Formula E Pre-Season Testing: Day One: Porsche’s perfect practice

Written by Teagan Crump, Edited by Vyas Ponnuri

Season 10 champion Pascal Wehrlein topped day one of Formula E’s highly anticipated pre-season testing week, a first session for many notable drivers who switched teams ahead of the final Gen 3 Evo season. 

 Credit: FIA

Early on in the first Formula E test session of the week, Nissan’s reigning champion Oliver Rowland set the benchmark time of 1:25.783. No other driver came close to matching this time, with DS Penske’s Barnard seemingly struggling with a 1:38.055. Barnard was not the only Penske driver struggling — Günther was also significantly off the pace eleven minutes into the test session. 

When the first handful of drivers set their initial lap times, they were significantly slower than Rowland. Multi-race winner Evans was the fifth driver to put a time on the board, but was 11.595 seconds slower than Rowland. 

Cupra Kiro’s rookie Pepe Martí initially struggled to adapt to the Formula E car, with a lap time 36.480 seconds off the reigning champion’s.

20 minutes into the session, Mitch Evans set a fastest time of 1:25.154. Quickly, this was beaten by the first driver to make it into the 1:24s — Nico Müller. Season 10 champion Wehrlein made it to P2, just 0.092s slower than his teammate.

24 minutes into the session, Evans returned to the top of the timings with a 1:23.096, just one minute later, this was beaten by Season 10 title rival Wehrlein, who entered the 1:22’s. 

Martí seemingly overcame his earlier struggles by claiming third fastest with a 1:24.452. Lola Yamaha ABT’s Di Grassi faced struggles early on, when he brought out a yellow flag for his off at Turn 3.

The newest team on the Formula E grid, Citroën Racing started the session with promise, as Jean-Éric Vergne moved up to P2, just 0.286s off of Wehrlein’s fastest lap. The French team have one of the most impressive and decorated driver line-ups, Vergne and Cassidy have a lot of Formula E experience with over twenty race wins between them. 

After nearly one hour of the test, neither the Mahindra drivers nor Buemi had set lap times. It was reported that Envision’s Buemi had a braking issue, meaning he was unable to emerge from the pit lane. 

Just five minutes into the second hour of the test, a yellow flag was flown for DS Penske’s Barnard. He went off into the gravel trap in the final corner. This yellow flag soon became a red flag for the marshalls to recover his stranded DS E-TENSE FE25. 

Only eight minutes later, the green flag was shown and drivers started making their way back onto the Circuit Ricardo Tormo. Wehrlein quickly reclaimed his top spot from Andretti’s Jake Dennis by setting a lap time of 1:22.149. 

Considering that Mahindra’s cars did not emerge until the second hour of the test, Mortara impressed when he set the second fastest lap time, just 0.029 seconds slower than Wehrlein. Another positive of the second half if this session was Buemi being able to make it onto track after over one and a half hours since the first green flag was flown. Nyck de Vries also impressed by claiming third place with a 1:22.289.

The two Mahindra drivers stayed at the top switching positions, until de Vries set a 1:21.933, the duo were then split by Dennis, who claimed second position in the session.

Several drivers suffered the same fate throughout the session with their lap times being deleted for track limits offences. Race control’s announcements showed that it was mostly turn one where drivers struggled with the rule.

With just over twenty two minutes left on the track, Mahindra’s de Vries caused a brief yellow flag when he stopped at turn 6. At this time, Wehrlein also made his way back to the top-spot with a time of 1:21.714, setting what would remain the quickest time on Day 1 of the test.

The final standings of the day were as follows:

1. Pascal Wehrlein (Porsche) - 1:21.714 (45 laps)

2. Nyck de Vries (Mahindra Racing) - 1:21.933 (23 laps)

3. Jake Dennis (Andretti) - 1:21.985 (50 laps)

4. Edoardo Mortara (Mahindra Racing) - 1:22.003 (36 laps)

5. Oliver Rowland (Nissan) - 1:22.058 (39 laps)

6. António Félix da Costa (Jaguar) - 1:22.059 (44 laps)

7. Maximilian Günther (DS Penske) - 1:22.194 (39 laps)

8. Mitch Evans (Jaguar) - 1:22.227 (50 laps)

9. Jean-Éric Vergne (Citroën Racing) - 1:22.379 (40 laps)

10. Nick Cassidy (Citroën Racing) - 1:22.380 (38 laps)

11. Sébastien Buemi (Envision Racing) - 1:22.462 (30 laps)

12. Nico Müller (Porsche) - 1:22.534 (51 laps)

13. Lucas di Grassi (Lola Yamaha ABT) - 1:22.600 (37 laps)

14. Norman Nato (Nissan) - 1:22.618 (43 laps)

15. Taylor Barnard (DS Penske) - 1:22.740 (28 laps)

16. Zane Maloney (Lola Yamaha ABT) - 1:22.869 (30 laps)

17. Joel Eriksson (Envision Racing) - 1:22.924 (40 laps)

18. Dan Ticktum (Cupra Kiro) - 1:24.167 (45 laps)

19. Felipe Drugovich (Andretti) - 1:24.418 (40 laps)

20. Pepe Martí (Cupra Kiro) - 1:24.452 (30 laps)