Formula E

Formula E women's test in Valencia: Chambers dominates, Powell ends up in the gravel

Jasmin Fromm

Jasmin Fromm

FIA Formula E

Mahindra's Chloe Chambers, Nissan's Abbi Pulling, Envision's Alice Powell and Jaguar's Jamie Chadwick dominated the morning session of the second Formula E women's test, while the Formula E newcomers struggled.

After the official Formula E pre-season tests came to an end on Thursday, the women's test was on the programme on Friday: 14 female drivers were given the opportunity to drive a Formula E car. Among them were familiar faces in Formula E, such as Jamie Chadwick in the Jaguar, Marta Garcia in the Lola, Abbi Pulling in the Nissan, Bianca Bustamante in the Cupra Kiro and Gabriela Jilkova in the Porsche.

Exciting new faces could also be found behind the wheel of the electric racing cars, including the American Lindsay Brewer, who was given the opportunity to drive Maximilian Günther's DS Penske on the Spanish track. Brewer normally drives in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America. Another new face in the Formula E paddock is Super Formula driver Juju Noda, who drove the second Jaguar, and Janina Schall, who swapped her GT car for the Porsche 99X Electric for the day.

The session started on time in fine weather at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo. Jaguar driver Chadwick was the first to set the fastest time. Garcia in the Lola and Jilkova in the Porsche temporarily took the lead, but were then surpassed again by Chadwick. In the first 30 minutes, there were two short yellow flags in turn 7 when Tatiana Calderon in the Citroen went off the track. However, the Colombian driver was able to continue afterwards.

The two DS Penske drivers Brewer and Jess Edgar went on track quite late: the two spent almost half an hour in their garages before they set off.

A multitude of battles at the front

Mahindra had already shown during the first days of testing that their cars worked well on the Spanish track. Their female test driver, American Chloe Chambers, was also able to build on this and overtook Chadwick at the front after about half an hour. A quarter of an hour later, however, Brit Chadwick's Jaguar was back in the lead; she set a lap time of 1:24.784 minutes, three tenths of a second faster than Chambers' best time. She was also the first driver to set a lap time of 1:24 minutes. Chadwick then beat her own best time again and left the competition even further behind.

After the slight initial difficulties, Tatiana Calderon also seemed to have found a better feeling for her Citroen racing car after an hour of driving: the Colombian made a big leap into the top three, but then fell back a little after improvements from other drivers.

Powell draws attention to herself

At the halfway point of the session, Envision's development driver Alice Powell was also in the top three, with her protégé Abbi Pulling in the Nissan one position ahead of Powell. Pulling was the second driver to set a lap time of 1:24 minutes. Powell followed her shortly after, setting a lap time of 1:24.134 minutes, even beating the best time set by Chadwick's Jaguar and thus leading the field.

Behind her, Chambers and Chadwick battled for second place, while Nissan's Abbi Pulling and Andretti's Nerea Marti completed the top five with around an hour remaining in the morning. From fourth place, however, Pulling was able to position herself behind her mentor with 45 minutes left on the clock and take second place; she was just over a tenth of a second behind Powell.

Chadwick is the first to set a 1:23 time

After it initially seemed as if Powell's time would not be beaten in this morning session, Chadwick was the first driver to set a lap time of 1:23 minutes half an hour before the end: she completed the lap with a time of 1:23.974 minutes and thus took the lead, but was replaced shortly afterwards by Chambers, who clocked a time of 1:23.679 minutes, two tenths of a second faster, and shortly afterwards improved her best time by another tenth of a second. Shortly before the end, Pulling in the Nissan drew attention to herself again and took second place with a 1:23.866 minutes. This meant that the first three female drivers achieved 1:23 lap times.

Newcomers with initial difficulties

A look at the drivers who drove on the track without any prior Formula E experience shows just how complex the transition can be: Janina Schall struggled at the back of the field, eight seconds behind the leader in her Porsche, with Lindsay Brewer a second ahead of her in the #7 DS Penske, while only Super Formula driver Noda managed to be in the top 10, securing 10th place.

Nachmittag: Powell in the gravel

Garcia took the lead right at the start of the second test session, with a time of 1:24.765 minutes putting the Spaniard at the top of the timesheets. Shortly afterwards, however, the afternoon session had to be interrupted with a red flag: Alice Powell ended up in the gravel after a battery problem with her Envision caused her brakes to fail.

After a brief interruption, the remaining drivers returned to the track. Marti set a new record with a time of 1:24.272 minutes and briefly led the standings with her Andretti. But just a few minutes later, she was overtaken first by Pulling (1:24.079 minutes) and then by Chambers in the Mahindra. The American set a clear new record with a time of 1:23.233 minutes.

Duel at the top between Nissan and Mahindra

The rest of the first hour of the afternoon passed quietly until Pulling once again underlined the dominance of the Nissan team. She was the first driver of the day to set a time of 1:22. The British driver took the lead with a time of 1:22.831 minutes. Less than ten minutes later, Chambers countered and demonstrated the potential of the Mahindra, taking a narrow lead with a time of 1:22.767 minutes.

While the other drivers took it easier and failed to improve their times, Pulling and Chambers engaged in an exciting duel at the top. After two hours of practice, the gap to third-placed Bianca Bustamante was almost eight tenths of a second.

Chambers fastest in final session, Powell makes strong comeback

Two hours after her problem, Powell was able to return to the track and drove her Envision car straight into fourth place. However, Chambers won the session, followed by Pulling and Bustamante. Behind them, Powell and her teammate Lloyd took fourth and fifth place. Chadwick took sixth place, followed by Calderon. Marti, Noda and Garcia completed the top 10. Only the drivers from DS Penske and Porsche failed to make it into the top ten.

The next session of the Formula E World Championship will take place at the season opener in Sao Paulo. As always, you can find all the important information about the race and all the latest Formula E news on e-Formula.news.

Additional reporting by Theresa König.

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