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Formula E Rome: Felix Rosenqvist leads way in disrupted sessions

Mahindra Racing's Felix Rosenqvist set the fastest time across two disrupted practice sessions ahead of the inaugural Formula E race in Rome

Rosenqvist topped the second session with a 1m35.467s lap, which put him 0.344s faster than Virgin Racing's Sam Bird.

Audi driver Lucas di Grassi ended the morning with the third fastest time.

After the pack had put in the early laps to get up to speed in FP2, Rosenqvist moved to the top of the times with a lap of 1m35.828s on his first 200kW effort - almost clipping the wall at the exit of Turn 12, which will form the start of the grid for the race, as he did so.

But Rosenqvist went faster still on his second 200kW lap and improved by almost 0.4s, with Bird slotting into second place shortly before the red flags came out when the Briton's team-mate - Alex Lynn - crashed for the second time across the two practice sessions.

Lynn caused a stoppage in FP1 when he slid into the barriers approaching the official Turn 1 - just past what will be used as the finish line, on the opposite side of the circuit to the start line.

In FP2, Lynn lost the rear of his car heading into the tight chicane at Turns 16/17 with five minutes of the 30-minute session remaining and hit the barrier with its right-hand side.

As he could not getting going again, the session was stopped and not restarted.

Jose Maria Lopez ended up fourth quickest ahead of Nico Prost and Sebastien Buemi, with Nelson Piquet seventh fastest in the combined standings across FP1 and FP2.

Piquet's lap of 1m36.134s was the fastest time in the 45-minute FP1, but the season one champion - who was given a suspended three-place grid penalty for completing more than the permitted six laps during Friday's shakedown - did not improve in second practice.

If Piquet commits the same infraction at any race for the remainder of the 2017/18 season, his penalty will then come into effect.

Jerome D'Ambrosio was eighth for Dragon as Mitch Evans (Jaguar) and championship leader Jean-Eric Vergne rounded out the combined top 10 - with the latter two 10th and 16th in the second session after failing to improve on their best efforts in FP1.

Techeetah driver Vergne had to twice take to the escape roads at the Circuito Cittadino Dell'EUR during first practice.

Lynn ended up 15th quickest overall, just ahead of triple Le Mans winner Andre Lotterer, who was the fourth and final driver not to go quicker in FP2.

Mexico race winner Daniel Abt ended up 17th for Audi, with Edoardo Mortara bringing up the rear of the field in the combined standings.

FP1 times

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 Nelson Piquet Jr. Jaguar Jaguar 1m36.134s - 18
2 Sam Bird Virgin DS Virgin 1m36.215s 0.081s 17
3 Mitch Evans Jaguar Jaguar 1m36.676s 0.542s 17
4 Jean-Eric Vergne Techeetah Renault 1m36.678s 0.544s 19
5 Sebastien Buemi e.dams Renault 1m36.796s 0.662s 19
6 Andre Lotterer Techeetah Renault 1m37.074s 0.940s 18
7 Felix Rosenqvist Mahindra Mahindra 1m37.131s 0.997s 21
8 Jerome d'Ambrosio Dragon Penske 1m37.217s 1.083s 17
9 Lucas di Grassi Audi Audi 1m37.231s 1.097s 17
10 Alex Lynn Virgin DS Virgin 1m37.496s 1.362s 15
11 Jose Maria Lopez Dragon Penske 1m37.590s 1.456s 16
12 Oliver Turvey NIO NextEV NIO 1m37.719s 1.585s 17
13 Daniel Abt Audi Audi 1m37.723s 1.589s 20
14 Nicolas Prost e.dams Renault 1m37.904s 1.770s 17
15 Nick Heidfeld Mahindra Mahindra 1m38.413s 2.279s 20
16 Maro Engel Venturi Venturi 1m38.857s 2.723s 20
17 Edoardo Mortara Venturi Venturi 1m38.867s 2.733s 21
18 Luca Filippi NIO NextEV NIO 1m38.922s 2.788s 19
19 Antonio Felix da Costa Andretti Andretti 1m39.074s 2.940s 19
20 Tom Blomqvist Andretti Andretti 1m40.018s 3.884s 17

FP2 times

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 Felix Rosenqvist Mahindra Mahindra 1m35.467s - 11
2 Sam Bird Virgin DS Virgin 1m35.811s 0.344s 10
3 Lucas di Grassi Audi Audi 1m35.839s 0.372s 11
4 Jose Maria Lopez Dragon Penske 1m35.951s 0.484s 9
5 Nicolas Prost e.dams Renault 1m35.955s 0.488s 9
6 Sebastien Buemi e.dams Renault 1m36.132s 0.665s 8
7 Jerome d'Ambrosio Dragon Penske 1m36.412s 0.945s 9
8 Nelson Piquet Jr. Jaguar Jaguar 1m36.824s 1.357s 8
9 Tom Blomqvist Andretti Andretti 1m36.864s 1.397s 7
10 Mitch Evans Jaguar Jaguar 1m36.910s 1.443s 9
11 Luca Filippi NIO NextEV NIO 1m36.911s 1.444s 9
12 Oliver Turvey NIO NextEV NIO 1m36.973s 1.506s 10
13 Antonio Felix da Costa Andretti Andretti 1m36.991s 1.524s 9
14 Alex Lynn Virgin DS Virgin 1m37.014s 1.547s 9
15 Daniel Abt Audi Audi 1m37.076s 1.609s 10
16 Jean-Eric Vergne Techeetah Renault 1m37.290s 1.823s 9
17 Nick Heidfeld Mahindra Mahindra 1m37.377s 1.910s 8
18 Maro Engel Venturi Venturi 1m38.029s 2.562s 11
19 Andre Lotterer Techeetah Renault 1m38.470s 3.003s 7
20 Edoardo Mortara Venturi Venturi 1m38.579s 3.112s 11


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