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Jean-Eric on top in Formula E test with customer Renault power

Jean-Eric Vergne topped the first day of the final pre-season test ahead of the 2016/17 Formula E season driving for the Renault-powered Techeetah team

The Frenchman fell just 0.006s short of his own Donington Park lap record, posting a 1m29.640s.

He looked set to improve again before backing out of the lap, but had he combined his three best sectors he would have posted a 1m29.3s.

"We can tell the car is working really well," said Vergne. "I feel much happier this year than last year."

With the hour-long session before lunch dedicated mainly to teams shaking down their third and fourth cars, after running just two chassis in the opening test, the competitive laptimes came in the afternoon.

Vergne's improvement in the final hour catapulted him clear of DS Virgin's Sam Bird, who was just under three tenths slower than his old team-mate.

Renault e.dams driver Nico Prost snuck into the 1m29s to complete the top three.

Jerome d'Ambrosio delivered the Dragon-run Faraday Future team's best showing of testing so far with a 1m30.013s to go fourth quickest, just ahead of 2015/16 champion Sebastien Buemi and Daniel Abt.

Adam Carroll posted Jaguar's best laptime from pre-season testing so far with a 1m30.713s, but the British manufacturer says it is still not chasing performance at the unrepresentative 2.5-mile circuit.

Carroll, who wound up seventh quickest, is joined at the final test by Mitch Evans, who is back with the team for the second time as it looks to finalise its driver line-up for its maiden FE campaign.

They went on to complete 75 laps between them on a day when the teams grew frustrated at the number of red flags.

While some were for on-track stoppages, such as the one caused by Faraday Future's Loic Duval going off at McLeans, several were so marshals could sweep away gravel at the Fogarty Esses.

This was despite efforts to dissuade drivers from cutting across the extended kerbs at the chicane, such as putting up plastic bollards.

Venturi suffered the most in terms of mileage, with Stephane Sarrazin and Maro Engel not running in the morning after returning from the Mexico World Endurance Championship round and a Nurburgring VLN race respectively.

They managed just 14 laps apiece in the afternoon.

DAY 1 MORNING RESULTS:

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 Jose Maria Lopez Virgin DS Virgin 1m34.501s - 19
2 Jean-Eric Vergne Techeetah Renault 1m34.879s 0.378s 7
3 Jerome d'Ambrosio Dragon Penske 1m34.938s 0.437s 8
4 Sam Bird Virgin DS Virgin 1m35.292s 0.791s 14
5 Antonio Felix da Costa Andretti Andretti 1m35.480s 0.979s 13
6 Nick Heidfeld Mahindra Mahindra 1m35.499s 0.998s 11
7 Robin Frijns Andretti Andretti 1m36.321s 1.820s 7
8 Loic Duval Dragon Penske 1m36.608s 2.107s 7
9 Nicolas Prost e.dams Renault 1m36.713s 2.212s 13
10 Oliver Turvey NextEV NEXTEV TCR 1m37.331s 2.830s 16
11 Felix Rosenqvist Mahindra Mahindra 1m37.722s 3.221s 6
12 Adam Carroll Jaguar Jaguar 1m37.767s 3.266s 10
13 Nelson Piquet Jr. NextEV NEXTEV TCR 1m37.936s 3.435s 11
14 Ma Qinghua Techeetah Renault 1m38.917s 4.416s 10
15 Mitch Evans Jaguar Jaguar 1m39.422s 4.921s 8
16 Lucas di Grassi Abt ABT Schaeffler 1m42.151s 7.650s 7
17 Daniel Abt Abt ABT Schaeffler 1m47.669s 13.168s 6
18 Stephane Sarrazin Venturi Venturi - - 0
19 Maro Engel Venturi Venturi - - 0
20 Sebastien Buemi e.dams Renault - - 0

DAY 1 AFTERNOON RESULTS:

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 Jean-Eric Vergne Techeetah Renault 1m29.640s - 25
2 Sam Bird Virgin DS Virgin 1m29.924s 0.284s 31
3 Nicolas Prost e.dams Renault 1m29.970s 0.330s 42
4 Jerome d'Ambrosio Dragon Penske 1m30.013s 0.373s 18
5 Sebastien Buemi e.dams Renault 1m30.159s 0.519s 42
6 Daniel Abt Abt ABT Schaeffler 1m30.200s 0.560s 24
7 Adam Carroll Jaguar Jaguar 1m30.713s 1.073s 27
8 Jose Maria Lopez Virgin DS Virgin 1m30.852s 1.212s 42
9 Nick Heidfeld Mahindra Mahindra 1m30.885s 1.245s 29
10 Ma Qinghua Techeetah Renault 1m31.181s 1.541s 20
11 Lucas di Grassi Abt ABT Schaeffler 1m31.231s 1.591s 26
12 Stephane Sarrazin Venturi Venturi 1m31.538s 1.898s 14
13 Antonio Felix da Costa Andretti Andretti 1m31.559s 1.919s 29
14 Mitch Evans Jaguar Jaguar 1m31.699s 2.059s 30
15 Maro Engel Venturi Venturi 1m32.371s 2.731s 14
16 Nelson Piquet Jr. NextEV NEXTEV TCR 1m32.493s 2.853s 27
17 Felix Rosenqvist Mahindra Mahindra 1m32.694s 3.054s 23
18 Loic Duval Dragon Penske 1m32.786s 3.146s 25
19 Oliver Turvey NextEV NEXTEV TCR 1m33.183s 3.543s 22
20 Robin Frijns Andretti Andretti 1m33.236s 3.596s 23

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