Formula E in Tokyo: Edoardo Mortara wins the delayed first free practice session

The race weekend in Tokyo got off to a stormy start. Shortly before the start of the first free practice session, the entire paddock was briefly evacuated due to thunderstorms in the area. With a 15-minute delay, the cars then took to the track, which was still quite wet. Many drivers went off the track at the first corner due to the wet conditions.  Edoardo Mortara secured the fastest time in the final seconds, followed by Maximilian Günther, Jake Dennis and Pascal Wehrlein. Nico Müller finished the session in 14th place.

Following rain shortly before the start of practice, the 20 drivers took to the track under floodlights, slightly delayed, in wet conditions. The track was still wet and the cars were spraying water. The obligatory full-course yellow test followed.

Dan Ticktum found himself back in his garage at the start. Changes were being made to his car. His team asked him whether they should prepare the car for dry conditions. The Briton was convinced that the track would dry out quickly, so he agreed to this request. His hunch proved to be correct.

After ten minutes, Edoardo Mortara in the Mahindra had taken the lead with a lap time of 1:17.482 minutes, followed by Antonio Felix da Costa in the Jaguar and Jake Dennis in the Andretti. Shortly afterwards, Nyck de Vries overtook his team-mate and took the lead.

Start-finish straight still wet

Oliver Rowland briefly caused a yellow flag in Turn 1: the reigning world champion drove into the run-off area, spun his car and carried on. As several drivers had already encountered problems with the wet track surface at the same spot, information about the section of the track at Turn 1 still being wet was passed on to all the teams.

Sebastien Buemi also nearly skidded into the run-off area there, but managed to keep the car on the track. In doing so, he failed to spot Felix da Costa approaching, resulting in a slight collision between the cars.

Contact in FP1 between António Félix da Costa and Sébastien Buemi down at Turn 1.#TDKTokyoEPrix #FormulaE pic.twitter.com/13sj2VQ7VB

— Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) July 24, 2026

With 12 minutes remaining on the clock, the two Citroen drivers, Jean-Eric Vergne and Nick Cassidy, secured first and second place. Shortly afterwards, however, many drivers also improved their times. Joel Eriksson briefly took the lead, followed by Felix da Costa, Vergne, Dennis and de Vries. Nico Müller in the Porsche beat Eriksson’s time by seven hundredths of a second shortly afterwards.

Shortly before the end of the session, many improvements followed. Wehrlein briefly took the lead, but improvements from Mortara, Max Günther and Dennis ultimately pushed the German back down to fourth place.

The top 10 in the first free practice session were Mortara, Günther, Dennis, Wehrlein, Felix da Costa, de Vries, Ticktum, Cassidy, Norman Nato and Mitch Evans. Formula E action continues tomorrow at 6.30 am CEST with the second free practice session.

Results & Times

Overall standings (riders, teams & manufacturers)