Formula E in Sanya: Edoardo Mortara wins FP1 on Friday; Sebastien Buemi causes a red flag

Edoardo Mortara has won the first free practice session at the 2026 Sanya E-Prix. The Mahindra driver completed a lap in 1:05.616 minutes, relegating Jake Dennis in the Andretti and Nyck de Vries in the second Mahindra to second and third places respectively. The two German drivers, Pascal Wehrlein and Max Günther, finished in fourth and thirteenth places respectively, whilst championship leader Mitch Evans came seventh.

All 20 drivers took to the track on time at 16:30 local time. The mandatory full-course yellow drill took place in the opening minutes, with all drivers having to briefly slow down to 50 km/h.

Seven years after its last visit, Formula E is back on track in Sanya 🇨🇳

Lianxin #SanyaEPrix #FormulaE pic.twitter.com/fLau3SDG0j

— Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) 19 June 2026

After around ten minutes, all drivers had set meaningful lap times at 300 kW. Taylor Barnard led the field with a lap time of 1:08.321 minutes, followed by championship leader Mitch Evans, Jake Dennis and Pascal Wehrlein.

Shortly afterwards, Dennis was the first to attempt a lap at 350 kW with all-wheel drive: with a time of 1:06.523 minutes, he took the lead, but was soon overtaken by Dan Ticktum, who was around a tenth of a second faster. Felipe Drugovich, on the other hand, was 0.055 seconds slower than his team-mate and sat in third place – a one-two-three for Porsche customer cars.

Jean-Eric Vergne was shown the black-and-white warning flag for hindering a rival at Turn 12. Shortly before the halfway point of the session, track activity slowed noticeably: almost all drivers pitted to have adjustments made to their cars.

Norman Nato was still out on the track, but he braked too late at hairpin bend 9 and attempted to turn round in the run-off area. However, this proved more difficult than expected in the narrow run-off area, and Nato had to back off once again. In contrast, Antonio Felix da Costa managed to perform a 180-degree turn at the same spot shortly afterwards.

Buemi causes practice interruption

Shortly afterwards, yellow flags were waved once more: Sébastien Buemi had been forced to park his Envision car after Turn 7 due to a technical problem. After he failed to get the car running again, race control interrupted the session with a red flag. The Swiss driver was subsequently towed back to the pit lane.

🔴 RED FLAG 🔴

Sébastien Buemi comes to a stop and we see a red flag in Sanya

Lianxin #SanyaEPrix #FormulaE pic.twitter.com/zvq5eSOT4h

— Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) 19 June 2026

After a nine-minute interruption, the track was reopened. Race control announced that the session would be extended by five minutes to give the drivers back some of the time lost. Almost all drivers immediately set off on a lap at 350 kW.

Mahindra impresses

Pascal Wehrlein initially took the lead with a lap time of 1:06.287 minutes, but was overtaken shortly afterwards by both Mahindra drivers. Mortara was the first driver to break the 1:06 mark with a best time of 1:05.949 minutes. Marti moved up to fifth place behind his team-mate Ticktum.

Shortly afterwards, Mitch Evans moved up to third place, with Antonio Felix da Costa in fourth. Oliver Rowland moved up to sixth place behind Wehrlein, who, like his team-mate Nico Müller, pulled into the pits.

With around five minutes to go, the drivers made another attempt to improve their 350-kW times: Taylor Barnard moved up to third place, level on time with Nyck de Vries. Shortly afterwards, however, Jake Dennis made a statement: the Briton was more than 0.2 seconds faster than Mortara. De Vries also improved his time, but was 0.029 seconds slower than the Andretti driver.

Mortara, on the other hand, improved on the previous fastest time by more than a tenth of a second, whilst Wehrlein moved into fourth place. There were hardly any changes in the final seconds; only Nato improved his time and moved up to fifth place behind Wehrlein.

That brings Friday to a close for the drivers; the action continues on Saturday with the second free practice session at 2.30 am CEST.

Results & lap times

Championship standings (drivers, teams & manufacturers)