As Sebastien Buemi of Renault
e.dams broke the Formula E lap record at Donington Park as he once again set
the fastest time in pre-season testing, Mahindra Racing’s new driver Nick
Heidfeld came in fourth, thus indicating that this lone Indian racing team
stands a chance to win a podium in the current season of Formula E that begins
in October 2015.
The Renault e.dams star set a
best lap of 1:31.050s to beat the previous best time at Donington of 1:31.083s,
which he recorded at the penultimate pre-season one test. With a good crowd
again taking advantage of free entry to see the Formula E cars in action, Buemi
was not the only driver to use the full qualifying mode of 200kw to set his
time.
“It was a bit of a scrappy
lap, but it’s difficult to do a perfect lap around here,” he said. “I think we could go a second quicker,
maybe even into the 1m29s. I’m quite happy but we are really only at the start of the new package.
Now we need to work on the details of the package. We could do quite a bit on the car and the
car is a bit easier to drive, the stability is better, the brakes are better. I see some good potential, we
just need to extract it from the car,” he stated in a press release issued by
FIA Formula E. Mahindra Racing’s second drive Bruno Senna came in 6th.
Sam Bird was second fastest
for DS Virgin Racing, lapping just over four tenths slower than Buemi with a 1:31.469s. “Obviously
we did plenty of work before this test so now at Donington it’s just a case of
fine tuning and refining to make sure everything works 100 per cent for the
first race in Beijing,” he said, adding that “The car is quite a significant
change with few gear changes needed but the guys at DS and Virgin have done a
fantastic job and hopefully we can head into the season with a strong package.”
Third fastest was Daniel Abt,
who had both Abt Schaeffler cars at his disposal after taking over from
birthday boy Lucas di Grassi. The German’s best lap was 1:31.537s. Abt said:
“For the two days we decided to split the running with Lucas [di Grassi]
testing on Monday and myself today. It helped us gain more consecutive running
and work on set-up changes more easily. These past two days we’ve focused on
fixing software issues and mechanical issues and we took a massive step forward
from the first day to the second. The car felt good and fast and it feels like
we have a good package.”
GP2 race winner Tom Dillmann
had his first proper test for Team Aguri and he racked up the laps, trying both qualifying
simulations and a race run. He recorded the 10th fastest time. Andretti also managed to get out on track,
but a series of teething troubles prevented Simona de Silvestro from setting a representative time.
Technical issues also hampered
NEXTEV TCR and Trulli, which meant that Nelson Piquet Jr, Oliver Turvey and Jarno Trulli were
unable to complete any running. Testing resumes at Donington
on Monday August 17.
FIA Formula E Championship – Donington Park – Pre-season testing (Day
2) – Results:
1. Sebastien Buemi, Renault
e.dams, 1:31.050s
2. Sam Bird, DS Virgin Racing,
+0.419s
3. Daniel Abt, ABT Schaeffler
Audi Sport, +0.487s
4. Nick Heidfeld, Mahindra Racing, +0.491s
5. Nicolas Prost, Renault
e.dams, +0.542s
6. Bruno Senna, Mahindra Racing, +0.819s
7. Loic Duval, DRAGON RACING,
+0.865s
8. Stephane Sarrazin, Venturi,
+0.951s
9. Jean-Eric Vergne, DS Virgin
Racing, +0.983s
10. Tom Dillmann, Team Aguri,
+1.319s
11. Jerome D’Ambrosio, DRAGON
RACING, +3.905s
12. Jacques Villeneuve,
Venturi, +5.865s
13. Nelson Piquet Jr, NEXTEV
TCR, no time set
14. Jarno Trulli, Trulli, no
time set
15. Simona de Silvestro,
Andretti, no time set
16. Oliver Turvey, NEXTEV TCR,
no time set