Formula E’s second time at Jakarta, but the first time the drivers wrestle the Gen3 cars around the Indonesian capital, Maserati take a 1-2 with Stoffel Vandoorne rounding off the top three.
Photo Credit: Formula E Media Bank / Sam Bloxham
The third double-header of the season takes place on the streets of Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta. After making its debut on the Formula E calendar last year, the fans will hope that last year’s excitement will be replicated this weekend.
Following a poor run of form, Pascal Wehrlein has been demoted to P2 in the Championship standings as Envision Racing’s Nick Cassidy won the last two races at Berlin and Monaco to extend a 20 point gap to Wehrlein. Jake Dennis finds himself in P3 with last year’s winner, Mitch Evans, in fourth place.
As the green light was shown, all but two drivers set out on the first practice session this weekend, with Mahindra’s Lucas Di Grassi and ABT Cupra’s Robin Frijns stuck in the garage for the first 10 minutes of the session.
With just over 10 minutes gone, the drivers started getting their hands dirty and posting quick lap times. Maximilian Gunther went provisionally fastest with a 1.10.810, going 0.369 tenths quicker than Porsche driver Pascal Wehrlein. ABT Cupra’s Nico Muller posted a promising lap time of 1.11.260 to put him in provisional P4, as the team will be looking for an equally good race like in Berlin, to build on the first points the team got this season.
Championship Leader, Nick Cassidy was still learning the track just past the 15 minutes mark, as he sits 12th, 1.4 seconds slower than the fastest lap time set by DS Penske’s Jean Eric-Vergne. The Envision Racing driver experienced an abnormal amount of front locking with meant he couldn’t post a competitive lap time.
As the session entered the last ten minutes, Pascal Wehrlein ramped up the pace and set a 1.10.060 to dispossess Maserati’s Max Gunther who has dropped to 10th following a burst of competitive lap times. Jake Dennis made his intentions clear that he’s not backing down from a fight this weekend, as he goes only 0.056 tenths slower than Wehrlein with Jean Eric-Vergne 0.097 tenths adrift. Nick Cassidy dropped to fourth with just the sole NIO 333 Racing car of Dan Ticktum in the top 10.
With the Indonesian heat proving to be a problem for the drivers, the final few minutes saw an abundance of laps set. As both Maserati’s, DS Penske’s Eric-Vergne, Jake Dennis and Wehrlein were trading places for top spot. The dusty circuit seemed tougher to tame than expected as a few drivers were sliding around trying to lower tyre temperatures.
At the end of the session, Both Maserati’s take the top spots with Max Gunther beating his team-mate Edoardo Mortara at the end. Vandoorne goes third fastest with Mitch Evans’ Jaguar only going fourth fastest as Wehrlein will be hoping to find some speed in his Porsche this weekend, as he finishes 0.610s behind Gunther in P5. Jake Dennis ends the session in sixth with Sam Bird in seventh and Antonio Felix da Costa goes eights fastest. Jean Eric-Vergne and Sebastian Buemi round off the top 10.
