Jaguar Racing’s Mitch Evans was fastest in the second practice session ahead of the first race of Formula E’s New York double-header, while championship leader Jean-Eric Vergne was 14th.
Evans waited until towards the end of the session before recording his benchmark time. On a traffic-free run, he posted a 1m13.207s to demote Dragon’s Jerome D’Ambrosio who had lept to top spot mid-session.
D’Ambrosio in second was 0.387s behind Evans on the final timesheet. Sam Bird, who enters this weekend as the only driver who can beat Vergne to the championship title, finished third.
He was 0.420s adrift of Evans’s best, having also improved late in the session. On his final lap, Bird spun at the new-for-2018 Turn 9. He managed to avoid the wall, reversing out of danger.
Vergne, who leads Bird by 23 points in the championship, was comparatively anonymous in the session. He finished 14th. Both Vergne and Techeetah team-mate Andre Lotterer – who also finished outside the top 10 in 11th – were the only drivers not to complete practice starts at the end of the session.
Behind Bird, Jose Maria Lopez ended up fourth meaning both Dragon’s were in the top four on the timesheet.
Having led the times after the opening 200kW runs in the session, Sebastien Buemi finished fifth ahead of his Renault e.dams team-mate Nicolas Prost. It is Prost’s last weekend with the team.
Andretti’s Antonio Felix de Costa was seventh, ahead of NIO’s Oliver Turvey. After setting session best times in sector one and two, Turvey clattered the wall at the final corner on his final lap of the session and, therefore, failed to improve overall. He managed to recover to the pits.
Audi’s Daniel Abt was ninth and team-mate Lucas di Grassi rounded out the top 10. FP1 pacesetter di Grassi was another to hit the wall during FP2. He slid wide at Turn 2 early on, slapping the outside wall with his left-rear.
The team repaired the subsequent suspension damage and he emerged for the second half of the session.
His personal best was recorded during a 180kW run and despite the power deficit, the reigning champion was only 0.799s behind Evans.
Neither Mahindra driver recorded a 200kW lap either. Nick Heidfeld finished 18th and Felix Rosenqvist propped up the timesheet in 20th.
