Donington Park Formula E test: Sebastien Buemi fastest for e.dams

The ex-Formula 1 racer, now a Toyota LMP1 driver in the World Endurance Championship, set the fastest time of 1m35.475s - on a modified track with an extra chicane after the Old Hairpin - in the final hour of the day.

"I'm more than happy to be honest," said Buemi. "It is always nice to be P1 and let's hope it continues tomorrow.

"I didn't have any problems with the car at all and that meant we were able to learn quite a lot about it."

The test marked the first significant dry running for the championship's teams, after last month's shakedown was run in wet conditions at the same track.

Lucas di Grassi was second fastest for the Audi-backed Abt team, having taken over driving duties from morning pacesetter Daniel Abt when the German departed for this weekend's GP2 round supporting the British Grand Prix.

Sam Bird, Bruno Senna and Stephane Sarrazin completed the top five, with Sarrazin declaring the feeling of the all-electric engine "completely new" compared to the hybrid-powered sportscars he has driven.

Despite only completing 11 laps Nicolas Prost made sure both e.dams cars were in the top six, just edging out grand prix winner Jarno Trulli's best effort, while Abt's morning benchmark was good enough for eighth overall.

The day did not run smoothly for all of the teams, as 12 seconds covered the 19 drivers that managed to set a time, and six of the 20 in attendance were more than five seconds adrift of Buemi's best.

Trulli's team-mate Michela Cerruti was unable to complete a lap due to technical problems, while Karun Chandhok - 10th fastest - only managed one lap in the afternoon due to an issue.

Pos  Driver                  Team      Time       Gap      Laps
 1.  Sebastien Buemi         e.dams    1m35.475s           36
 2.  Lucas di Grassi         Abt       1m36.012s  +0.537s  29
 3.  Sam Bird                Virgin    1m36.370s  +0.895s  31
 4.  Bruno Senna             Mahindra  1m36.385s  +0.910s  22
 5.  Stephane Sarrazin       Venturi   1m36.698s  +1.223s  24
 6.  Nicolas Prost           e.dams    1m36.707s  +1.232s  11
 7.  Jarno Trulli            Trulli    1m36.969s  +1.494s  30
 8.  Daniel Abt              Abt       1m37.212s  +1.737s  32
 9.  Jaime Alguersuari       Virgin    1m37.445s  +1.970s  17
10.  Karun Chandhok          Mahindra  1m37.532s  +2.057s  21
11.  Franck Montagny         Andretti  1m38.062s  +2.587s  29
12.  Antonio Felix da Costa  Aguri     1m38.079s  +2.604s  24
13.  Jerome d'Ambrosio       China     1m38.086s  +2.611s  33
14.  Antonio Garcia          China     1m38.204s  +2.729s  21
15.  Nick Heidfeld           Venturi   1m40.744s  +5.269s  17
16.  Mike Conway             Dragon    1m41.168s  +5.693s  16
17.  Gil de Ferran           Andretti  1m44.972s  +9.497s  11
18.  Scott Speed             Andretti  1m45.909s  +10.434s 6
19.  Katherine Legge         Aguri     1m48.296s  +12.821s 11
20.  Michela Cerruti         Trulli                        0