In the first session for the Southwire Portland E-Prix, it’s Rene Rast from McLaren Racing on top of the leaderboard, followed by Vergne and Ticktum rounding up the Top 3.
Photo credits: Formula E Media Bank / Sam Bloxham
It was a horrendous hour in the Central European Timezone, but we were about to witness some action. Last single-header of the season, Portland is an unknown ground to everyone on the grid, giving us hope for some very much equal racing. Although the configuration of the track seems to favor some teams over others, so let’s see what the newest addition to the calendar has to offer.
Green lights by the end of the pitlane and all of the driver made their way on track. This and the next session are essential for the drivers to get an understanding of what to expect later. FP1 started with 25C of air temperature and 37C of track temperature.
First driver to set a lap time was Rene Rast with the time of 1:48.286s. As more and more drivers started to put a competitive times on the board, it was Jake Dennis in his Avalanche Andretti, setting a 1:11.699s, followed by Nato, two DS Penske’s and Gunther in Maserati.
With 20 minutes left on the clock, it seems that the Envison’s found a bit of pace, but it’s been still a mix of the McLaren, Andretti and Nissan in the Top 5, with some great laps from Frijns in ABT in 4th place at that moment. So far into the session the Porsche and Jaguar cars seemed to struggle, with Buemi, Wehrlein, Evans, Da Costa and Bird all further down the grid and outside of Top 10.
We’ve had a momentary yellow flag after one of the Nissans spun on track, but he was able to rejoin the pack without further issues.
15 minutes down, and the fastest time at that point of the session was set by Dennis, with the time of 1:10.463s. He was followed by Da Costa and Lotterer in the top 3.The rest that completed the Top 10 were Merhi, Rast, Nato, Frijns, Cassidy, Gunter and Di Grassi. At that time, many drivers returned to the pits.
Ticktum had a moment in Turns 11 and 12, but he managed to get back on track without issues.
Five minutes left on the clock and its been Vandoorne 1with the time of 1:09.644s, followed by Di Grassi, Evans, Mortara, Rast, Bird, Hughes, Wehrlein, Vergne and Muller in P10.
The remaining of the session went on without disturbances, and beside those two minor situations that caused yellow flags, everyone finished the session without a scratch. The only thing was Muller under investigation for technical infraction.
The final classification after this session:
