Posted on 22nd April 2016
Renault e.Dams driver Sebastien Buemi topped the first practice session of the inaugural Paris ePrix, after being the only driver to do a 200kw lap.
There wasn't much drama in the session, except for a red flag caused by Jerome D'Ambrosio stopping on the start straight due to an issue with his car. However, Multiple drivers were also caught out at Turn 1 and Turn 8; but no one crashed doing so.
Buemi was one of two drivers to get into the 1.02s, but he was the only one to do a full power lap which was hindered by slow traffic. His championship rival Lucas di Grassi finished in second place
Stephane Sarrazin finished in third place ahead of Sam Bird and also ahead of his Venturi teammate Mike Conway was just two tenths of a second slower in fifth. The Venturi team has shown pace throughout the season, and they look like they may be a step ahead of some of their rivals this weekend.
Dragon Racing driver Loic Duval finished in sixth place ahead of Daniel Abt who ended the session in seventh place, but he was near the top for most of the 45 minutes.The two Mahindra drivers, Bruno Senna and Nick Heidfeld, finished eighth and ninth respectively, with only 0.041 seconds separating them. The defending champion Nelson Piquet Jr finished the session in the top ten, as he looks for a second points finish in Season Two.
Jean-Eric Vergne finished eleventh place and is once again slower than his teammate Bird yet again. Robin Frijns for Andretti put in some fast laps but ended the session in twelfth place. While he had issues at the beginning of the session, Antonio Felix da Costa finished thirteenth place ahead of Simona de Silvestro in fourteenth place and was the last driver to get a time within a second of Buemi.
Nico Prost will be disappointed to be down in fifteenth place and so far away from Buemi. Oliver Turvey was the last of the runners to be able to put in a competitive lap without issues, finishing in sixteenth place.
Formula E debutante Ma Qing Hua spent most of the time in the pits with car issues similar to his teammate and got a lot less laps under his belt than he would have wanted on his debut. He did finish ahead of Jerome D'Ambrosio who stopped on the start straight half-way through the session after his car had an issue.
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
