Rookie test in Madrid: Theophile Nael fastest in the morning, Voisin & Weiss trigger red flags

Theophile Nael put in a strong performance in the Mahindra and topped the morning session of the Formula E rookie test at the Circuito del Jarama-Madrid with a time of 1:29.216 minutes. Team-mate Kush Maini followed in second place, Nikita Bedrin and Daniil Kvyat from DS Penske and Zak O'Sullivan in Envision completed the top five. Callum Voisin (Andretti) and Elia Weiss (Porsche) caused interruptions to the session.

The morning session of the rookie test started at 9am on Sunday morning in Madrid in sunshine, but at 4°C the conditions were still quite cold. Some drivers took to the track immediately. However, it wasn't long before the first red flag was waved. This was triggered by Callum Voisin, who came to a halt in his Andretti with a technical problem between Turns 5 and 6.

The drivers all had to return to their garages. The fastest at this point was Nissan driver Abbi Pulling, even though there were no meaningful lap times at the time. She was followed by Richard Verschoor in the Lola Yamaha ABT with a gap of around 4.5 seconds. Third was Theophile Nael in the Mahindra.

Green again after Voisin defect

After just over ten minutes, the green flag came out. With the exception of Cian Shields and Voisin, all drivers immediately returned to the track. After half an hour, Mahindra driver Kush Maini took first place with a time of 1:31.551 minutes, 1.3 seconds behind him was Theo Pourchaire in the Citroen. Ayhancan Güven was the next to take the lead. He beat Maini's previous best time by 0.5 seconds.

At the start of the second hour, there was still very little action on the track. Nael was now fastest ahead of Güven, Maini and Victor Martins in the second Nissan. Pourchaire was the next to make his presence felt and took the lead.

After around 1:20 hours, the next incident occurred. Elia Weiss' Porsche came to a halt in turn 1, triggering the next red flag. The interruption lasted around ten minutes. Pourchaire's best time still stood.

Voisin is driving again

Around 1.5 hours after his technical defect, Voisin returned to the race track. Pourchaire continued to lead the standings at the start of the final hour of the morning session. Nael, Zak O'Sullivan, Maini and Nikita Bedrin in the DS Penske completed the top 5 before the latter took the lead. The new best time was over half a second faster and the first time under 1:30 minutes.

A few minutes later, Nael drew attention to himself once again, beating Bedrin's time by four tenths of a second. Meanwhile, Shields was the only driver who had still not set a time with his Cupra Kiro 45 minutes before the end of the first session and had only completed installation laps, but he finally set a time shortly afterwards and moved ahead of Voisin to 19th place in the standings.

A third interruption followed just a few minutes before the end of the session. Elia Weiss came off the track in turn 3 and ended up in the gravel. As a result, no one was able to beat Nael's best time: he won the session with a time of 1:29.216 minutes ahead of team-mate Maini, Bedrin, Daniil Kvyat and O'Sullivan.

The drivers now have a two-hour break before the action resumes at 2pm. The afternoon session can of course be followed again in our live ticker.