Formula E

Formula E rookie rest 2025 in Berlin: Nissan driver Gabriele Mini dominates & breaks Wehrlein's record!

Timo Pape

Timo Pape

Adam Pigott / Spacesuit Media

Gabriele Mini was the fastest driver in both the morning and afternoon sessions of Monday's Formula E rookie test in Berlin. The Italian in the Nissan beat Pascal Wehrlein's previous Tempelhof track record several times! Ayhancan Güven (Porsche) came second ahead of Kush Maini (Mahindra). Half an hour before the end of the morning session, stones on the track had caused a red flag.

After a rainy weekend, the rookie test began on Monday morning at 9 am in the sunshine. Almost all the drivers took to the track straight away and completed their first laps. It was the first official session in a Formula E car for a total of eight rookie drivers. Among them was just 16-year-old German Elia Weiß, who became the youngest tester in Formula E history. Four female drivers also took part, but all of them had already driven the car at least once before.

The entry list for the Formula E 2025 rookie test

Team Driver 1 Driver 2
Andretti Jak Crawford Frederic Vesti
Cupra Kiro Bianca Bustamante Callum Voisin
DS Penske Nikita Bedrin Daniil Kvyat
Envision Racing Johnathan Hoggard Zak O'Sullivan
Jaguar TCS Racing Jamie Chadwick Leonardo Fornaroli
Lola Yamaha ABT Hugh Barter Alessandro Giusti
Mahindra Racing Dino Beganovic Kush Maini
Maserati MSG Racing Arthur Leclerc Theo Pourchaire
Neom McLaren Alex Dunne Ella Lloyd
Nissan Gabriele Mini Abbi Pulling
TAG Heuer Porsche Ayhancan Güven Elia Weiß

 

In the first half hour, the two Mahindra testers, among others, drew attention to themselves: Kush Maini took second place in the timesheets, team-mate Dino Beganovic third. However, Gabriele Mini was fastest in the Nissan. The Italian set an early lap time of 58.290 seconds. This left him just half a second off the track record set by Pascal Wehrlein (57.756 seconds).

In the following 30 minutes, Mini continued to improve and came within 14 thousandths of a second of Wehrlein's time. Jack Crawford in the Andretti climbed to third place ahead of Alex Dune (McLaren) and Frederic Vesti in the second Andretti. Abbi Pulling (Nissan) was the best woman in sixth place. After 1:20 hours, the track record was finally broken, and once again it was Gabriele Mini who amazed Nissan! In 57.643 seconds and more than half a second ahead of second place, he set another highlight.

Just before the 2-hour mark, Maini also caught the eye again: with a strong lap, he came within 16 thousandths of a second of Mini and was also faster than world champion Wehrlein in the qualifying semi-final on Sunday. However, the good lap times were also due to the so-called track evolution - the more laps were completed, the more grip the surface developed - as well as the track being three degrees Celsius warmer at this point compared to the previous day.

35 minutes before the end of the race, the red flag was suddenly waved. The reason: stones on the track in sector 2! Where they came from is still unclear. The medical car drove onto the track to collect them. Meanwhile, all the drivers returned to the pit lane. After an interruption of around six minutes, the race resumed. Crawford moved up to third place with around ten minutes left on the clock. Theo Pourchaire and Beganovic also finished the morning in the top 5, but Mini and Maini were clearly the best performers in terms of lap-time.

Afternoon session: Same faces at the front

The afternoon began as the morning had ended - with a quick lap from Mini. However, Alex Dunne in the McLaren was the best in the first half hour. The Irishman was fastest in all three sectors. Hugh Barter (Lola), Mini and Crawford followed within three tenths of a second. After 45 minutes, however, Mini performed again and distanced the field by half a second! His time (57.439 seconds) was two tenths of a second faster than his previous track record!

Towards the end of the fourth hour of testing, there were a few notable improvements: Ayhancan Güven moved up to second place, Cullum Voisin moved up to third. At the bottom of the table were the two Mahindras - Beganovic had not even taken to the track yet. Mahindra suspected a problem with his car. A quarter of an hour later, however, he finally got out on track. According to our information, the team's fears had not been confirmed.

Overall, the afternoon was even quieter than the morning. A good hour before the end, Mini once again improved his best time and thus the Tempelhof track record. The Italian certainly recommended himself for bigger tasks on this test day. Thirty minutes later, Maini made a big leap in the standings: the Indian moved up to third place and confirmed his strong pace from the morning session.

Nothing else of note happened. Apart from Mini, Güven and Maini were particularly impressive in the top three. A total of 16 of the 22 drivers finished within one second of each other. This particular mark was also kind of a gender divider in the timesheets: none of the female drivers came within a second of the fastest time. Of the male drivers, Weiß and Hoggard remained below the 1-second mark.

The Formula E season continues - and ends - in just under two weeks with the season finale in London (26/27 July). e-Formula.news will be there in person to report on everything worth mentioning.

Results & lap times

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