Jose Maria Lopez was quickest in an incident-filled first practice session in Buenos Aires ahead of today’s ePrix.
The triple WTCC champion set the pace with a 1m09.431, over half a second ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne and Mitch Evans.
The session started under cloudy conditions with the threat of rain looming closer. The two Andretti Autosport drivers were pushing hard early on and it showed when Antonio Felix da Costa narrowly avoided a huge crash at the final corner with fast reactions and a slice of luck.
Da Costa’s luck would run out, however, just over 15 minutes into the session, the Portuguese driver backed the Andretti ATEC-02 into the barriers and broke his front and rear wing.
The session was red flagged and wouldn’t start again for around ten minutes. Lopez set the pace after his first full power lap but most drivers were unable to respond after da Costa, now in his second car, grounded to a halt and brought out a second red flag with just over five minutes to go.
It was decided that the session wouldn’t restart, therefore it was Lopez who for the first time in his Formula E career, ended a session quickest. Vergne was second fastest ahead of Evans, championship leader Sebastien Buemi and last year’s victor DS Virgin’s Sam Bird.
Felix Rosenqvist, Nico Prost, Nick Heidfeld, Lucas Di Grassi and Oliver Turvey rounded out the top ten.
