Sebastien Buemi topped a delayed FP1 session in Formula E Hyderabad EPrix from Stoffel Vandoorne and Serio Sette Camara.
After a shakedown earlier in the day, the FP1 session in Formula E Hyderabad EPrix was delayed by 45 minutes due to ‘operational issues’ around the street circuit. Once it got going at 17:15 local time, it wasn’t long for it to be red-flagged straight up.
It was for Formula E points leader Pascal Wehrlein who crashed his Porsche at Turn 18 after a massive sideways impact on the concrete barrier. Both the front-end and rear-end was damaged as a result as the 30 minutes time continued to tick on.
After a quick clean-up, action kicked-off wile Wehrlein was being looked at by the doctor as a precautionary measure. The track looked much cleaner in FP1 after a dusty shakedown as the lap times continued to plummet as the drivers went quicker and quicker.
Meanwhile, Porsche elected to keep Antonio Felix da Costa along with customer team Andretti’s Jake Dennis and Andre Lotterer cars in the pits as a precautionary measure. There was contact between Masareti’s Edoardo Mortara and NIO’s Dan Ticktum.
Turning into the right-hander, Ticktum slowed a bit which caught out Mortara as he bumped him on the rear sustaining front win damage. The Brit was in turn caught out by the other Maserati of Maximilian Guenther ahead who slowed himself while turning.
The move between Mortara and Ticktum was put under investigation by the FIA stewards. As the chequered flag was waved, it was Envision’s Sebastien Buemi on top with a 1m15.088s lap after a late dash post the flag was waved.
DS Penske’s Stoffel Vandoorne slotted in second after his own late lap which pushed NIO’s Sergio Sette Camara to third with semi-home outfit Jaguar’s Sam Bird fourth from home outfit Mahindra’s Lucas di Grassi in the Top 5.
The other Jaguar of Mitch Evans was sixth from Maserati’s Mortara, DS’ Jean-Eric Vergne, Maserati’s Guenther and Envision’s Nick Cassidy in the Top 10. NIO’s Ticktum was 11th from first of Nissan’s Norman Nato who led the first of McLaren’s Jake Hughes and ABT’s Nico Mueller.
The other Nissan of Sacha Fenestraz slotted in 15th from McLaren’s Rene Rast, with ABT’s Kelvin van der Linde in 17th after he managed to get through the session after struggles in shakedown. The South African did have issues during practice start, tough.
Mahindra’s Oliver Rowland was the driver in 18th ahead of the four Porsche-powered cars who all did not set a lap time due to Wehrlein’s heavy crash.
#ABBFormulaE #HyderabadEPrix Results of a very slippery FP1 session. (Possible trouble for the Porsche powertrain runners after Wehrlein crashed) #MsportXtra @FormulaEZone @DarshanChokhani pic.twitter.com/3PdlWvRe2Z
— #MsportXtra © (@MsportXtra) February 10, 2023