Formula E: Nissan 1-2 in 1st free practice in Jeddah, Mortara & Ticktum also strong

Oliver Rowland secured the fastest time in the first free practice session. The Nissan driver relegated his team-mate Norman Nato and Mahindra driver Edoardo Mortara to second and third place. Cupra Kiro driver Dan Ticktum also put in a strong performance, finishing fifth behind Sam Bird and even beating world champion Pascal Wehrlein.

After the rookie practice session in the afternoon, the first free practice session with all 22 regular drivers began under floodlights. Race director Marek Hanaczewski started with the usual full-course yellow practice before continuing at full speed. Oliver Rowland and Pascal Wehrlein drove side by side through a corner early on, but left themselves enough space. After the first ten minutes, the Briton in the Nissan led the timesheets, but was then undercut by Nyck de Vries (Mahindra). Jake Hughes was even faster a little later.

After around 15 minutes, Mexico winner Oliver Rowland once again took the lead. However, he was still a whole second off Kush Maini's best time in rookie practice. Pascal Wehrlein, on the other hand, took things slowly and was still around ten seconds behind Rowland's best time at this point.

Stellantis drives with fast 350 kW laps

Just before the halfway point of the sessions, the first attempt was made with 350 kW and four-wheel drive: Jake Hughes took the lead by more than 1.5 seconds, beating Maini's best time by more than half a second. Meanwhile, Norman Nato was under investigation for speeding during the Full Course Yellow exercise at the start of the session. He received a reprimand. Meanwhile, Wehrlein moved up to sixth place.

Vergne was the second driver to activate maximum power, followed by his team-mate Max Günther. The two DS Penske drivers moved up to 2nd and 3rd place, just behind Hughes. However, both were in trouble: Günther had pitted while Vergne was receiving a Pit Boost. As a result, race control investigated a violation of the Pit Boost rules, which stipulate that both cars may not pit at the same time.

15 minutes before the end, Wehrlein and Rowland also followed with 350 kW: Both were faster than Hughes, with the Briton 0.073 seconds quicker than the reigning world champion. More and more drivers activated the extra power: Lucas di Grassi moved up to 6th place, Sebastien Buemi shortly afterwards to 5th place between the two DS Penske drivers, but was ousted by Nyck de Vries shortly afterwards.

All Porsche cars with strong lap times

Then came the surprise: Norman Nato in the second Nissan moved ahead of his team-mate to give the Japanese outfit a one-two lead. However, the two McLaren customer Nissans were unable to match this pace: 17th place for Taylor Barnard and even only 21st place for Sam Bird were on the leaderboard. The two Andretti cars of Nico Müller and Jake Dennis were significantly faster, finishing 4th and 5th behind Wehrlein.

However, this was only for a short time: championship leader Antonio Felix da Costa took 3rd place, Dan Ticktum 6th ahead of Dennis. This left two works Nissans ahead of two works Porsches and three customer Porsches. Nick Cassidy in 8th place was the fastest Jaguar driver.

In the final minutes, the drivers started their second attempt with 350 kW: Wehrlein closed to within 0.088 seconds of Nato, Beckmann moved ahead of his team-mate Ticktum, but shortly afterwards he even edged out Wehrlein! This meant that all six Porsche cars were in the Top 8.

CHEQUERED FLAG 🏁@OliverRowland1 tops the session and is joined by @NatoNorman who makes it a @NISMO 1-2 👏#JeddahEPrix pic.twitter.com/Li7r3Lpcpu

- Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) February 13, 2025

Nissan unbeatable in the end

Rowland turned up the heat once again and took the lead, with Mortara now in second place. Sam Bird set the fastest time in the first sector, moving up to fourth place. The two works Jaguars improved to 9th and 10th place before Nato secured second place. However, nobody was able to match Oliver Rowland's best time: 1:15.849 minutes at the end for the Briton.

The second free practice session in Jeddah starts on Friday at 11am (CET). As usual, e-Formel.de will be reporting live with livestream and live ticker. The first race starts on Friday evening at 6 pm (CET).

Results & times

Overall standings (drivers, teams & manufacturers)