Formula E 2017/18: Turvey fastest on first day of Valencia testing
Oliver Turvey set the fastest time on the opening day of Formula E pre-season testing as barely a tenth covered the top six drivers at Valencia
The NIO driver posted a 1m18.565s in the afternoon session in Spain to head a close sextet on the first of three days of official running.
Turvey's time was 0.012 seconds quicker than Renault e.dams' Sebastien Buemi, with Audi's reigning champion Lucas di Grassi just 0.002s further back in third.
Felix Rosenqvist also lapped within a tenth of Turvey in the afternoon, while Sam Bird - who set his best time in the morning - and di Grassi's team-mate Daniel Abt completed the leading half-dozen.
Bird's afternoon was compromised by a crash at the makeshift chicane on the start/finish straight.
The Briton was one of several drivers to complain about the chicane after the morning session and damaged one of his DS Virgin Racing DSV-03s in the incident.
He still completed a decent amount of running in the afternoon but did not put in a full-power lap and was just under two seconds off Turvey's pace.
Bird's team-mate Alex Lynn also opted to avoid a 200kW run in the afternoon but his morning time was good enough for seventh-fastest.
Jean-Eric Vergne caused one of several other red flags in the afternoon, spinning his Techeetah into the gravel at Turn 3, and wound up 0.451s off the pace in eighth.
Mitch Evans put Jaguar inside the top five in the morning and improved by a tenth in the afternoon to finish ninth overall, sixth tenths and fourth places clear of new team-mate Nelson Piquet Jr, as Nico Prost completed the top 10 in the second Renault.
FE newcomers Edoardo Mortara, Andre Lotterer and James Rossiter all caused stoppages.
Rossiter and Mortara are vying for a race seat at Venturi, with Rossiter incurring damage at the same chicane Bird hit and Mortara stopping on track.
Rossiter was the quicker of the two, posting a morning lap time 1.6s off the ultimate pace and half a second quicker than Mortara managed in an afternoon session of restricted running.
Porsche LMP1 driver Lotterer suffered the same fate as Mortara, stopping his Renault-powered Techeetah on track, and wound up 12th fastest, half a second slower than Vergne.
Alexander Sims won the battle of the BMW-contracted men as he outpaced recently re-signed Andretti driver Antonio Felix da Costa - Sims was 15th and 0.010s quicker than da Costa, who will hand his car over to DTM race winner Tom Blomqvist tomorrow.
While Turvey was quickest, his new team-mate (and Piquet's replacement) Luca Filippi was 18th, two seconds off the pace.
Lotterer's LMP1 team-mate Neel Jani was slowest for Dragon Racing, but did not complete a qualifying run.
Morning session times
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Sam Bird | Virgin | DS Virgin | 1m18.669s | - | 41 |
2 | Lucas di Grassi | Audi | Audi | 1m18.718s | 0.049s | 33 |
3 | Daniel Abt | Audi | Audi | 1m18.761s | 0.092s | 46 |
4 | Alex Lynn | Virgin | DS Virgin | 1m18.957s | 0.288s | 37 |
5 | Mitch Evans | Jaguar | Jaguar | 1m19.159s | 0.490s | 35 |
6 | Nelson Piquet Jr. | Jaguar | Jaguar | 1m19.627s | 0.958s | 26 |
7 | Felix Rosenqvist | Mahindra | Mahindra | 1m19.725s | 1.056s | 17 |
8 | Nicolas Prost | e.dams | Renault | 1m19.771s | 1.102s | 38 |
9 | Sebastien Buemi | e.dams | Renault | 1m19.856s | 1.187s | 20 |
10 | Oliver Turvey | NIO | NextEV NIO | 1m20.023s | 1.354s | 29 |
11 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Techeetah | Renault | 1m20.114s | 1.445s | 19 |
12 | James Rossiter | Venturi | Venturi | 1m20.159s | 1.490s | 23 |
13 | Jerome d'Ambrosio | Dragon | Penske | 1m20.287s | 1.618s | 34 |
14 | Nick Heidfeld | Mahindra | Mahindra | 1m20.298s | 1.629s | 24 |
15 | Luca Filippi | NIO | NextEV NIO | 1m20.642s | 1.973s | 29 |
16 | Andre Lotterer | Techeetah | Renault | 1m20.646s | 1.977s | 26 |
17 | Alexander Sims | Andretti | Andretti | 1m20.699s | 2.030s | 30 |
18 | Edoardo Mortara | Venturi | Venturi | 1m20.946s | 2.277s | 17 |
19 | Antonio Felix da Costa | Andretti | Andretti | 1m20.946s | 2.277s | 27 |
20 | Neel Jani | Dragon | Penske | 1m21.888s | 3.219s | 23 |
Afternoon session times
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Oliver Turvey | NIO | NextEV NIO | 1m18.565s | - | 43 |
2 | Sebastien Buemi | e.dams | Renault | 1m18.577s | 0.012s | 24 |
3 | Lucas di Grassi | Audi | Audi | 1m18.579s | 0.014s | 38 |
4 | Felix Rosenqvist | Mahindra | Mahindra | 1m18.643s | 0.078s | 21 |
5 | Daniel Abt | Audi | Audi | 1m18.697s | 0.132s | 39 |
6 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Techeetah | Renault | 1m19.016s | 0.451s | 30 |
7 | Mitch Evans | Jaguar | Jaguar | 1m19.063s | 0.498s | 37 |
8 | Nicolas Prost | e.dams | Renault | 1m19.097s | 0.532s | 44 |
9 | Nick Heidfeld | Mahindra | Mahindra | 1m19.117s | 0.552s | 18 |
10 | Andre Lotterer | Techeetah | Renault | 1m19.491s | 0.926s | 28 |
11 | Nelson Piquet Jr. | Jaguar | Jaguar | 1m19.855s | 1.290s | 28 |
12 | Jerome d'Ambrosio | Dragon | Penske | 1m19.991s | 1.426s | 38 |
13 | Alexander Sims | Andretti | Andretti | 1m20.094s | 1.529s | 37 |
14 | Antonio Felix da Costa | Andretti | Andretti | 1m20.107s | 1.542s | 38 |
15 | Sam Bird | Virgin | DS Virgin | 1m20.516s | 1.951s | 32 |
16 | Edoardo Mortara | Venturi | Venturi | 1m20.712s | 2.147s | 15 |
17 | James Rossiter | Venturi | Venturi | 1m22.004s | 3.439s | 28 |
18 | Alex Lynn | Virgin | DS Virgin | 1m22.093s | 3.528s | 48 |
19 | Neel Jani | Dragon | Penske | 1m22.329s | 3.764s | 40 |
20 | Luca Filippi | NIO | NextEV NIO | 1m23.139s | 4.574s | 40 |
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