Credit: Formula E Media Bank / Simon Galloway
Round 5 of the Formula E championship takes place in South Africa, for the first time in the history of the sport.
It will be a first home race for Kelvin Van Der Linde. Abt Cupra’s Reserve Driver is set to take Robin Frijns’s place for another round as the Dutch driver is still recovering from the wrist injury he picked up during the inaugural race in Mexico City. Gen3 hasn’t been kind to the team returning to the FE grid, the only one who’s yet to score in 2023.
The first practice session was extremely fragmented, with two red flags issued in only half hour of racing time.
First cars out on track were the McLarens and both Maserati, with Rast completing the first timed lap in 1:22.498, quickly improved by Mortara.
A red flag was issued five minutes in the session, with Sebastian Buemi crashing quite severely at Turn 9. Not a great start for the Envision Racing driver, who had finished the last Hyderabad round but was penalised for overpower usage with 30s of added time. Envision is running a tribute for former team owner and team manager for a multiple motorsport teams David Price on the halos of both of their cars.
The session restarted at 16:18, with the practise session extended by ten minutes to make up for the time needed to remove the debris from the car. At the restart, runner up Jake Dennis opted for staying in the pits as Jaguar’s Mitch Evans takes the provisional first place previously held by Hughes signing a 1:11.687.
Digrassi’s Mahindra suffered from a suspension failure at the beginning of the first restart, but he was able to park the car without interrupting the session.
Van der Linde’s home weekend isn’t off to a good start, with the former DTM driver’s car stopping at Turn 7 after signing his personal best time in Sector 1. Another red flag was issued in order to remove his car safely from the track
The best time of the session was signed by Edoardo Mortara in his Maserati in 1:09.700, but it’s going to be a tight qualifying tomorrow as the top nin divers are all in 0.5s. Second best time is hold by Sam Bird, looking forward to avenge his performance in India, where he unfortunately collided with his Jaguar teammate Mitch Evans while they were both in the top 5, and the podium is closed by Sascha Fenestraz in his Nissan in 1:09.887.
