s | 22 |
17 | Nick Heidfeld | Mahindra | Mahindra | 3.317s | 22 |
18 | Oliver Turvey | NextEV | NEXTEV TCR | 3.446s | 27 |
19 | Robin Frijns | Andretti | Andretti | 3.614s | 25 |
20 | Jose Maria Lopez | Virgin | DS Virgin | 3.941s | 22 |
AFTERNOON TIMES
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Sebastien Buemi | e.dams | Renault | 1m29.002s | 34 |
2 | Nicolas Prost | e.dams | Renault | 0.203s | 39 |
3 | Sam Bird | Virgin | DS Virgin | 0.280s | 24 |
4 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Techeetah | Renault | 0.294s | 28 |
5 | Loic Duval | Dragon | Penske | 0.393s | 19 |
6 | Jerome d'Ambrosio | Dragon | Penske | 0.427s | 18 |
7 | Jose Maria Lopez | Virgin | DS Virgin | 0.486s | 21 |
8 | Lucas di Grassi | Abt | ABT Schaeffler | 0.509s | 26 |
9 | Ma Qinghua | Techeetah | Renault | 0.647s | 28 |
10 | Oliver Turvey | NextEV | NEXTEV TCR | 0.715s | 23 |
11 | Felix Rosenqvist | Mahindra | Mahindra | 0.738s | 33 |
12 | Nick Heidfeld | Mahindra | Mahindra | 0.882s | 28 |
13 | Robin Frijns | Andretti | Andretti | 0.979s | 14 |
14 | Mitch Evans | Jaguar | Jaguar | 1.059s | 30 |
15 | Antonio Felix da Costa | Andretti | Andretti | 1.083s | 35 |
16 | Stephane Sarrazin | Venturi | Venturi | 1.119s | 18 |
17 | Nelson Piquet Jr. | NextEV | NEXTEV TCR | 1.248s | 19 |
18 | Adam Carroll | Jaguar | Jaguar | 1.277s | 14 |
19 | Maro Engel | Venturi | Venturi | 1.353s | 24 |
20 | Daniel Abt | Abt | ABT Schaeffler | 3.056s | 30 |
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments