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Frijns fastest in FE testing as Porsche and Mercedes hit setbacks

Robin Frijns topped Wednesday's morning running at the 2019 Formula E pre-season test at Valencia, while Mercedes' Nyck de Vries was one of several drivers to crash at the chicane

Envision Virgin Racing driver racer Frijns took the top spot towards the end of the morning running on the second day of the test at the Ricardo Tormo track to head the timesheets with a 1m15.377s lap.

That is the fastest time of testing so far, 0.193s quicker than his Virgin team-mate Sam Bird managed on his way to the fastest time of the opening day.

Frijns's effort deposed long-time Wednesday morning pacesetter Maximilian Guenther, who ended up second for BMW Andretti on a 1m15.434s.

Alexander Sims backed up his team-mate in third for BMW, with Nissan e.dams driver Oliver Rowland taking fourth ahead of Dragon's Nico Muller and Antonio Felix da Costa (DS Techeetah).

Brendon Hartley was seventh in the second Dragon-run car, with Jaguar's Mitch Evans, Audi racer Lucas di Grassi and Bird rounding out the top 10 on the second morning.

The session featured five red flags, two of which were down to drivers crashing at the reprofiled chicane on the main straight.

The first driver to hit the wall was de Vries, who lost the majority of his running on Tuesday due to a technical issue - which Mercedes is still investigating - causing a blown fuse on his car's battery.

De Vries went into the barrier at the exit of the Turns 1-2-3 chicane just past the halfway mark in Wednesday's first hour of running, breaking the right-front wheel off his car.

He was able to rejoin for the final 15 minutes after repairs, but was limited to 18 laps for the morning and finished 22nd on the timesheets.

De Vries was followed in the barriers a short while later by Porsche's Andre Lotterer - the second such incident for Porsche after Neel Jani crashed at the chicane late on the first morning.

Jani's crash caused enough damage to require the team to change Jani's tub and stop him running on Tuesday afternoon.

But Jani was able to do 35 laps on Wednesday morning and ended up 20th in the standings, one place ahead of Lotterer, who did not return to the track after his crash as Porsche repaired his car.

The remaining red flags were all caused by cars coming to a stop on track.

Mahindra Racing's Jerome D'Ambrosio, who was 17th in the morning times, stopped at the pit exit at the start of the final hour, with Venturi's Felipe Massa also coming to a halt in the first sector a little while later.

Audi's Daniel Abt stopped at Turn 5 just before the start of the two-hour lunch break, which ended the morning running a few minutes early.

Abt ended the morning 12th in the times, with Massa 19th.

De Vries Mercedes team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne finished the second morning in P15, one spot ahead of reigning FE champion Jean-Eric Vergne (DS Techeetah).

Wednesday afternoon's running will include a simulation 'race' to allow the teams to fully test the race format systems ahead of the new season.

Wednesday morning times

Pos Driver Team Gap Laps
1 Robin Frijns Virgin 1m15.377s 24
2 Maximilian Guenther BMW 0.057s 35
3 Alexander Sims BMW 0.060s 36
4 Oliver Rowland e.dams 0.067s 35
5 Nico Muller Penske 0.138s 38
6 Antonio Felix da Costa DS Techeetah 0.180s 38
7 Brendon Hartley Penske 0.215s 33
8 Mitch Evans Jaguar 0.263s 30
9 Lucas di Grassi Audi 0.303s 27
10 Sam Bird Virgin 0.359s 37
11 Sebastien Buemi e.dams 0.400s 35
12 Daniel Abt Audi 0.420s 42
13 Pascal Wehrlein Mahindra 0.435s 38
14 Edoardo Mortara Venturi 0.438s 31
15 Stoffel Vandoorne Mercedes 0.489s 32
16 Jean-Eric Vergne DS Techeetah 0.543s 39
17 Jerome d'Ambrosio Mahindra 0.605s 21
18 James Calado Jaguar 0.721s 32
19 Felipe Massa Venturi 0.745s 27
20 Neel Jani Porsche 0.798s 35
21 Andre Lotterer Porsche 0.938s 16
22 Nyck de Vries Mercedes 1.654s 18
23 Oliver Turvey NIO 1.668s 23
24 Ma Qinghua NIO 2.899s 23

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