Posted on 24th August 2016
On Tuesday evening, Formula E Champion Sebastien Buemi ended the first day of pre-season testing fastest with a time two-tenths off the Formula E lap record set by Lucas Di Grassi last season.
The session was a stop-start one, as the red flag was brought out a number of times to recover cars who stopped on track.
Teams had a five-hour afternoon session to learn more about their season three challenger, but no team was in a rush to get straight out onto the circuit when the track went green.
However, Stephane Sarrazin caused the first red flag of the session within the first 20 minutes of the session. The Venturi team had a tough opening day, as Engel had stopped on track in the first session and the German driver stopped at the end of the pitlane at the start of the second session.
Venturi brought out five of the 12 red flags that appeared on Tuesday, which underlines a few reliability issues for the Monegasque team.
Once the session restarted, there was a flurry of activity with a number of drivers taking to the track. Sebastian Buemi set the fastest time of the early running with a 1:32:6.
However, the red flag was brought out again, as Nick Heidfeld lost the rear end going into turn one and beached his Mahindra in the gravel trap.
Once the session was back underway, there was not much action out of track. Adam Carrol and Alex Lynn conducted a solid amount of running for Jaguar, as Carrol topped the timesheets at the halfway stage of the session.
With an hour and 45 minutes left on the clock, the red flag was brought out again as Nelson Piquet Jr went off at the chicane and parked up in the gravel trap. There appeared to be no damage to the car as the Brazilian's car had to be brought back to the pits on a truck.
With just over an hour left in the session, Di Grassi set the fastest lap of the session with a 1:31:0. Lynn got close to the Audi Sport ABT driver to move into second with a 1:31.4.
The red flag was brought out again as Duval lost his front wing on track. The French driver managed to get the car back to the entrance of the pit lane but pulled to the side of the track before entering the pitlane.
In the final half hour of the session, Bird jumped to the top of the timing screens with a 1:30:9, which a full second quicker than the time set by Buemi on day one last season.
Felix Rosenqvist jumped up to fourth in the standings in the final few minutes. The Swedish driver was five-tenths slower than Bird's time.
Di Grassi managed to go fastest with a 1:30:9 into the final 15 minutes, but it was immediately beaten by his championship rival from last season, as Buemi went eight-tenths of a second faster with a 1:30:1.
It is still early days, but Buemi has definitely laid down the first marker for the rest of the field to catch, as he finished the day seven-tenths ahead of Nick Heidfeld.
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
