Formula E in Cape Town: Nick Cassidy dominates 2nd free practice in South Africa, Antonio Felix da Costa rolls out

Envision driver Nick Cassidy has won the 2nd free practice session of Formula E in South Africa. With an impressive lap, he beat Edo Mortara (Maserati), who had already won the first session on Friday. Dan Ticktum in the Nio 333 finished third. Porsche had to settle for positions 7 and 9 in a largely uneventful session. Antonio Felix da Costa rolled out with a problem.

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In somewhat overcast skies than the previous day, it went off at 8:10 am (CET) with the 2nd free practice. In the first five minutes, nothing worth mentioning happened yet. Sacha Fenestraz in the Nissan held the lead ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne and Oliver Rowland. Sergio Sette Camara misjudged when braking and had to turn around in an emergency exit.

After about seven minutes, a couple of good lap times came in: Edo Mortara took the lead. Behind him, Mitch Evans and Max Günther sorted themselves in. A little later, the German even moved up to first place with a lead of more than half a second. Stoffel Vandoorne, Andre Lotterer and again local hero Kelvin van der Linde were fast alongside him. The impression of the first practice session was confirmed even in the early stages: the DS/Maserati drive was right up front in Cape Town.

At session half-time, Rene Rast set a new best time and distanced compatriot Günther by more than two tenths of a second. The German McLaren driver was thus already seven tenths of a second faster than the previous day's best time set by Mortara. The second McLaren of Jakes Hughes also ran well and settled in second position. Sebastien Buemi, meanwhile, ranked in the top 5 after his Envision team restored his car. The Swiss had crashed badly in FP1.

Ten minutes before the end of the half-hour practice session, Fenestraz moved back into the lead - three Nissan cars at the front. But then Dan Ticktum in the Nio 333 also made his presence known, blasting the Nissan trio into third. Sam Bird went into attack mode and set the pace with a very fast first sector. By the end of his lap, he was more than four-tenths of a second faster than the rest of the field. Many drivers pitted again before their final attempts.

Jaguar cars turn up speed

With five minutes to go, Evans confirmed the potential of his Jaguar, moving up to second place with best times in Sectors 2 and 3. Ticktum, however, underlined his good form once again, putting his Nio 333 ahead of the two "cats of prey." Mortara was even faster and finished first. Oliver Rowland missed turn 1 and had to turn in the emergency exit. But it wasn't just for Mahindra that things didn't go smoothly: Porsche, with Felix da Costa, was also a good half-second off the lead.

Quasi as time expired, Nick Cassidy set an insane time: the Envision driver undercut Mortara by three tenths of a second! The clear session win for the runner-up from Hyderabad. Felix da Costa rolled out with his Porsche and finally came to a halt at the exit of the chicane. The exact cause initially remained unclear, but it looked like a technical problem. Lucas di Grassi, meanwhile, complained vehemently about van der Linde, who had hindered him on his fast lap. Sette Camara still slid slightly with the front into a TecPro barrier, but took no damage.

So the 2nd free practice session ended with a customer Jaguar in the lead. Mortara, Ticktum and the two factory Jaguars followed behind. Things get serious at 10:40 a.m. (CET): that's when qualifying begins at the Cape Town E-Prix. You can follow the qualifying on ran.de in the livestream as well as in the Hankook Formula E Liveticker on e-Formel.de.

Results & times

Overall ranking (drivers & teams)