Reigning FE champion Da Costa tops second morning of pre-season test

For the opening three-hour stint, which precedes a practice race on Sunday afternoon, teams frequently ran their cars in formation to create a slipstream.

This tactic was used extensively by teams' title-winner DS Techeetah in qualifying during the six-race Berlin final last year and again on the first day of pre-season testing at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo.

Da Costa used this and set an impressive lap using the fanboost mode to lead the order with his 1min11.948sec benchmark, achieved in the final minutes of the session.

He was the only driver to break under the 1m12 barrier, setting a new championship lap record at the track - although for 2020 the main straight chicane has been removed.

A tenth of a second further back, Guenther climbed to second place for BMW Andretti in the dying moments at the expense of the Nissan e.dams of Oliver Rowland.

Rowland, who will start the 2020-21 campaign with the same powertrain as last season, ran with the 35kW boost of attack mode to keep the second DS Techeetah at bay.

Double champion Jean-Eric Vergne ended the session fourth fastest, running 0.236s shy of his team-mate da Costa.

The session was only halted once, as a red flag was deployed with 45 minutes to go - thought to be required for an issue with the outside kerbs on the entry into the Turn 6 left-hander.

On the approach to the corner a few laps prior, new BMW Andretti driver Jake Dennis ran wide over the gravel but managed to correct the slide and rejoin the circuit.

The customer Envision Virgin Racing machine of Robin Frijns was the fastest Audi-propelled car in fifth, with the manufacturer's factory driver Lucas di Grassi ranking sixth.

The second Nissan e.dams of Sebastien Buemi headed Mahindra's Alex Lynn, Dennis and Mercedes racer Stoffel Vandoorne to complete the top 10.

In a quiet session, the Venturi Racing duo of Edoardo Mortara and Norman Nato were both cautioned for track limits offences, while Vergne received a black-and-white flag for crossing the pit exit lane.

Test times day 2 - morning

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Gap	Laps
1	Antonio Felix da Costa	DS Techeetah	DS	1m11.948s	47
2	Maximilian Guenther	BMW	BMW	0.101s	44
3	Oliver Rowland	Nissan e.Dams	Nissan	0.213s	34
4	Jean-Eric Vergne	DS Techeetah	DS	0.236s	53
5	Robin Frijns	Virgin	Audi	0.390s	47
6	Lucas di Grassi	Audi	Audi	0.390s	43
7	Sebastien Buemi	Nissan e.Dams	Nissan	0.402s	34
8	Alex Lynn	Mahindra	Mahindra	0.406s	54
9	Jake Dennis	BMW	BMW	0.410s	49
10	Stoffel Vandoorne	Mercedes	Mercedes	0.428s	47
11	Rene Rast	Audi	Audi	0.473s	49
12	Andre Lotterer	Porsche	Porsche	0.474s	48
13	Alexander Sims	Mahindra	Mahindra	0.484s	53
14	Nyck de Vries	Mercedes	Mercedes	0.533s	44
15	Sam Bird	Jaguar	Jaguar	0.550s	35
16	Nick Cassidy	Virgin	Audi	0.567s	45
17	Tom Blomqvist	NIO	NIO	0.573s	47
18	Oliver Turvey	NIO	NIO	0.616s	46
19	Nico Muller	Dragon	Penske	0.618s	39
20	Pascal Wehrlein	Porsche	Porsche	0.686s	49
21	Sergio Sette Camara	Dragon	Penske	0.692s	36
22	Mitch Evans	Jaguar	Jaguar	0.725s	42
23	Norman Nato	Venturi	Mercedes	0.931s	55
24	Edoardo Mortara	Venturi	Mercedes	1.052s	54