DS Virgin Racing’s Sam Bird finished fastest, with the top three separated by less than a tenth in a crash-strewn FP1 session ahead of the Paris ePrix.
Bird pipped Audi’s Lucas di Grassi in the closing moments of the session. Reigning champion di Grassi had controlled top spot on the timesheet for most of the final 25 minutes, with Bird occasionally closing in on his improving times as the track evolved.
His final lap time of 1m01.698s allowed him to leapfrog di Grassi by 0.018s. Finishing third on the timesheet was Daniel Abt in the second Audi. He was within a tenth of Bird’s session best.
The session was truncated by several incidents. Having battled with NIO’s Oliver Turvey for top spot in the opening minutes, Nelson Piquet Jr crashed at Turn 14 after losing control of his Jaguar on the exit of the corner. A red flag was deployed while the track was cleared.
A second red flag was deployed with just over 20 minutes of the session remaining. Felix Rosenqvist suffered a snap of oversteer at the apex of the high-speed right-hander of Turn 12. After overcorrecting the car, he hit the wall on the outside of the corner.
Sebastien Buemi also hit the wall late in the session after locking up at Turn 13. He was able to recover to the pitlane after reversing out of trouble.
All three of these drivers finished outside the top 10 in the session, with Piquet in 12th, Buemi 13th and Rosenqvist 14th.
Behind the leading three on the timesheet, Mitch Evans finished fourth. He enters qualifying with a 10-place grid penalty due to a pre-weekend gearbox change. Evans was 0.3s adrift of fastest.
Championship leader Jean-Eric Vergne was fifth, while Alex Lynn ensured that it was two DS Virgin Racing cars in the top six.
Jose Maria Lopez was seventh, despite a late excursion into the escape road at Turn 11. Antonio Felix da Costa, Jerome d’Ambrosio and Andre Lotterer rounded out the top 10.
