Formula E Pre Season Testing: Mahindra, Porsche dominate proceedings
- Vyas Ponnuri
- 55 minutes ago
- 7 min read
Written by Vyas Ponnuri
Porsche looked to have maintain their dominance in the powertrain segment, as Dan Ticktum topped the final session's running for Cupra Kiro, ahead of Nico Müller's Porsche. Four Porsche-powered cars also finished in the top six in the morning session, while Mahindra showed pace all through the day's testing on Tuesday.
It was a largely uninterrupted morning session of running, as compared to day one of testing, which saw a red flag interruption curtail eight minutes of on-track running.
Mahindra, who had made their way onto track one hour into Monday's testing, were on the ball right away, with Edoardo Mortara and Nyck de Vries topping the timesheets in the first half-hour of the day. They would trade times with the Porsche drivers, as Nico Müller then set the quickest time of the session, dipping into the 1:21s for the first time on Tuesday.
The times began to tumble as the day went on, with Mortara and de Vries soon lowering the benchmark, with the session's fastest time being a 1:21.493, set by the Swiss racer, the quickest time of testing so far across two days.
De Vries solidified Mahindra's speed in the morning session, sitting only 0.093 seconds off his teammate in second, while Porsche made their presence felt, as Müller and Season 10 champion Pascal Wehrlein sat in the top five in the morning session's classification.
Andretti's Jake Dennis sat third in the session, in another solid session for the Briton. His teammate Felipe Drugovich focused on banking in the laps, completing a total of 52 laps in the morning session, building on his work from Monday's running in Valencia. He only set the 17th quickest time. The Brazilian found himself accruing the most number of track limit infractions in the session, with six laps deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 1.
The likes of de Vries, Wehrlein, Dennis, the Citroën Racing duo of Jean-Éric Vergne and Nick Cassidy, Cupra Kiro's Dan Ticktum and Envision Racing's Joel Eriksson also experienced lap time deletions, largely for exceeding track limits at Turn 1.
The DS Penske duo of Taylor Barnard and Maximilian Günther had a much stronger morning session, after losing valuable track time on Monday when Barnard stopped in the gravel and triggered a red flag. The Briton had a much stronger session, setting the seventh quickest time, and banking in 52 laps of running, as he looked to get up to speed with his new team.
Teammate Günther set the eighth quickest time, and also had the honour of setting the most laps during the three hours of running, with 53 laps, outlining a much stronger session for the team.
Newcomers Citroën Racing had a slightly mixed day, with Vergne sitting only 19th in the order, while Cassidy had a stronger session in tenth, his fastest lap in the session two tenths quicker than Monday's lap times by the French team.
Cupra Kiro experienced a strong turnaround, as Dan Ticktum ended the morning session sixth in the classification, making the top ten for the first time in testing.
A late red flag with just three minutes to go brought the session to an end, with reigning champion Oliver Rowland coming to a stop just after Turn 15. The Briton parked up his Nissan and walked back to the pits.
The final classification from the morning session on Tuesday were as follows:
Edoardo Mortara (Mahindra Racing) - 1:21.493 (45 laps)
Nyck de Vries (Mahindra Racing) - 1:21.586 (46 laps)
Jake Dennis (Andretti) - 1:21.669 (47 laps)
Pascal Wehrlein (Porsche) - 1:21.777 (40 laps)
Nico Müller (Porsche) - 1:21.848 (42 laps)
Dan Ticktum (Cupra Kiro) - 1:21.933 (50 laps)
Taylor Barnard (DS Penske) - 1:21.988 (52 laps)
Maximilian Günther (DS Penske) - 1:22.045 (53 laps)
Sébastien Buemi (Envision Racing) - 1:22.076 (48 laps)
Nick Cassidy (Citroën Racing) - 1:22.122 (47 laps)
Zane Maloney (Lola Yamaha ABT) - 1:22.217 (45 laps)
Mitch Evans (Jaguar) - 1:22.232 (43 laps)
António Félix da Costa (Jaguar) - 1:22.239 (42 laps)
Oliver Rowland (Nissan) - 1:22.261 (47 laps)
Norman Nato (Nissan) - 1:22.261 (48 laps)
Lucas di Grassi (Lola Yamaha ABT) - 1:22.270 (52 laps)
Felipe Drugovich (Andretti) - 1:22.282 (52 laps)
Joel Eriksson (Envision Racing) - 1:22.318 (39 laps)
Jean-Éric Vergne (Citroën Racing) - 1:22.678 (32 laps)
Pepe Martí (Cupra Kiro) - 1:22.827 (37 laps)
The afternoon session: Race exercise, more testing
The afternoon session of running began with a mock Formula E race simulated as part of testing, to help drivers get up to speed with race procedures and protocols, and for drivers to simulate race conditions in their new Formula E machines.
The race that began at 14:10 CET (13:10 UTC) lasted 27 laps, and tested drivers through a variety of procedures such as the mandatory attack mode activation, Pit Boost stop procedures, as well as Full Course Yellow, Safety Car, and even a red flag that spanned almost half an hour in length.
The race began with Müller on pole, although he quickly lost the lead to Mitch Evans' Jaguar and the Mahindra duo of Nyck de Vries and Edoardo Mortara. While most of the pack raced nose to tail, the two Nissan drivers Rowland and Nato opted to drop away from the pack and run their own testing programme.
This would help the team keep away from potential damage to their cars, saving themselves from any time spent in the garage for repairs, and maintaining track time.
At the same time, Cupra Kiro's rookie Pepe Martí would vindicate why teams would prefer to play it safe in the mock race. The Spanish racer made contact on Lap 3, damaging his front wing, and was forced to come into the pits for repairs, running a lap behind the rest.
The first of the simulation tests began on Lap 10, with the Full Course Yellow deployed for a full lap by race control, that saw drivers limited to pit lane speeds across the whole lap.
Once the pack resumed racing on Lap 11, da Costa closed up to Müller's Porsche on the restart, overtaking him into Turn 1, although the winding corners of the Ricardo Tormo Circuit allowed the Swiss racer to gain back the lead.
Drivers began to activate their attack modes, with Ticktum being the first to do so as he overtook Joel Eriksson's Envision Racing, while Günther too activated his attack mode. The likes of Maloney also opted to come in for their mandatory Pit Boost stop.
A red flag was thrown on Lap 17, as the drivers were forced to make their way back into the pits and wait it out, as race control simulated a real life situation, similar to that of the Tokyo E-Prix earlier this year.
After a break that lasted roughly 30 minutes, and that saw some drivers question the break, the racing action got underway once again, with drivers making a rush for the pit lane in order to complete their Pit Boost stop.
Several drivers came into the pits to retire from the race, such as da Costa on Lap 20, and the Nissan drivers on Lap 21, in order to stay away from any potential incidents that may occur. The DS Penske duo of Günther and Barnard would do the same.
A safety car situation was simulated on Lap 23, staying on track for two more laps before peeling into the pits at the end of Lap 25. The race also had two added laps thanks to the safety car intervention, a real life scenario drivers and teams would face during the season to come.
Mortara had regained the lead from Müller, and even took attack mode, as he set fastest laps and opened up a five-second gap to those behind. He crossed the line in the lead, taking the spoils on track for the mock race exercise set up during the session.
However, a drive-through penalty saw Mortara demoted down to 14th, granting the victory to the Porsche man.
The one hour of testing that followed ran without interruption, and saw Ticktum at the top of the timesheets, cementing the step up for the American team.
Müller and Evans finished the test session second and fourth respectively, having had their moments atop the classifications, while Barnard ended the session third quickest.
The session saw a larger field spread, as most teams attempted to focus on race pace, with the likes of Rowland and Nato running upto 28 laps in the testing period, while Mortara and de Vries both completed 26 and 25 laps of race simulations in the hour after the mock race.
The final classification for the afternoon sessions (including the 29 laps from the 'race exercise' for most drivers) from pre-season testing at Valencia on Tuesday stood as follows:
Dan Ticktum (Cupra Kiro): 1:21.746 (50 laps)
Nico Müller (Porsche): 1:21.927 (49 laps)
Taylor Barnard (DS Penske): 1:21.959 (50 laps)
Mitch Evans (Jaguar): 1:21.980 (54 laps)
Pascal Wehrlein (Porsche): 1:21.998 (42 laps)
Nick Cassidy (Citroën Racing): 1:22.042 (48 laps)
Jake Dennis (Andretti): 1:22.064 (50 laps)
Maximilian Günther (DS Penske): 1:22.088 (48 laps)
Jean-Éric Vergne (Citroën Racing): 1:22.111 (51 laps)
Pepe Martí (Cupra Kiro): 1:22.128 (49 laps)
Zane Maloney (Lola Yamaha ABT): 1:22.247 (51 laps)
Edoardo Mortara (Mahindra Racing): 1:22.627 (55 laps)
António Félix da Costa (Jaguar): 1:22.895 (31 laps)
Lucas di Grassi (Lola Yamaha ABT): 1:23.344 (48 laps)
Nyck de Vries (Mahindra Racing): 1:23.451 (54 laps)
Felipe Drugovich (Andretti): 1:23.616 (49 laps)
Sébastien Buemi (Envision Racing): 1:24.594 (53 laps)
Joel Eriksson (Envision Racing): 1:25.627 (47 laps)
Norman Nato (Nissan): 1:26.740 (47 laps)
Oliver Rowland (Nissan): 1:27.147 (48 laps)
