Formula E in Tokyo: Norman Nato sets best time in 1st free practice, Taylor Barnard crashes

Norman Nato won the first free practice session of Formula E in Tokyo. The Nissan driver beat Max Günther (DS Penske) and his team-mate Oliver Rowland. Pascal Wehrlein in the Porsche finished fourth. Following an accident involving McLaren youngster Taylor Barnard, the session had to be red-flagged in the meantime.

The only session on Friday began under cloudy skies with the typical full-course yellow simulation. Sam Bird and Nick Cassidy came into the pits to change tyres after less than five minutes, while Pascal Wehrlein went full power early on. After the first ten minutes, the reigning world champion was in the lead ahead of the overall leader, Oliver Rowland. Adjustments to the track layout meant that the track record from 2024 (1:18.855 minutes) had already been beaten.

Rowland, who had fought for victory last year, set the first 1:14 laptime and took the lead. Cassidy, on the other hand, once again had difficulties after the first quarter of an hour. The Jaguar driver was still in the pits and had not yet set a lap time. Dan Ticktum was also still far away from the rest of the field. There were now some improvements in the leading group, including Nyck de Vries, Jake Dennis and Norman Nato, who were in the top 5.

Then there was a crash: Taylor Barnard lost his McLaren in the fast left-hand turn 16 and hit the wall hard on the right-hand side. His car sustained damage and came to a halt on the track. Race control interrupted the practice session with the red flag. "I'm fine, the car isn't," radioed an audibly dejected Barnard. "The rear end is destroyed, pretty badly." His team boss Ian James said a little later: "It was a hard hit, the damage is significant. So we need to get the car back as soon as possible to prepare it again."

A look at that incident for Taylor Barnard#TokyoEPrix pic.twitter.com/s9X5ZcQFa7

— Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) May 16, 2025

Porsche & Nissan chasing the best time

After a break of just over eight minutes, the action resumed - and the session was extended accordingly. Jake Hughes (Maserati), among others, tried out the pit boost, which will be used for the third time in Formula E in Saturday's race. Nico Müller now went into attack mode and consequently took the lead with an advantage of almost six tenths of a second. However, his team-mate Dennis was another seven tenths of a second faster shortly afterwards. Zane Maloney was just able to catch his Lola in turn 16.

After just under half an hour, Wehrlein climbed back into the lead. This meant that four Porsche cars were in the top four at this point, but they continued to turn up the pace: Antonio Felix da Costa was the next driver to take the lead in the timesheets, followed by Ticktum in the Cupra Kiro customer Porsche with the first 1:12 lap time. A good four minutes before the end, however, the Nissan drivers also switched to four-wheel drive mode and were faster than their rivals from the Porsche camp. Nato led ahead of team-mate Rowland.

Porsche responded in the person of Wehrlein - the German in front again. Then it was time for the final fast laps. Last year's winner Max Günther showed that he can still do it and moved up to second place. However, the final best time came from Nato, who completed the session with a time of 1:12.152 minutes. Rowland was third in the second Nissan, followed by Wehrlein and Stoffel Vandoorne. Nissan, Porsche and the two Stellantis teams seem to have found a good set-up.

The 2nd free practice session will take place shortly after midnight at 1:00 am (CEST). As always, e-Formula.news offers you a live stream as well as a live ticker.

Results & lap times

Championship standings (drivers, teams & manufacturers)