Formula E in Sao Paulo: Felix da Costa dominates 2nd free practice & puts Porsche in good starting position

Antonio Felix da Costa was the fastest in the 2nd free practice session of Formula E in Sao Paulo. The Porsche driver set the fastest time at the last second and thus lowered the track record from the previous day by around one second (1:11.496 minutes). Max Günther in the Maserati was second ahead of Norman Nato. Pascal Wehrlein in 4th place underlined the potential of the Porsche cars for qualifying.

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Already at the start of the 2nd free practice session, the temperatures in Sao Paulo were close to 30 degrees Celsius - it promised to be a very sunny day. Nothing worth mentioning happened in the first five minutes. Then Lucas di Grassi braked in turn 1 and had to go straight through the chicane - as he had done the day before. The Mahindra M9Electro seemed to have problems with the brake balance. Dan Ticktum also had to take a short cut at the same point with his Nio 333. The pace was again set by the two Envision riders: Nick Cassidy before FP1 winner Sebastien Buemi.

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After the first ten minutes, the lap times were still just under a second away from the fastest laps on Friday. The first to come reasonably close to Buemi's time was Stoffel Vandoorne - the interim lead for the champion. Buemi didn't put up with that and undercut the Belgian just a little later. Shortly before session half-time, Lucas di Grassi was the first to beat the previous track record.

Then there were some further improvements: Buemi first reclaimed first place, Sam Bird lined up behind him, and Sacha Fenestraz was fourth. Following that, teammate Norman Nato smashed a lap onto the asphalt that was more than three tenths faster than the previous best time. A little later he skipped a chicane, but without consequences. Nissan confirmed the good impression the Japanese had already made in the first practice session. The same applied to McLaren's customer car: Jake Hughes improved to second place ten minutes before the end, Rene Rast moved up to third.

Günther gives Maserati hope

After 22 minutes, the fastest time fell once again. This time, Max Günther in the Maserati was the fastest with a thousandth of a second advantage over Nato. Ticktum lightly touched a wall, but still climbed to fourth position. Pascal Wehrlein proved that the Porsche, which had been largely inconspicuous up to then, also had pace: He was just 91 hundredths of a second off the fastest time - third place for him. Jake Dennis and Cassidy sorted themselves out behind the German.

In the last two minutes, several pilots tried again at full power. But as time expired, it was Antonio Felix da Costa who took the lead in a complete surprise - and by almost three-tenths of a second! So Porsche seems to be ready for the Sao Paulo E-Prix not only in terms of energy efficiency, but also for qualifying.

An Envision driver misjudged braking once again and had to turn around. Di Grassi, for his part, briefly stopped on the track, according to the radio with a "CU Shutdown". We suspect that the control unit was meant. Otherwise, everything remained as usual: Günther followed Felix da Costa in 2nd place, with Nato, Wehrlein and Dennis completing the top 5. The qualifying for the Sao Paulo E-Prix begins at 13:40 (CET) - to follow in Livestream on ran.de as well as in our Hankook Formula E Liveticker on e-Formel.de.

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Results & times

Overall ranking (drivers & teams)