For the first e-prix of 2016, Formula E settles at the Argentinian capital: Buenos Aires.
Let’s first talk about what changed since the last e-prix: Jacques Villeneuve announced his departure from Venturi some weeks ago. He is replaced by British Mike Conway who will make his debuts as titular driver. It’s the same thing for Nathanael Berthon who left Team Aguri to focus on ELMS. He is replaced by Salvador Duran who returns in the category. And after health issues, Nick Heidfeld is back with Mahindra.
The session starts quietly for the first 5 minutes until Simona de Silvestro causes the first red flag of the week-end. While driving out of the pits she hits the wall and breaks her rear wing and wish-bone.
The session resumes ten minutes later and this break excited the drivers who showed some very racy moves causing some lock-ups but Buemi stays the fastest. With ten minutes left of the clock, Bird is the first driver to do a full-power lap and sets the fastest lap of the session even if he thinks he can still go 0.5s faster.
Di Grassi faces problems and has to stop on track to reset the car and eventually manages to make it work again to join the pits. Frijns is not that lucky and with three minutes left has to stop his car on track. At the same moment, both NEXTEV drivers do their full power lap, Piquet being the faster of the two but still 0.8s slower than Bird.
Here is the top 10 of the first practice session:
Bird (1:09:913), Abt (+0.389), Piquet (+0.804), Turvey (+0.839), Buemi (+0.967), Di Grassi (+1.239), Sarrazin (+1.319), Prost (+1.378), Frijns (+1.516), Da Costa (+1.777)
Feeling unwell, Jean-Eric Vergne does not take part of the week-end and could be replaced by local man José Maria Lopez, double WTCC champion.
