Formula E in Sao Paulo: Wehrlein wins the only free practice session

Pascal Wehrlein is the winner of the only free practice session at the Formula E season opener in Brazil. The Porsche driver lapped the circuit in 1:09.853 minutes, relegating Nyck de Vries in the Mahindra to second place, while Dan Ticktum in the Cupra Kiro finished the session in third place.

After the 1st free practice session scheduled for late Friday afternoon had to be cancelled due to radio problems, it was finally possible to get started early Saturday morning, at 7:10 local time to be precise.

With the exception of the two Mahindra drivers, all the drivers went straight out onto the track. After two minutes, there was the obligatory full-course yellow practice. The first lap times were still quite slow at first, the track was very dusty.

After 15 minutes, Jake Dennis led with a lap time of 1:12.839 minutes ahead of Edoardo Mortara and Oliver Rowland. However, he was still more than three seconds off the track record set by Dennis last year.

Nico Müller and Ticktum were shown the caution flag for not following the race director's instructions. The drivers had to stop in turn 1 if they missed the chicane. As a result, Ticktum's lap time, which had put him in the top 5 at the time, was also cancelled.

Technical problems for di Grassi

Lucas di Grassi and Formula E newcomer Pepe Marti, on the other hand, were well behind at the back of the field. Marti was seven seconds off the fastest time, di Grassi even more than eleven seconds. The Brazilian complained of technical problems and stopped in the entrance to the pit lane. After restarting the car, he was finally able to drive to the Lola Yamaha ABT pits.

After around 25 minutes, Mitch Evans took the lead with a lap time of 1:10.551 minutes. The Jaguar driver was the first driver to drive with full power of 350 kW and all-wheel drive, putting him in the lead by almost two seconds.

Mahindra extremely strong with 350 kW

Thus, Evans initiated a series of 350 kW laps, which shook up the timesheets. Shortly after the halfway point of the session, Wehrlein led ahead of Rowland and Antonio Felix da Costa. However, this order did not last long, as the Mahindra duo of Mortara and Nyck de Vries moved into the lead.

None of the drivers broke the 1:10 minute barrier at this point. Marti, on the other hand, lost a lot of practice time: The Spaniard had touched the wall with his Cupra Kiro and damaged the car in the process.

Ten minutes before the end of the session, all the drivers except Marti had completed the first of their two 350-kW attempts. The first 18 drivers were within less than a second of each other, with only Maloney and Marti lagging further behind.

Dan Ticktum was the first driver to set a lap time of 1:09 minutes: the clock showed 1:09.945 minutes after his second 350-kW run. However, de Vries countered shortly afterwards and moved ahead of Ticktum again. Then came Wehrlein: the Porsche driver beat de Vries' time by 57 thousandths of a second. Ticktum, Mortara and world champion Oliver Rowland completed the Top 5.

The action continues in Sao Paulo at 13:40 CET, when the first qualifying session of the season starts. Formula E has revised and streamlined the format for the new season, the group phase has been shortened to ten minutes each and the breaks between the duels have also been shortened.

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