Posted on 6th September 2016
At the fourth pre-season test at the Donington Park circuit yesterday, Jean-Eric Vergne ended the day fastest with a lap time 0.006 off a second slower than the Formula E lap record.
The fourth was littered with red flags, as a large number of cars stopped out on the circuit and a few others were brought out to clean the amount of gravel that ventured tits way onto the track.
The Andretti team has had a tough start of the session, as their drivers caused three red flags in the opening part of the session. Robin Frijns stopped twice out on the circuit and Antonio Felix Da Costa stopped once.
However, their pace has been strong throughout the day as Da Costa was fastest in the session with two hours remaining.
Jerome D'Ambrosio caused the most severe red flag of the day, as the Belgian went off at Mclean's corner. He locked up going into the fast right-hander and went straight through the gravel trap and walloped the wall. However, D'Ambrosio was lucky only to sustain a small amount of front nose-cone damage. The car's suspension held together well and it was not too long until he was back out on track.
There were a number of red flags for the marshalls to clear up gravel at the Esses, as the drivers started to find the limits of their new cars ahead of the first race in Hong Kong next month.
With an hour and a half remaining in the session, Adam Carroll in the Jaguar jumped to the top of the timesheets. But once again the red flag was brought again for Frijns who had stopped out on track but the Dutch driver was able to get back to the pits under his own power after his engineers helped him at the side of the track.
In the final hour, Vergne posted a time 0.006 of a second slower than his lap record of a 1:29:634. The French driver was two-tenths clear of Sam Bird with 40 minutes remaining in the session.
In the final half hour, Loic Duval caused a red flag. The Dragon Racing driver went off at the Esses. It is unclear if the car made contact with the barriers as it was not brought back to the pits.
The session restarted with ten minutes remaining, and most of the field took to the track in a final attempt to beat their lap times. But the red flag came out again for the final time to end the days running as Stephane Sarrazin stopped on track in his Venturi.
That meant that Vergne ended the fourth day at Donington Park fastest. The French driver has finished two of the four days fastest, suggesting that the new Chinese outfit team could be a contender in season three.
Sarah Jones-@jonesy_laaa
