Gabriele Mini led the way in the Formula E Rookie Test in Berlin, ahead of Ayhancan Guven and Kush Maini.
Morning –
At the end of the morning session, with over 1100 laps in the books between the 22 drivers, it was Nissan’s Gabirele Mini who topped the timesheets as teams and drivers tore through the kilometres and development work in Berlin. The Italian spent most of the three hours as the benchmark time of 57.643s midway through the morning’s running – quicker than we saw at the weekend with conditions now dry, warm and sunny at Tempelhof.
Kush Maini – the first Indian FIA Formula 2 race winner – wound up second. The Mahindra racer set the pace at the Jeddah Rookie Free Practice session earlier this season and continues to impress in Formula E machinery – he clearly feels at home in the GEN3 Evo. American Jack Crawford – also an F2 race winner – makes a rookie return for Andretti again in Berlin and he followed in third, setting his fastest lap right at the end of the session.
2023 F2 champion Theo Pourchaire turns out again for Maserati MSG Racing and managed the fourth quickest time of the morning – the same spot he came around in back in Jeddah’s rookie running. Swedish Bosnian Dino Beganovic came home fifth in the Mahindra with Arthur Leclerc – brother of Ferrari’s Charles – sixth on his first appearance in a Formula E car since he tested back at Marrakesh with Venturi in the GEN2 era – all the way back in 2019.
Elia Weiss became the youngest ever driver to drive a Formula E car in an official session on his first outing with Porsche. The German tallied 46 laps and plenty of kilometres under his belt on the way to 21st position. Abbi Pulling topped Formula E’s groundbreaking Women’s Test back in Madrid last year, and the Nissan development driver made a return to the cockpit here.
The Brit and compatriots Jamie Chadwick and Ella Lloyd finished the morning’s running 17th, 18th and 20th and with more than 150 laps between them – busy development programmes. Just a couple of second split the field from Mini in first and Leonardo Fornaroli in 22nd. Plenty of learnings and data to take into the afternoon’s session.
Afternoon –
Nissan’s Gabriele Mini followed up the morning’s benchmark with the fastest time of the afternoon’s running at Formula E’s 2025 Berlin Rookie Test. The Nissan driver’s 57.428s lap was a couple of tenth’s quicker than he’d gone in the morning.
All 22 drivers were split by just 1.5 seconds on a super competitive afternoon – as teams put the rookies through their paces with stacked development programmes. As in the morning’s running, more than 1,000 laps were clocked up between them.
DTM star Ayhancan Guven followed in second spot – the Porsche driver 0.226 seconds back on his maiden outing with the German giants. Kush Maini produced a time quick enough for another top three berth with Brit Callum Voisin fourth for CUPRA KIRO. NEOM McLaren’s Alex Dunne wound up fifth quickest, following up a maiden Free Practice outing for the McLaren Formula 1 Team in Austria. Jak Crawford rounded out the top six for Andretti.
Result: https://results.fiaformulae.com/en/timing-results
[The story is as per press release]