Formula E

Formula E: Günther wins 1st free practice in Jakarta, Frijns crashes through no fault of his own

Timo Pape

Timo Pape

Shiv Gohil / Spacesuit Media

Max Günther won the first free practice session of Formula E in Jakarta. The 2023 dominator picked up where he left off two years ago, but was 1.5 seconds faster! Antonio Felix da Costa came second ahead of Edo Mortara. Other features of the session included an accident by Robin Frijns, a spin by Oliver Rowland and a very dusty track with difficult grip conditions.

The only session on Friday started punctually at 11am (CEST) in bright sunshine - and as always with a full-course yellow practice. Edo Mortara skidded along the wall with the right rear early on, as did Taylor Barnard. "The track is extremely dusty", said Phil Charles, Deputy Team Principal of DS Penske, to e-Formel.de shortly before the session. The drivers initially felt their way towards the grip limits.

After the first ten minutes, the two Jaguar drivers led the timesheets. Mitch Evans was ahead of team-mate Nick Cassidy with three "pink" sector times. His lap was already faster than Max Günther's best time in the first free practice session on Formula E's last visit to Jakarta two years ago. However, he was still a good one and a half seconds off the track record.

The first accident of the weekend occurred after just twelve minutes: Robin Frijns hit a bump on the approach to turn 7, damaging the right front suspension. He then slid into the right-hand wall, skidded along it and finally crashed head-on into the TecPro barrier. "I'm fine, but that was simply not my fault," he radioed a little later. The session was interrupted with a red flag to recover the Envision.

Many spins - also from the world championship leader

After a break of around twelve minutes, the session continued. The session was extended by ten minutes. The first fastest time after the restart came from Antonio Felix da Costa in the Porsche, but this was followed by several faster laps. At the halfway point, Pascal Wehrlein set a new track record. A little later, Jake Dennis in the Andretti set the first 1:06 lap time. Sebastien Buemi caused the next brief moment of shock in the Envision garage: he spun in attack mode in turn 16, but did not hit the wall.

Ten minutes from the end, Mortara led the field ahead of Nico Müller and Jean-Eric Vergne. The times were relatively far apart at this point. Again and again, the spectators saw drifts by the drivers, which were partly due to the dusty track. Lola Motorsport boss Mark Preston held out the prospect that the track could possibly be cleaned overnight in order to create better grip conditions for race Saturday.

The next fastest time came from Max Günther, who had taken both pole positions at the last Jakarta E-Prix. Nobody was to come close to his 1:06.050 minutes. Three minutes before the end, the world championship leader, Oliver Rowland, also made a mistake. He spun and slid slightly with the rear into the TecPro barrier. However, his Nissan did not sustain any significant damage - Rowland drove on, and fast. Several drivers tried to improve in the final minutes, but there were not many more shifts.

Wehrlein was still driving very fast, but aborted his lap after making a mistake. Günther won the 1st free practice session ahead of Felix da Costa, Mortara and Rowland. The 2nd free practice session will take place at 3 a.m. CEST on Saturday morning. As always, e-Formula.news will be following the session with a live ticker and a livestream for you.

Results & lap times

Championship standings (drivers, teams & manufacturers)

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